Big Five Lawyers Face Doubters Among European Council

The Big Five accountancy firms face a challenge to win top-level legal work from Europe's largest companies, according to a report by Legal Media Group and MORI.

The accountancy firms have yet to convince in-house lawyers at Europe's leading companies that they can compete with traditional law firms, despite the Big Five investing heavily to build legal networks larger than almost all the leading international firms. Andersen Legal, for example, employs over 2,700 lawyers, more than any law firm except Clifford Chance.

Only a quarter (24%) of in-house lawyers at the companies surveyed by MORI for Legal Media Group saw the development of legal arms by the Big Five as a positive trend. Just 6% of those surveyed saw the Big Five's advances on the legal market as a "very positive" change - and no French or German respondents thought accountancy firms adding legal advice to their portfolio of services to be a "very positive" trend.