The Big Four's ongoing growth strategy for expanding into the legal realm has been primarily focused on securing work via cross-selling or sideways entry into the legal department. However, there are signs, across Europe in particular, that this strategy is starting to broaden to encapsulate a more direct sell as part of the Big Four's attempts to win work from new prospective clients.

One thing that ALM has been doing over the last five years is tracking panel appointments derived from UK companies as well as those headquartered in Continental Europe. In addition to tracking metrics such as the panel size, duration, and selection oversight, ALM also tracks the outside counsel appointed to each panel. The database currently comprises just over 130 appointments.

A theme emerging in the data is the continued encroachment of non-law firms onto panels, including the Big Four. Thus far, the ability of the Big Four to make quick inroads when it comes to securing panel positions has been impeded by their lack of perceived strong relationships with GCs and the fact that panels tend to run in cycles of at least three to four years, meaning that immediate opportunities for them to secure panel positions have thus far been harder to come by.