New research reveals a dramatic growth of the Big Four’s legal brands among alternative legal service providers, with PwC Legal emerging as the strongest alternative legal brand in the second annual Acritas global alternative legal brand index.

Fear of big four

The Index has been established to identify the strongest brands within this new growth market in the global legal industry. Senior in-house counsel were asked to name organisations that provide legal services, excluding law firms, that first to come to mind, along with those they most favored. The Index also shows which service suppliers most demonstrate modern innovative practices. Results reveal that PwC Legal has increased its brand equity in all major regions of the world, including the US, pushing Thomson Reuters, last year’s leader, into second rank. Lisa Hart Shepherd, ceo of Acritas, commented ‘it’s not just PwC Legal that both old law and new law need to fear. All of the Big Four have seen significant increases in brand strength over the last 12 months.’

Traditional law left behind

Deloitte Legal, has made the largest points increase of any of the alternative legal service providers, moving up one rank into third place, ahead of EY and followed by KPMG Legal in fifth place. Ms Hart confirmed, ‘despite not seeing brand growth this year, Thomson Reuters has retained its clear lead in being recognized as the most innovative legal services supplier in the world. Its efforts to continually develop its offering, in all areas of the legal ecosystem, places it far ahead of any other legal services organization on innovation, including law firms.’ Looking beyond the top five ranks, Axiom has slipped one rank to sixth, followed by Lexis Nexis in seventh. The index explains that along with Thomson Reuters, these brands have not weakened, it is simply that PwC Legal has set a higher bar at the top of the Index. Acritas concludes ‘the findings this year show that more and more clients every day are becoming aware of what these organizations can offer. Clients are liking what they see, and money is moving away from traditional law firms.’