Fresh from his recent research of Belgium’s legal market, Ashish Sareen highlights the Benelux nation’s ongoing contribution to halting the spread of Covid-19
If you were asked what Belgium is best known for, you would probably answer with Hergé’s Tintin, football, chocolates, waffles, frites, the creation of the saxophone, and world-beating craft beer brewed by Trappist monks. It is unlikely, however, that you would mention biotech in the same breath as the above. With most of its activity in …
Continue reading “Tintin, beer, and biotech?”
Country spotlight: New Zealand
Too small, too far away, but a good place to be. Asia Pacific deputy editor Andrea de Palatis considers New Zealand’s steady legal market
New Zealand is a country that has a long history of being left off the world map, including on wall maps sold by Ikea and displayed at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. Producers of A-level geography books and board games are also guilty of the omission. Are New Zealanders offended? Not quite. They respond …
Continue reading “Success off map”
Closing the US justice gap
US editor Seth Singh Jennings talks to Gibson Dunn and Morrison & Foerster lawyers on why law firms have an obligation to seek out pro bono work
The concept of pro bono – literally ‘serving the public good’ – is intrinsic to the profession of law, and nowhere more so than in the US. In 2017, chart-topping Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP clocked an impressive 180,000 pro bono hours worldwide, equating to roughly 129 hours per lawyer, and many other firms are …
Continue reading “Closing the US justice gap”
Country spotlight: Italy
Rosario Zaccà and Antonio Auricchio, managing partners of Gianni, Origioni, Grippo, Capelli & Partners
How are client demands in Italy changing? Italian clients require an increasing understanding of their business and specialist expertise in their industry sector(s). Clients’ desire for new markets is achieved not only through their penetration in the richer markets of industrialised countries, but increasingly through access into fast-growing economies, which have a growth rate three …
Continue reading “Local presence married to an international strategy”
Country spotlight: Italy
Wolf Michael Kühne, co-country managing partner of DLA Piper Italy
How are client demands in Italy changing? We should distinguish between subsidiaries of international groups and domestic Italian clients. The first follow the same approach globally and their demands in our local market are the same as in any other country, while for domestic companies the traditional approach prevails. Small- and medium-sized businesses are family …
Continue reading “Truly local, truly global”
Country spotlight: Italy
Filippo Modulo, managing Partner of Chiomenti
How are client demands in Italy changing? Clients’ demands have been changing throughout the years in Italy as elsewhere; there is an increasingly segmented workflow and a clear distinction between commoditised work and special situations. Clients have been better at organising internally and have a clear picture of the different capabilities of each firm and …
Continue reading “The Specials”
Country spotlight: Italy
Stefano Bianchi, managing partner of Pavia e Ansaldo
How are client demands in Italy changing? Now, more than in the past, clients seek different services from different legal providers: standardised and cost-effective advisory packages, including services outside the strict legal perimeter, from worldwide networks composed of more than 1,000 professionals; consultancy on specific issues, which require hyper-specialisation, from small legal boutiques; strategic advisory, …
Continue reading “First culture, then business. First law, then profit”
Country spotlight: Italy
In conversation with leading lawyers, EMEA editor Ella Marshall considers the successes of Italy’s top law firms and the potential challenges heading their way
The third largest economy in the eurozone and a founding member of the EU, you need to have been living on another planet not to be aware of Italy’s plight in the last few years, even flirting with the idea of an exit from the EU in recent times, with the incumbent prime minister, Giuseppe …
Continue reading “Economic recovery, the Italian way”
Country focus: Australia
New international entrants, unsustainable fee structures,
legal service innovation are all under the microscope as
deputy Asia Pacific editor Andrea de Palatis analyses ’s Australia rankings.
G’day from Australia, where the term jurisdiction commonly refers to a state, not the entire country. Outlining common trends is therefore a challenge. Australia does not have one economy, or booming sector. In fact, whatever can be said about Australia, the opposite is also true – somewhere. Many international firms, among them Allen & Overy …
Continue reading “A market of contradictions”
Country spotlight: Sweden
EMEA editor, Ella Marshall, looks back at The Legal 500’s recent rankings and talks to leading law firms to consider the changing nature of Sweden’s legal market
A lot can happen in a short space of time, and Sweden is certainly proof of that. In a country where Volvo, Ikea and H&M gave way to Abba and Zlatan (*not technically true, I grant you) as the country’s most successful exports, that crown looks likely to pass to any one of Sweden’s tech …
Continue reading “Tech, that’s the name of the game”
