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‘Consolidation of the market will give organisations the opportunity to access a larger share of work, enabling them to explore economies of scale which will in turn help to mitigate the fee reduction and give them the best possible opportunity to make a sustainable profit.’

I understand that a larger firm might be able to handle a greater quantity of admin tasks such as keeping accounts or running a reception than the equivalent two smaller ones. I understand that if you as a lawyer have five cases in the same court and you are piad a flat rate on each then you only have one set of travel expenses to set against them. But where else do these 'economies of scale' come from?The actual casework to be done on the files will be the same whether it is done by one or five firms.This is a personal service industry, not a manufacturing one, and it is unlikely that there is in the majority of firms a lot of spare capacity waiting to take up the slack. What am I missing?