A recent article explained that Cisco’s law department uses “the internet to cherry-pick the best from hundreds of different firms and then manage large, disparate teams of lawyers.” Legal Week, Vol. 7, Nov. 10, 2005 at 62.
A stark contrast to convergence, this technique of melding the best team from more than one law firm requires much more management by the law department and a higher degree of decision making. It could be another form of disintermediating law firms, but I suspect it will not become a trend. The politics and directional skills will be too demanding.