Law Partners Get Shares Free, page-31

This indeed does solve some of the problems but not all of them.

Yes the advantage is economies of scale.

It will indeed be interesting the impact these have on the industry over time. The question is whether they will have a positive or negative impact on Shine's shareholders. This may actually be positive. The (currently hypothetical) software will reduce labour costs in a similar way outsourcing to india does. Depending on how the software is priced smaller firms may not able to afford it or if they do they may not see the same benefits that a larger business would see. As such this may also price them out of the market as Shine, Slater, and MB can provide a lower cost offering.