An Alternative Exit Strategy

In July 2016, I published a column titled "The Barbarians¹ have passed the Gate" (http://www.appliedstrategies.ca/documents/barbarians.php). In this column, I made the hypothesis that "Big Law" did not believe they needed a dog in this fight as the law firms operated by the big accounting firms appeared not to be initially focused on high-value work. Based upon this hypothesis, I conjectured that it was the mid to small law firms that should be more concerned as the impact was twofold:

1. Unlike most law firms, the Barbarians see investing in their future as a "no brainer decision" (and not subject to a consensus decision making process).
2. The work they appeared to be going after was the "sweet spot" for mid to small size firms.