PE Firms Leap into MSO 'Frontier' for Slice of Legal Industry

Legal ethics attorneys Trisha Rich and Joshua Porte were cited in a Law360 article diving into increased interest in management services organizations (MSOs) in the legal industry. Under the MSO model, a law firm passes off non-legal administrative tasks such as billing and human resources to the MSO, allowing lawyers and legal professionals to focus on practicing law and building client relationships. Ms. Rich noted that although MSO transactions have been a longtime staple in the healthcare industry, they only recently entered the legal arena, and attorneys such as her and Mr. Porte are among a select few lawyers with experience advising on these types of deals. Although the specifics of each arrangement vary, the appeal of an MSO structure generally is that it enables practitioners to overcome rules prohibiting nonlawyer ownership of law firms and fee-sharing with nonlawyers. She additionally commented that MSOs could "drag law firms out of the Stone Age" by helping them modernize operations.

"It's an opportunity to change the way law is practiced," she said.

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