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Bold decisions, made a decade ago, changed outlook of large law firms
The globalisation of law firms has made it possible for Australian lawyers (and non-lawyers) to build international careers within the same firm, writes Paul McKeon.
Paul McKeon
Last weekend, veteran legal industry analyst George Beaton posted an image to LinkedIn taken from research his eponymous firm conducted in 2003. It highlights the key qualities of clients then associated with some of Australia’s largest law firms.
One thing, in particular, caught my eye; not one of the 23 firms included was associated with providing “international coverage”. To readers in 2022, that may seem hard to believe. These days international legal names dominate our largest firms.
Around the same time Beaton’s research was being conducted, a New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, was writing The World Is Flat. The book, which became a bestseller, chronicled the impact of decades of globalisation on a wide range of industries.
But not in law.
In 2003, Baker Mackenzie was the only international legal practice operating in Australia. The rest of our top 10 firms consisted of national partnerships, many of which were the result of mergers between state-based firms in the previous 20 years.
So, what happened? How did we go from Australia’s top 10 firms being big fish in a small pond (and arguably less than perfectly positioned to help clients navigate an increasingly global business environment) to the situation we are familiar with today?
The spark came in June 2009.
In that month, the partners of Deacons, then Australia’s eighth-largest firm, voted to merge with the international legal practice of Norton Rose (its subsequent tie-up with US-based Fulbright would come a few years later).
The merger was the culmination of years of work by Deacons’ then chief executive partner Don Boyd, its board and leadership (as chronicled by Lawyers Weekly). Deacons may not have been the first to consider such a merger, but it was the first to make one happen.
The news was not wholly welcomed at the time by other industry players. Several were eager to play up the risks involved and play down the benefits — as any good competitor would — while moving quickly in the background to follow suit.
In just two years, Blakes became Ashurst, Freehills joined Herbert Smith, Mallesons tied up with King & Wood, Middletons with K&L Gates, Phillips Fox became DLA Piper, and Allens entered an alliance with Linklaters. In the same period, Allen & Overy entered Australia, as did Clifford Chance and Clyde & Co (and later White & Case and Jones Day). Of the Big Six, only Clayton Utz and Minter remained national firms.
Anyone in a hurry to be reminded of their age needs only to consider that many of the people promoted to partner this year were only just beginning their legal careers when these changes occurred.
But they have likely benefited.
The globalisation of law firms has made it possible for Australian lawyers (and non-lawyers) to build international careers within the same firm (as Lawyers Weekly noted). It has also helped them better support clients during a period of significant economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.
It also arguably helped to raise the bar in other ways, including how firms think about their brands. You could argue that, with one probable exception, the brand associations Beaton recorded in 2003 were largely the result of happenstance rather than intent and action by the firms.
That’s not so today, as Ashurst’s recent deliberate efforts to articulate its purpose attest.
This is not to suggest the mergers have been without challenges; few changes are. But on balance, the Australian legal industry today is clearly far less parochial than it was in 2003. In part, we have Don and his former Deacons partners to thank.
Paul McKeon is a business communications leader who advises large private and public sector organisations. He led the communications team at Deacons through the GFC and its merger with Norton Rose.
