Marketing Attorney BlogLP Magazine — Acronyms Reshaping Law Firm Marketing: AI, MSOs, and ABSs
AI, MSOs and ABSs
In my September/October 2026 ABA Law Practice Magazine column, “Acronyms Reshaping Law Firm Marketing: AI, MSOs, and ABSs,” I examine three forces that are simultaneously—and fundamentally—restructuring how law firms approach marketing, intake, staffing, and client acquisition. For decades, law firm marketing operated on limited budgets, constrained by ethics rules that kept outside capital at bay and by a culture that treated business development as an afterthought. That era is ending. Management services organizations (MSOs), alternative business structures (ABSs), and artificial intelligence (AI) are converging to create a new ecosystem in which marketing is no longer peripheral but central to firm strategy, investment, and operations.
MSOs and ABSs are introducing outside capital, new ownership models, and nonlawyer expertise into the legal marketplace. In some firms, marketing and intake are shifting to sister companies that operate outside traditional law‑firm structures. Private equity is flowing into personal injury and mass tort practices, where high client‑acquisition costs and long case‑resolution timelines make outside funding particularly attractive. These arrangements raise cultural and ethical questions—especially around oversight, fee‑sharing, and multijurisdictional practice—but they also create opportunities for marketers who suddenly find themselves working within organizations that treat marketing as infrastructure rather than overhead.
It was once again my privilege to serve as editor for the 
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Perhaps life has really been about search all along. We search for the right job, the right spouse, the right schools, the right restaurants, pretty much the right everything. So Google has either made searching easier, or harder, depending on how you look at it.
Recently, I had the privilege of serving on a panel at the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Division continuing legal education program on the ethics of virtual and multi-jurisdictional lawyering in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The program was co-sponsored by the State Bar of New Mexico, and took place on May 18, 2018 at the Inn and Spa at Loretto.