There is nothing more compelling to law firm leaders than a global vision.
A&O Shearman, which launched last week, epitomises this drive. “Ready for anything. Anywhere.” That is the opening slogan on its fancy new website. Others include: “Where you are, we are” and “Every need covered. Everywhere.”
On a theoretical level this makes sense and it has helped form strategies for law firms over the last few decades. Be everything to every client.
The logic has encouraged many combinations and A&O Shearman’s own story shows how each firm was driven to seek out a broader strategy than they could manage alone. The newly-combined operation goes out of its way to emphasise that scale.
The big question is this: does it work?
In A&O Shearman’s case, here are a few things to watch out for to see how it is faring. But the question could also be asked on a broader conceptual level. Should the largest law firms seek to be ‘global’? Does it help to be present in lots of countries?
It is certainly not a prerequisite for success. Kirkland & Ellis, by far the biggest firm in the world, operates with a relatively small number of international offices across only eight countries. Major economies where it has no presence include: Spain, Italy, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa.
The office openings that frequently get announced by major law firms are almost always focused on a small number of fast-growing economies. I’m still waiting to receive an announcement from a law firm explaining that they’ve opened an office in a poor-performing economy because it is strategically important that they have a presence there.
One case in point is the fast-growing Saudi Arabia market where firms continue to pile in. In the last week Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has secured a licence to practice law in Saudi Arabia and Clyde & Co has opened its second office in Saudi with the launch of an operation in Jeddah.
Yet this growth is not replicated across all of the Middle East. Law.com International’s latest rankings, out last week, show international law firms comprise 26 of the largest 30 firms in the region. But almost all the international firms only operate in a few countries there, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia forming the vast bulk. Countries such as Qatar, which suffered a law firm exodus a few years back, Kuwait and Oman are largely ignored.
So many countries are ignored. Since the pandemic a few large law firms have also closed offices in Thailand. One law firm leader of a major international firm and two in-house lawyers at a multinational have talked to me in the last fortnight about the civil war in Sudan. They all explained it may not be high on the agenda in New York board rooms, but that it has a very real impact when you are trying to do business there.
Still, these are relatively small economies. A much bigger barrier to global ambition is undoubtedly China....
