LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
OCTOBER 2017 39
| LEGAL NETWORKS |
LLP have pursued global exposure through
their own mergers. Some, like Bennett
Jones LLP, McCarthy Tétrault LLP, Osler,
Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, Stikeman El-
liott LLP and Torys LLP, have established
outposts in the United States and abroad.
Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and Good-
mans LLP, by contrast, have offices only in
Canada and for the most part rely on indi-
vidual international contacts for inbound
and outbound referrals.
Meanwhile, Blakes and Davies Ward
Phillips & Vineberg LLP, both major
firms in the Canadian market, have taken
a two-pronged approach. Blakes promotes
its global business through offices in New
York, London, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain
and Beijing, and the firm's membership
in Lex Mundi. Farris LLP also belongs to
Lex Mundi. Davies Ward has a New York
office and membership in the 54-firm,
19,000-lawyer World Law Group Ltd.,
with a presence in 260 commercial cen-
tres on six continents. McMillan LLP is a
TerraLex member, while Cassels Brock &
Blackwell LLP's 200 lawyers in Toronto
and Vancouver joined WSG in 2004.
Aird & Berlis LLP and its 147 lawyers are
members of Interlaw, an organization of 82
firms in about 75 countries.
"Lex Mundi is definitely part of our
international strategy," Granatstein says.
"e network contributes to our global
inflow — which is important for all major
firms because Canada is a net importer of
legal work — and also allows us to refer cli-
ents quickly in jurisdictions where we don't
play very oen."
Membership in Lex Mundi allows firms
to maintain their relationships with global
firms and lawyers in financial centres.
"Broadly speaking, Lex Mundi as an asso-
ciation doesn't go up against UK and US
firms, and there are no member firms, for
example, in New York City or New York
state," Granatstein says. "Because the net-
work is expressly non-exclusive when it
comes to referral work, we can maintain a
robust relationship with global firms."
is being said, the hard truth is that
global firms aren't omnipresent. "Under
no definition of global are the global firms
actually global," McGarry says. "Once
you strip away the big commercial centres
vereins, law firm networks and law firms
demonstrates, law firm networks share
only three or four of 15 characteristics with
law firms. But they share at least seven with
vereins and at least six with the Big Four.
"e Big Four accounting and consulting
organizations proudly state they are net-
works," McGarry says. "In the legal profes-
sion, the term verein obscures the fact that
members are independent. e preferable
term is law firm."
IF THAT'S THE CASE, the question go-
ing forward is not whether legal networks
are still relevant; rather, the issue is where
they fit in and how they stack up as an alter-
native to what the vereins and global firms
call their "one-stop shopping" advantage.
Major Canadian law firms have different
approaches to the issue of referrals. Ogilvy
Renault LLP and MacLeod Dixon, Fraser
Milner Casgrain LLP and Davis LLP are
among the legacy firms that chose to join
the international vereins Norton Rose Ful-
bright, Dentons and DLA Piper. Others,
like legacy Gowling Lafleur Henderson
LLP and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin
Global Cumulative No. of No. of No. of
Market % Revenue (US$) Countries Offices Lawyers
Law Firm Networks 20% $120 billion 150 5,000 300,000
Legal Vereins 1.8% $14 billion 50 300 20,000
Big Four Accounting Firms 0.2% $1 billion 150 1,500 4,000
Top 10 Independent Law Firms 2.5% $20 billion 40 250 20,000
No. of Revenue No. of No. of No. of
Lawyers US$ (est.) Jurisdictions Offices Firms
Lex Mundi 21,000 $10.5 billion 160 600 160
Dentons 7,500 $2.14 billion 47 150 n.a.
Herbert Smith Freehills 2,800 $1.1 billion n.a. n.a. n.a.
PWC Legal Network 2,400 n.a. 75 100 74
2017 GLOBAL LEGAL MARKET SHARE
MAJOR PLAYERS: NETWORKS, INDEPENDENTS, VEREINS
SOURCE:
ASSOCIATION
OF
INTERNATIONAL
LAW
FIRM
NETWORKS
