The Integration of Law into Global Business Solutions: The Rise, Transformation, and Potential Future of the Big Four Accountancy Networks in the Global Legal Services Market

Using a unique data set comprised of original research of both the corporate Web sites of the Big Four—PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, and EY—and their affiliated law firms, as well as archival material from the legal and accountancy press, this article documents the rise and transformation of the Big Four leg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLaw & social inquiry Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 981 - 1026
Main Authors Wilkins, David B., Ferrer, Maria J. Esteban
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge Wiley Subscription Services Inc 01.07.2018
Cambridge University Press
Subjects
Accounting
Attorneys
Big Four accounting firms
Business
Enactment
Interdisciplinary aspects
Interlocking directorates
Law
Law firms
Legal professions
Legal services
Markets
Multidisciplinary practices
Transformation
Websites
United States > US
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Summary:Using a unique data set comprised of original research of both the corporate Web sites of the Big Four—PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, and EY—and their affiliated law firms, as well as archival material from the legal and accountancy press, this article documents the rise and transformation of the Big Four legal service lines since the enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002. Moreover, it demonstrates that there are good reasons to believe that these sophisticated players will be even more successful in penetrating the corporate legal services market in the decades to come, as that market increasingly matures in a direction that favors the integration of law into a wider category of business solutions that these globally integrated multidisciplinary practices now champion. We conclude with some preliminary observations about the implications of the reemergence of the Big Four legal networks for the legal profession.
Bibliography:David B. Wilkins
is a Lecturer at the Department of Law at ESADE, Universitat Ramon Llull, an Affiliated Researcher at the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, and Co‐Director of the Center's Big Four Research Project.
The Practice
Maria J. Esteban Ferrer
issue on the reemergence of the Big Four in the global legal services market for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.
dwilkins@law.harvard.edu
The authors thank participants at the Inspiring Futures Workshop at ESADE Law School, Universitat Ramon Llull; the participants at the Novak Druce Conference on the Success and Failure of Professional Firms, at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford; the International Legal Ethics Conference panel on the Role of Multidisciplinary Practices in the Globalized Legal Services Industry, hosted by the Stein Center for Law and Ethics, Fordham Law School; and the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession's Working Paper Series, as well as the readers of
is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law, Faculty Director of the Center on the Legal Profession, and Vice Dean for Global Initiatives on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He may be contacted at
The copyright line for this article was changed on 4 August 2017 after original online publication
.
ISSN:0897-6546
1747-4469
1545-696X
DOI:10.1111/lsi.12311