The view of the market seems to be that the top few law firms are pulling rapidly ahead of the competition. That commanding position is being driven by a global strategy and business model that, for Clifford Chance (CC), is now maturing after 20 years of investment and planning. We are the only international firm with significant resource in all three principal markets – the US, Europe and Asia. This is in itself a strong differentiator and one that we believe provides us with clear competitive advantage.
Back in the 1980s, CC set out a strategy to follow its clients’ global approach. We were probably the first law firm to act on the perception that clients were becoming global in their business plans and would need co-ordinated full-service legal advice across the markets in which they were operating. To that end we have developed global practices across the full service range. Rather than operating on a ‘hub and spoke’ basis – with the majority of lawyers in one market and other offices radiating out from, and managed by, a home centre – we have followed a truly international strategy. We now have more lawyers outside the UK than within it and the greater part of our business – some 60% – is generated in those international markets. But globalisation is still really only just beginning: what are the forces shaping the next steps in the development of our business? Four major themes come to mind.
