In mid-March 2025, Cognia Law and Norton Rose Fulbright’s Legal Operations Consulting team co-hosted a second roundtable event that brought together senior leaders, including GCs, COO and head of legal operations, from across the legal industry to discuss how to drive meaningful change within the legal ecosystem. The event highlighted the need for transformation within the legal sector.  

This article, From Talk to Action: Driving Change in the Legal Ecosystem, summarises the discussions, with key takeaways including: 

• Industry Disruption: Industry leaders warned that law firms and legal service providers face a "BlackBerry moment" of disruption unless they embrace transformation forces. The conversation continued to debate whether transformation would be primarily client-led or disruption-led.  
• Understanding Client Needs: Bridging perspectives between law firms and clients is essential for redesigning the legal system collaboratively. Further discussions focused on finding value beyond billable hours, with practical steps for measuring and demonstrating the value of legal services.  
• Collaborative Evolution: The roundtable discussion underscored the importance of collaborative approaches, uniting different parts of the legal ecosystem to drive change. Significant opportunities exist in creating combined solutions between law firms and ALSPs, leveraging their respective strengths.  
• Practical Steps for Change: Participants shared practical approaches for driving change, including relationship management, incentivising collaboration, educating lawyers on service delivery options, starting with pilot projects, and measuring value beyond hourly rates. As the event concluded, participants shared personal commitments to drive change within the legal ecosystem.  

The roundtable highlighted significant potential for positive transformation through collaborative approaches, clear articulation of value, and practical experiments demonstrating the benefits of new delivery models.