I think McClure is pointing out an opportunity for law firms that exists for both startup and established customers. One of the major barriers to lower the fric

I think McClure is pointing out an opportunity for law firms that exists for both startup and established customers. One of the major barriers to lower the friction in the process is defining the value based on billable hours. What you really want from your attorney is a risk assessment and recommendations. The value of which is proportional to the size of the opportunity you are contemplating and the likely effect of the risk mitigation strategies offered. You have to change the business model to effect a transition to some of the technologies that McClure is talking about. Some suggestions: o Subscription models for legal services and cloud storage of all of the relevant documents might convert much of the due diligence process into a "configuration management" problem where you are always ready for a transaction because you maintain your relevant agreements and contracts in a known (and hopefully good) state to minimize the need for a fire drill before a transaction. o Subscription models for advisory services would encourage attorneys to use more secure IM, document generators, cloud storage...We need to move beyond a billable hour model. o for public agreements like privacy policies and terms of services there is an opportunity for a subscription service to monitor changes in posted policies, and perhaps for an additional fee provide customized interpretation of the significance. I had suggested this to the Legal River folks for their http://privacy-policy-generator.legalriver.com/ http://privacy-policy-generator.legalriver.com/ and http://terms-of-service-generator.legalriver.com/ http://terms-of-service-generator.legalriver.com/ that it might be as useful to classify the existing agreements already posted on the net. This would extend what EFF is doing with http://www.tosback.org/ http://www.tosback.org/ (in itself a valuable service). There is an event coming up Wed-Mar-3 at Churchill Club on "Innovation & Change, a "New Normal" for the Legal Industry?" (see http://www.churchillclub.org/eventDetail.jsp?EVT_ID=853 http://www.churchillclub.org/eventDetail.jsp?EVT_ID=853 ) that explores what Cisco has done to leverage current technology and new business models in managing legal work (internal and outsourced). Hopefully some of these techniques trickle down to the startup world as they gain more acceptance in Fortune 500 / AmLaw 100 relationships. George Grellas makes some excellent points in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1090615 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1090615 that the more adversarial the negotiation the less impact technology can have on cutting costs.