General counsel in FTSE 350 companies are overwhelmingly open to the idea of instructing law firms that are externally owned. According to research based on replies from 51 businesses, 90% of general counsel said they ‘definitely would’ or ‘probably would’ purchase legal services from a firm which took external ownership.

If this is an accurate reflection of client intentions, it indicates that the creation of alternative business structures has the potential to change the corporate legal services market to a degree that legal process outsourcing (LPO) businesses, to date, have not.

For international instructions, the research, by Nisus Consulting, also found that 3% of general counsel preferred law firms who had ‘best friends’ arrangements with firms abroad. 37% preferred a firm with a global network.