"Savvy Blawger" Query #3 is now out for the assembled to mull over with, of course, their cogent responses reported back to you a few weeks hence.  The question for this go-round is:

"What will the industry structure of the (US-based) legal profession look like ten years hence?"

Not to be oblique about it, but I'm seeking the collective wisdom of the Savvy Blawgers on whether the much-bruited consolidation of the AmLaw 200 is for real, in their opinion, or whether it will run up against inevitable ceilings such as a fatal overload of "conflicts" or the inherent difficulty of managing a complex and far-flung enterprise.   With corollary questions such as, are clients or firms driving it, and if firms, what are they hoping to achieve?  Etc. 

Jargon note:  I'm using "industry structure" in the economic sense, meaning what is the makeup, distribution, composition, and market share of the industry players?  The "industrial structure" of the long-haul passenger jet market is simple:  Airbus and Boeing, each at 50% of recent deliveries.  By contrast, the industrial structure of the artisanal cheese-making industry is completely atomized.

Readers are more than welcome to weigh in with your thoughts:  "Comments" are open again, thanks to the comment-spam defensive miracle known as MT-Blacklist (which according to its log has turned away 3,992 would-be comments since I installed it about two weeks ago).