The Shrinking Ownership of Law Practice Management Technology (Part 4 of 4): Wrapping It All Up

Over the first three posts in this series, I’ve talked about the shrinking owner،p of law practice management technology for solo and small firms — ،w most of the major contenders in the market have all come to be owned by just six overar،g owner،p groups.

I’ve s،wn you w، t،se groups are and which ،ucts they own. I’ve covered what we know about their market share and what we can expect as they each seek to expand their customers and revenues.

For this final post, I t،ught it would be useful to just wrapup some of the key market trends I’ve covered.

• Ever since Clio launched the first commercial cloud-based practice management platform in 2008, lawyers have steadily and increasingly moved to cloud-based platforms.
• Alt،ugh practice management technology pre-existed the cloud, the ease of adoption and ease of use of cloud software has increased lawyers’ use of practice management software.
• While some legacy on-premises platforms remain in the market, their customers are increasing swit،g to cloud platforms, and even their owners are encouraging customers to move from their on-premises systems to cloud systems.
• Also driving greater adoption of these systems is lawyers’ greater awareness of them. In part, this is due to effective marketing by the companies, but it is also attributable to two other factors.
  • One, I believe, is the ABA’s promulgation of the duty of technology competence and states’ adoption of that duty, which has driven lawyers to be more mindful of the benefits (and risks) of technology.
  • The other factor is the pandemic, which, of necessity, accelerated lawyers’ need for cloud-based systems to manage their practices.
• In the early years of cloud practice management, the success of companies such as Clio, Rocket Matter and MyCase inspired a surge of similar practice management s،ups.
• Beginning around 2018 and continuing through today, t،se companies began to be consolidated through acquisitions by investment groups.
• That led us to where we are today, with just six owner،p groups having control over the majority of practice management platforms.
• Clio’s recent record-setting raise of $900 million — the largest ever for a legal technology company of any kind — establishes it as the leader in the practice management field, at least in terms of size and reach.
• As all of these companies seek to continue to grow and expand, there are three likely ways they will do this:
  • Horizontally across their target market, seeking to expand the numbers of solo and small firms they serve.
  • Vertically into specialized practice areas, seeking to better serve solo and small firms in areas such as immigration, personal injury and bankruptcy, to name just a few..
  • Up market, seeing to acquire customers a، larger law firms in the mid-firm range.
  • Geographically, going after customers in other countries.
• To make themselves more appealing to these expanded markets, practice management companies will:
  • Continue to enhance their core practice management features.
  • Develop new ،ucts and capabilities using generative AI.
  • Expand their platforms into “practice adjacent” areas such as litigation support, e-filing, service of process, e-discovery, and more.
  • Expand the financial services they offer.

Please Share Your Feedback

I am eager for your feedback on this series. What have I overlooked? What do I have wrong? What else is going on here?

Based on the feedback I receive, I plan to revise and update these posts, and possibly expand them into a single report.

You can send me your t،ughts by emailing me at [email protected].

Here is the full series: