Lawyers are becoming strategic partners of companies in the face of AI, cybersecurity and compliance issues. Managing legal risks is a key competitive lever.
For decades, business law firms have mainly supported companies in their major strategic operations: acquisitions, fundraising, restructuring or litigation.
But the results of the 2027 editions of The Best Lawyers in France and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in France rankings reveal a much more profound transformation of the legal market — and, more broadly, of the economy itself.
The legal specialties which are experiencing the greatest growth today are no longer solely linked to transactional operations.
They now concern compliance, cybersecurity, data protection, artificial intelligence governance, ESG issues and even intellectual property.
This development reveals a fundamental change: companies no longer use lawyers solely to secure operations. They now rely on them to secure their transformation.
Historically, the main risks companies faced were primarily financial or operational. Today, a cyberattack, poor data governance, uncontrolled use of artificial intelligence or a regulatory breach can immediately affect a company’s valuation, reputation, investor confidence, and even business continuity.
At the same time, the acceleration of European regulations further strengthens this dynamic. IA Act, cybersecurity, ESG obligations, duty of vigilance or data protection now require companies to operate in a regulatory environment of unprecedented complexity. In this context, legal matters are gradually becoming a central strategic management issue.
One of the most revealing lessons from the Ones to Watch ranking concerns the entry of intellectual property into the Top 5 of the specialties most represented among younger generations of lawyers, ahead of mergers and acquisitions for the first time.
This shift is highly symbolic. The value of companies is now based more and more on intangible assets: data, software, digital platforms, algorithms, artificial intelligence models, brands or technological know-how. In many industries, protecting these assets is becoming as strategic as financial performance itself.
This transformation also explains the strong progression of certain legal specialties highlighted by the rankings, notably in environmental law, energy, life sciences and even data protection. These developments directly reflect the changes affecting the economy: energy transition, explosion of data-related issues, regulation of emerging technologies and rising expectations in terms of governance.
Traditionally, lawyers often became involved after strategic decisions had been made. Today, they are increasingly involved upstream of discussions.
The development of practices related to governance and compliance clearly illustrates this evolution. Companies now expect their advisors to help them not only manage their legal exposure, but also anticipate regulatory, technological and reputational risks before they become financial risks.
This transformation profoundly redefines the role of business law firms. Their value no longer rests solely on their technical or transactional expertise, but also on their ability to support organizations in an environment where regulation, technology, reputation and business strategy are now closely intertwined.
In many ways, the legal market today acts as a leading indicator of ongoing economic transformations. And the message that emerges from the 2027 edition of Best Lawyers is clear: in an increasingly digital and regulated economy, controlling legal and regulatory risk is becoming a central lever of competitiveness.
