www.legalservicesdirectory.org.uk
international Markets
Global reach
As the recession continues to bite, law firms are looking to international markets to source work and prosper in a turbulent economy. Grania Langdon-Down reports
With 2010 certain to be another unpredictable year, law firms need to be looking towards new approaches and new challenges internationally to help future-proof their practices against the ups and downs in the economy.
For Alison Hook, head of the Law Society’s International Division, it is crucial that firms are innovative in their outlook and she points to two areas with potential – the next wave of emerging markets beyond the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, and reaching new markets by working with major financial centres.
‘From the financial world’s point of view, 2010 might look promising,’ she says. ‘However, the legal world takes time to warm up as the sector tends to lag a bit. But there are real opportunities for firms of all sizes that are prepared to be more business-orientated and go to their clients with good ideas.’ (see box, page 8)
So where should firms be looking to develop work? Goldman Sachs identified the next wave of emerging markets as Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam, though their economic potential will clearly be determined by both domestic and international factors. The International Division adds to that list the Balkans, several African states including Cameroon, Botswana, Mozambique and Angola, as well as Chile, Colombia and Argentina.
Hook says the signs are the big growth markets in Asia will bounce back more quickly than some of the western economies. At the same time, China and India will be looking at outward investments.
‘Africa, for instance, is of great interest because of the impact of Chinese investment there in natural resources. This has prompted a lot of interest from mid-tier to top-100 firms and we have been doing a lot of work with trade missions with Nigeria and Ghana.’
The world’s borders are much more porous than in the past, she says. ‘You could be a mid-tier firm working for a relatively small commercial outfit that gets bought by a big Indian global firm and, overnight, you could find yourself catapulted into that world. It doesn’t map as obviously as you would expect that a magic circle firm with offices in multiple jurisdictions is automatically the number one choice.’
Embracing the Balkans
In the Balkans, English firm Harrisons was the first international law firm to establish offices in Serbia and Montenegro. Set up in 1999, months after the Nato bombing campaign against Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbian party, ‘it was a completely different legal and practical environment in those days, with Milosevic still in charge, and very few foreigners around’, says principal Mark Harrison.
‘But it gave us a tremendous head-start over the foreign firms who arrived more than two years later. The Balkans are all about contacts and gaining the trust and confidence of companies and individuals, so experience definitely counts and new entrants to the market will find this a difficult hurdle to overcome.’
He says that, though the laws are becoming more EU-compliant, he has not seen any increased interest yet from UK law firms or UK business. ‘I do not expect any other UK law firms to establish a presence in Serbia or Montenegro, because the market is fairly saturated with lawyers and London is only a two-hour flight away, making it easy to do things on a “fly-in” basis.’
Patricia Gannon is a founding partner of Serbian law firm Karanović & Nikolić, which has offices in Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia.
She set up the firm with her Serbian lawyer husband 15 years ago. ‘It was the wrong place and the wrong time for long enough, but we are now the leading firm with 70 lawyers and continuing to grow. Our big challenge for 2010 is to turn it from a Serbian firm into a regional practice.’
She says that people in Europe have been slow to recognise the Balkans as a promising new market. ‘The region has emerged from conflict in a more stable way and is on the path to joining the EU when, historically, countries see a massive surge in inward investment.’
Her firm has developed links with about 20 UK law firms from the mid-tier to the magic circle that, she says, are keen to investigate opportunities in unusual jurisdictions.
‘What they are increasingly looking for from us is to bring deals to them,’ says Gannon. ‘If we have market knowledge that a telephone company is going to be privatised, they want us to tell them so they can contact their clients and show them how global they are.
‘What we want from them is referral work – some firms want regulatory and employment law advice, which is our bread and butter work, while other firms are coming to us with transactional and financing work.’
She says some UK law firms ask for exclusivity if they are bidding for a project. ‘However, usually, the firms accept that we will be approached by others and they just ask us to be courteous and let them know. We always bid the same so we don’t prejudice anyone’s proposals. It’s a nice position to be in but you have to be upfront and not favour anyone over another.’
She says it is crucial to be aware of the huge cultural differences between the countries, as well as their post-communist history which
Continued on page 6
Legal Services Directory 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76