Small vendors (90%) dominate in the legal cottage industry, so rewards and risks increase

Charles Christian’s American Legal Technology Insider, Feb. 2011 at 3, describes the newly formed Legal Service Providers Association (LSPA). The LSPA aims to provide legal product and service vendors with access to training, educational programs, supplier discounts, and other resources the vendors could not obtain as favorably alone.

This post’s point comes from LSPA’s founding directors, Greg Bayless and Jerry Correia, who said that 90% of US legal service providers have revenue of $50 million or less, www.legalspa.org

Law departments that license from or buy services from small vendors run risks, to be sure. Can the small company provide adequate support and invest sufficiently to keep up? Will the small company be acquired? Is the founder plus one or two others the core of the company and how stable are they? Small is beautiful, yes, and nimble, dedicated and creative, but it is also problematic and risky.