Big Four legal teams have an advantage over a large law in a field, says the boss of KPMG

The large four have only a tiny fraction of the legal market – but there is an area that they could have an advantage.

Stuart Bedford, head of KPMG legal services, told Business Insider that large companies and its own could manage “large -scale” integration once a merger agreement has exceeded the initial finish line.

“You need this institutional scale to be able to really translate legal advice into the world of world’s large customers seeking to solve problems that have cut many areas of their business and many jurisdictions.”

Bedford, who is himself a great veteran of the law, having worked in Magic circle Linklaters for 20 years, said that large law firms are “absolute machines” during mergers and acquisitions and deposits of mergers control because they are designed and set up for this “.

He added that he could not think of anyone “apart from the large four” who can offer “the right investment in technology, in global infrastructure, as well as the law to be able to really bring everything together.”

Traditionally, consultation and accounting firms, the large four began to enter the legal sector in 2010 to operate as “providers of alternative legal services”.

Although they operate on key markets such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada, their legal divisions remain smaller by the number of heads and the income than the other sectors of activity. The large four represented only 5.6% of the ALSP market in 2023.

But KPMG wants to enter this growing market. In North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, the ALSP market increased from less than $ 1 billion in 2015 to around $ 28.5 billion in 2023, according to one January report By the Thomson Reuters Institute, the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession of Georgetown Law and the Said Business School of Oxford University.

In February, KPMG became the first of the four large ones to enter the American market by obtaining A unique license to practice law in Arizona. This has circumvented a rule established by the American Bar Association which authorized only lawyers authorized to own or invest in law firms.

Bedford said KPMG targets managed services that follow a global acquisition agreement of $ 10 million, such as changing the documentation to adapt to new policies or develop what to do with 500 newly redundant subsidiaries.

Bedford said this area “has no dominant players”, adding: “There are still a lot of amounts for us.”

He said that the company’s global operating model, Unified technological platformAnd multidisciplinary operations only make it placed to support large customers.

“We are so much more global than even the most worldwide law firm,” told Bedford to BI.

A “world law firm”

Of the three KPMG divisions – Audit, Tax and Legal Tax and Legal Services – the latter was the fastest last year, up 9.5%. The activities of its audit and advice lines have slowed down to grow by 6% and 2%,, respectively.

Bedford said KPMG’s law was still at an early stage of its combined marketing strategy, adding that it worked in 80 jurisdictions to forge links with the advice, tax and KPMG cyber-teams.

“Entering large clients on a large scale in the world thanks to the multidisciplinary approach. It is the heart of our strategy,” he said.

Bedford said that the company, which is the smallest of the four large by the number and income of employees, “needed the American market” to extend its service activity managed by contracts.

“It is the most sophisticated and the most advanced,” said Bedford. “There is just a huge amount of opportunities to shoot.”

Legal experts previously said bi The fact that the entry of the company Big Four into the American market will increase competition for talent and business, but it is unlikely that this will cause short -term disturbances.

“Legal services are hired according to long -term history.

Legal services are not a story of uninterrupted growth for the large four. In March, Ey confirmed to Business Insider that he was Restructure your British law business and dismiss workers in the division.

In Australia, KPMG dissolved its internal legal division in July 2024.

The boss of EY Australia told staff that he planned to reduce his legal operations in the country in February, The Australian Financial Review reported in February 2025. PWC legal activities also decreased in Australia, AFR added.

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