One hundred managing partners – of firms ranging from 100 lawyers to more than 3,000 – were recently asked: what forces already at work within the legal profession have the greatest potential to transform (positively or negatively) your firm's future in the next three years?

Patenting of business processes

One managing partner made the point that "a highly-fragmented patent regime, combined with differing interpretations across international boundaries and a relatively new initiative to patent business processes could introduce potential threats in years to come".