The Globalization of the Legal Industry

As domestic law firms continue to expand across borders, collaborate with foreign counsel and form intercontinental mergers, traditional boundaries on the geographic scope of law practice are disappearing. Although globalization is not new, it is gaining momentum due to the growth of the Internet, the automation of legal processes, developments in data security and the creation of new technology tools.

Globalization of the legal industry is transforming the world into a single vast legal marketplace. A competitive legal climate, a need to serve transnational clients, the offshoring of legal work to low-wage developing countries and a drive to capture a larger share of the global legal market have contributed to the internationalization of law firms.

Although international clients generally gravitate to large law firms, a recent survey by Walker Clark, LLC found that even smaller firms (fewer than 20 lawyers) had foreign clients, evidencing the extent that globalization has impacted the legal industry.

What effect globalization will have on the management structures and practice strategies of multinational law firms remains to be seen. However, one thing is certain: globalization will continue to reshape the landscape of the legal industry in 2008.