As legal services are further commoditised and good lawyers are no longer required to deal with the purely transactional aspects of legal work, the future may see lawyers viewed more as trusted advisors whose central role is to support risk minimisation for their clients.

This, off the back of the GFC which saw the fall-out of so much commercial volatility, may lead clients to move to protect themselves against the unknown and look more to their lawyers to provide advice on just what might come next.