The Legal Services Act (LSA) bores me a bit. That's a slightly embarrassing admission from someone in my line of work, but there it is.

Partly, I think it's because Legal Week years ago broke the news of the Clementi review, which led to the LSA, and consequently we were getting excited about it well before most of the profession.

Now that it's increasingly on seasoned lawyers' agendas, for journalists – whose long-term attention spans suffer from a daily onslaught of deadlines – it's been hard to get back on point.

But I should. Because for months there has been a sense that, while corporate law firms have often chosen to look the other way, the retail legal market is beginning to grapple with the huge issues presented by the Act and the related shake-up of legal services.

Stick your head over the fence and the rumble of change can be clearly heard. All of a sudden, websites that locate or rank lawyers have proliferated at a huge rate (I saw a recent estimate that there are no less than 37 now operational in the UK). The next stage – price comparison sites for lawyers – are already emerging. It's hard to see how such developments won't soon have an impact on corporate law.

In the meantime, the legal brand franchise QualitySolicitors is sharply dividing the profession with its ambition to create a nationally-recognised name for retail law, with a branch in every major town. And it's now only a year until the most radical elements of the LSA – alternative business structures and outside investment – are set to come into force.

In the meantime, various forms of legal process outsourcers are circling the market, though as this week's US briefing makes clear, separating the facts from the hype regarding this new industry is no easy feat. There are probably half a dozen top 100 UK law firms seriously looking to position themselves to benefit after this legal big bang.

Yet the bulk of the institutional legal market is looking elsewhere and hoping for the best. It's a little surprising, given that in the mid-1990s City law firms were mesmerised and galvanised into action by the looming spectre of accountancy giants entering the legal market. Having largely risen to that challenge, a degree of complacency has since set in.

Contrast that with online discussion boards and conferences frequented by high street lawyers and you'll find a vibrant and heated debate going on about the future of the profession.

It's easy to be cynical about many of the hyperbolic claims made regarding the brave new world lawyers face – I know, because I am. But while you can dismiss most of the self-interested predictions, change is most certainly coming, and probably where it is least expected. In facing up to that, City law firms could learn a thing or two from their counterparts on the high street.