Go back a few years and Australia was the market every international law firm was desperate to enter, with no fewer than four of its six largest firms sealing tie-ups with overseas outfits. As the once-booming resources economy slows and the merger hype wears off, Elizabeth Broomhall looks at the impact of the deals and how the independents left behind are holding up
Law firms have a reputation for being late to the table. In the case of Australia, international entrants were perhaps more than ‘sociably late’ – taking the plunge into the market only at the tail-end of the energy and resources boom that the country had enjoyed for some two decades.
