This permits internal marketing of services to the same client companies. The result is cost-effective legal services. The Big Four can anticipate issues so as to better protect clients. To adequately serve clients, financial resources are required. Law firms, which are generally small and geographically limited, cannot adequately provide the services.
Clients are less interested in independence and more interested in cost-effective services.
Superficially each of these assumptions has the ring of truth. However, each is fundamentally flawed because each is based upon an obsolete paradigm of the relationship between legal and financial services. Lawyers are inclined to see law as a local profession. To protect clients' interests, lawyers have established many professional standards particularly in the area of marketing. Intentionally or unintentionally, these standards were also to limit competition among attorneys for clients.