With Am Law 200 firm Thompson & Knight announcing it would be handing off various elements of its marketing department's responsibilities to third-party vendor Williams Lea, the question has been raised as to whether this is another domino in the process leading to the eventual outsourcing of legal marketing on a more grand scale. Experts say that is unlikely at this moment, but that options are on the table. 

While law firms have for many years looked to take in-house capabilities and move them to lower-cost, higher-flexibility alternatives, the base work that most major law firm marketing departments do is not in peril. At least not yet.