law firm merger

What does China mean to law firms?

The unfortunate truth is, too much…

…rarely do international law firms get the return on the investment they make in China that they do in other jurisdictions (for example the Middle East right now; but Malaysia and South East Asia if we want to look closer to home!). 

If you don’t believe me, take a quick look at the number of firms who have entered/exited the China market in the past 15 years (tip: focus on US firms). 

Law firm’s short-sighted approaches to this issue are typically for two reasons:

  1. lack of knowledge of the market
  2. lack of understanding that Asia is a long-term – multi-generational – investment (not, typically, your law firm investment M/O).

So why the post (other than the shout-out that I have been part of a team that has successful established not 1, nor 2, but 3 international law firms in SE Asia)?

Well because, while the Eversheds / KWM tie-up has a long way to go, comments like those in this article…

[‘The art of the possible’ – Eversheds’ international CEO on its eye-catching KWM China alliance‘]

makes me wonder.

Law firm culture isn’t everything, certainly post 2008, it still counts for something.

And the most interesting comment in that article is who initiated the introduction: – Sue Kench.

Which makes me ask: Are the partners in KWM Australia off loading their investment in KWM to Eversheds?

[this article first appeared on rws_01]

Photo credit to: Li Yang on Unsplash

Shouldn’t a law firm talk to its clients before agreeing to merge with another firm?

 

Business Development image

The results of an interesting survey (looking at UK law firm merger activity) of 102 of the UK’s top 200 law firms by legal communications specialists Byfield Consultancy and partnership law experts at Fox Williams is being reported in the UK press overnight.

The headlines that appear to be grabbing the most attention from the survey results are that:

“Almost half of all non-merged UK firms would consider a tie-up over the next two years”

and that:

“As many as 95 per cent of managing partners expect their firms to merge within the next decade”.

Interesting as these numbers are, what grabbed my attention was the surprising – to me at least – fact that only 43 per cent of all merged firms revealed that they “investigated feedback from clients” prior to merging with the other law firm.

When you then take on board that “81 per cent of merged firms cited growth as a reason for joining forces” with their merger partner, doesn’t it seem a little odd that less than half would then discuss whether or not there was any real growth prospect in the merger with their clients and their merger partner’s clients (including any joint clients) prior to merging?

Little wonder, maybe, then that only:

“43 per cent of firms that have merged since 2010 believe that the move was a success”.