With the exception of a small band of white shoe practices, US law firms have taken big strides on the global stage in recent years. But given the recovery in their domestic economy and the increasing preference for English law in cross-border deals, Grant Murgatroyd asks whether New York’s finest remain committed to the international game
In 1989 only seven million Americans owned a passport – a derisory 3% of the US population and a figure that was oft-brandished by scornful Europeans. Since then the situation has improved markedly, with a far more respectable 110 million of the country’s 313 million citizens holding a valid passport at the last count. That still lags the 70% of British passport holders, but the change shows a US that has taken up full residence in the global village – an unavoidable response to the emergence of rival economic powerhouses such as China.
