Future buying intentions for complex transactional legal services

Academic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 9, University of Gloucestershire, language: English, abstract: The future of large law firms is a topic that has intrigued scholars and practitioners alike particularly over the last decade due to a changing economic and global competitive landscape, technological advancements and changing client demands. While numerous articles have outlined trends and uncertainties likely to impact large law firms in the future, opinions remain split on the changes likely to occur over the next 10 years.

Common consensus exists on the notion that large law firms are increasingly under pressure to change, change to be more efficient, change to better manage knowledge, change to be more innovative and change to better demonstrate service value. It appears that organizations have become more discerning in purchasing legal services and the choice of legal providers.

This study is novel in the professional services domain as it empirically identifies and investigates factors that influence future buying intentions for complex transactional legal services at large law firms in the German context. Transactional legal work refers to business transactions that take place predominately outside of court and involves the drafting of contracts and compliance with law across various practice areas.

This study seeks to develop a conceptual model based on primary research gathered through semi-structured interviews and by means of a questionnaire to offer managerial recommendations in strategic decision-making and to extend the body of literature for an important but neglected area, i.e. professional services.