John Gould delves into the details behind EY’s acquisition of Riverview Law: all hot air, or law firms beware?
In the heyday of summer there was excited reporting of a seemingly significant story for the legal services sector. It had some good journalistic elements which, let’s face it, are not that common in the world of legal service models and accountants. In nearly all media the story was essentially the same—a savvy and ambitious King Kong of global accounting acquires the upwardly mobile inventor of the Spinning Jenny of legal services.
The story of the acquisition of Riverview Law by global professional services firm EY (the accountants formerly known as Ernst & Young) is undoubtedly an interesting one. It may well be significant, but the difficult question is: what actually is that significance? Beneath the slightly gushing reproduction of press releases, hard facts in the coverage are in rather short supply.
Some information can be discovered, however, even by a moderately diligent solicitor without the skills of a trained accountant..
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