Search
Contact
12.07.2018 | KPMG Law Insights, KPMG Law Insights

Study sees Big Four legal consultancies on the rise

Study sees Big Four legal consultancies on the rise

The legal consultancies of the major accounting firms have become serious players in the law firm market. In some areas, such as legal tech, they are even ahead, as a study by the market research company Lünendonk & Hossenfelder has shown.

In an increasingly networked world, cross-disciplinary solutions are in demand. For more and more tasks and mandates, legal expertise alone is no longer sufficient – understanding economic contexts, the client’s business model and its industry are just as important for many clients as innovative technological solutions that increase efficiency and enable completely new services.

The current Lünendonk study “Leading Commercial Law Firms in Germany” not only demonstrates the increasing competitive pressure that the Big Four’s legal advisory arms are bringing to the German law firm landscape. And it also highlights the Big Four’s gateways in. For this purpose, 32 commercial law firms and legal advisory units of accounting firms were surveyed, which, with an estimated market volume of 6.5 billion, account for more than a quarter of the total market.

One important result of the study is that the legal services provided by the accounting firms are growing more dynamically than the market as a whole. While the companies surveyed as a whole were already able to achieve strong growth in the 2016 financial year, averaging 9.3 percent, growth of 13.6 percent emerges when looking exclusively at the WP companies. So the cross-disciplinary approach is meeting demand.

Digitization on hold

The study examines how the industry is approaching digitization. While all respondents rate the strategic importance of big data, cloud services and other technological innovations as high, the majority continue to hold back on investments. Only a scant four percent of estimated revenue is expected to go to technical development outside of IT costs.

This rather wait-and-see attitude on the part of auditors is also evident when it comes to dealing with legal tech in everyday professional life. Almost all respondents are concerned with the issue. More than half, 58 percent, of the study participants already use individual legal tech applications. 75 percent, however, say that legal tech still plays a role primarily in strategy meetings or in discussions among partners. For a full eight percent, this topic of the future has played no role at all so far.

These numbers are adventurous: if all observers and participants attach great importance to the issue, then watching from the sidelines cannot be a promising strategy. Examples from other industries show that digitization is not a temporary phenomenon. We need to take the experiences of other industries to heart instead of ignoring them.

Lünendonk press feed:
Auditors push more strongly into legal advice
High starting salaries cause concern for commercial law firms

Explore #more

14.10.2025 | Deal Notifications

KPMG Law and KPMG advise Bühler Motor GmbH on the sale of Bühler Motor Aviation GmbH to Astronics Germany GmbH

KPMG Law Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft (KPMG Law) and KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft (KPMG) have advised Bühler Motor GmbH on the sale of all shares in Bühler Motor Aviation…

10.10.2025 | In the media

KPMG Law guest article in NZG: Compliance due diligence in SMEs: Minimum scope and contractual mapping of compliance risks of the target company

In the context of M&A transactions, compliance usually still plays a subordinate role in legal due diligence. The purpose of this article is, on…

10.10.2025 | In the media

KPMG Law honored at the M&A Award Night 2025

KPMG Law has been awarded the “M&A Transaction Advisory” prize at this year’s M&A Award Night of the Bundesverband Mergers & Acquisitions e.V. (BM&A) and…

10.10.2025 | In the media

KPMG Law guest article in CCZ: The guide for compliance management systems in small and medium-sized enterprises (DIN SPEC 91524)

Compliance in SMEs is challenging: the legal responsibility for compliance is undisputed, but the specific tasks are unclear and depend on the specific situation of…

10.10.2025 | KPMG Law Insights

Transformation in legal departments in 2026 – the most important trends and best practices

Three topics in particular are currently driving the transformation of the legal department: AI, the rapid increase in regulation and geopolitical developments. There has always…

08.10.2025 | Deal Notifications

KPMG advised Adiuva Capital GmbH with Fact Books on the sale of KONZMANN Group

KPMG Law Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH (KPMG Law) and KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft (KPMG) advised Adiuva Capital GmbH, a Hamburg-based private equity firm (“Adiuva“), in connection with the…

06.10.2025 | KPMG Law Insights

What the Green Claims Directive means for companies – an overview

With the Green Claims Directive, the EU will introduce extensive regulations on the requirements for permissible environmental claims. The aim is to prevent greenwashing so…

03.10.2025 | Deal Notifications

KPMG Law and KPMG support the restructuring of Groupe CAT in Germany

KPMG Law Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft (KPMG Law) and KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft (KPMG) advised Groupe CAT on comprehensive restructuring measures with a cross-service team. Over a period of…

02.10.2025 | Deal Notifications

KPMG Law advises Epitype GmbH and MDG Molecular Diagnostics Group GmbH on the acquisition of significant assets of oncgnostics GmbH

KPMG Law Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH (KPMG Law) provided comprehensive legal advice to Epitype GmbH, a company of the Dresden-based MDG Group, on the formation and subsequent…

02.10.2025 | In the media

KPMG Law Statement in ZEIT for entrepreneurs: We’ll take the 500 billion!

German construction companies are asking themselves: how quickly will the money come from the government? And they are worried that only the giants will benefit.…

Contact

Mathias Oberndörfer

Managing Director
Member of the Executive Board Service Tax - KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

Theodor-Heuss-Straße 5
70174 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 781923410
moberndoerfer@kpmg-law.com

© 2024 KPMG Law Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, associated with KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, a public limited company under German law and a member of the global KPMG organisation of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Limited, a Private English Company Limited by Guarantee. All rights reserved. For more details on the structure of KPMG’s global organisation, please visit https://home.kpmg/governance.

 KPMG International does not provide services to clients. No member firm is authorised to bind or contract KPMG International or any other member firm to any third party, just as KPMG International is not authorised to bind or contract any other member firm.

Scroll