With deep pockets, global footprints and resources to spare, the Big Four have emerged as significant players in the legal market while forcing incumbents to reconsider long-standing strategies. Thomson Reuters, for example, sold its legal managed services arm Pangea3 to EY last April in the hopes of transitioning from Big Four competitor to Big Four solution provider. But will traditional law firms attempt to execute the same maneuver?

Law firm tech subsidiaries aren't necessarily opposed to the idea of hawking their wares to the Big Four, but the ongoing competition between the two entities, as well as all of the moving parts involved, may prevent such a relationship from truly taking flight.

Kimball Parker, CEO of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's tech subsidiary SixFifty, said that the company "would love to partner" with the Big Four, just as they have with several regional accounting firms who have used the tech subsidiary's privacy compliance tools to cover gaps in their own in-house expertise. However, while SixFifty has previously engaged in talks with the Big Four regarding a possible collaboration, "talk" is about as far as it's gone.

Parker attributed this in part to the complicated dynamics that emerge when doing business with any company resembling the size and scope of the Big Four. "There are layers of bureaucracy depending on what organization you are talking about. Just as a matter of course, it's easier to partner with smaller, more nimble organizations," Parker said.

Size matters in more ways than one given that members of the Big Four are not exactly strapped for resources. For instance, when talking to Legaltech News last spring, EY global law leader Cornelius Grossman appeared confident of the scope of the services that the firm had at its disposal. "We have technology we can offer. We have legal managed services and outsourced services we can offer onshore and offshore, and we have a global network for domain knowledge in 84 countries we can offer," Grossman said.

All of which raises the question if Big Four players even need law firm-produced tech in the first place. Zach Abramowitz, a consultant in the legal technology space, believes that in some ways it might make more sense for firms such as EY to build its own solutions where needed given their reserves of cash and expertise. He argued that this very possibility could even disincentivize law firms from bringing their products to the table in the first place.

"How much are law firms going to want to go and demo products to the Big Four when the Big Four might theoretically say, 'Hey, why don't we build that ourselves?'" Abramowitz said.

But Parker doesn't foresee that issue as a serious impediment, stressing that SixFifty has always been open to partnerships, even with organizations that could be considered their competitors. In his view, their proprietary advantage isn't necessarily wrapped up in the technology, especially when it comes to privacy law such as the General Data Protection Regulation.

"Our secret sauce are the legal experts from the firm. We have the leading GDPR expert in the world who helps us develop our tools. … We would be concerned if another firm took him away, but as long as there's only one of him we feel pretty good about our product," Parker said.

Finding those pockets of specialization may be critical to any law firm hoping to eventually count Big Four members among the audience for its tech products. Bryon Bratcher, managing director of Reed Smith's tech subsidiary GravityStack, specifically cited data complexities related to contract management, a problem that's come into sharper focus in the financial industry thanks to the impending 2021 phase out of the London Interbank Offered Rate and the millions of agreements that will need to be reviewed as a consequence.

The tight timeline highlights a potential edge that law firms might have—even over the Big Four—in addressing such an issue.

"If we build or prototype something, we have internal subject matter experts in those various practice groups that can go in and test it for us and give us immediate feedback the next day," Bratcher said.