If developments continue at their current rate, 2002 could well be remembered as the year in which the world’s major law firms ‘went global’. This has little to do with numbers of new offices, increases in geographical coverage or transatlantic mergers: these have created a number of international firms which are often no more than loose affiliations of lawyers working under the same brand name.
The past three months have seen evidence that some of the largest international players, such as Clifford Chance (CC), Linklaters and Baker & McKenzie, are now announcing common technology platforms and unified billing capabilities.
