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posted 3 months ago
According to a 2023 Wall Street Journal article reporting on law firm revenues, firms with strong international presence notch the most significant revenue gains. In today’s interconnected world, cross-border legal services are indispensable. However, expanding your legal services globally is a risky and complex process that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Scaling internationally requires an understanding of your clientele’s needs, a thoughtful analysis of your firm’s skill sets and aspirations, as well as the ability to be goal-orientated while maintaining flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.
Many large firms are already expanding their practices overseas with major cross-border M&A. While these firms might have the financial resources to fund a global expansion strategy, it does not mean small and mid-sized firms can’t compete globally.
This article explores how law firms, large and small, can expand their global reach by offering cross-border legal services. Here are a few strategies and best practices that you can apply to successfully grow your practice globally.
Expanding your global reach doesn’t necessarily mean setting up offices worldwide. You can start by paying attention to your clientele’s work in overseas markets. No serious commercial law firm, whatever its size, can afford to ignore the global market for legal services. This is particularly so because your clients are already actively engaged in cross-border business through:
Most lawyers do not recognise that their current client base could be an essential source of international business. All you need to do is figure out where the action is and understand what markets are important to your clients. If your clients are already doing business overseas, you want to be part of their international team.
When your long-standing client consistently needs legal representation overseas and your practice cannot handle their matter, you stand losing that client to a firm that can, either because they have an office in that foreign jurisdiction or because they have developed some presence through an affiliation or relationship that makes it possible for them to stay involved in the assignment.
Your clients will not wait for you to catch up with forward-thinking competitors who can serve them where their needs are. Therefore, you must find a way to persuade such clients to come to you in the first instance when they have a project or challenge with an international dimension.
Setting up physical offices in other jurisdictions helps establish your firm’s presence in the international legal market. You can achieve this by establishing offices in markets that align with your firm’s expertise.
The most significant advantage of having a physical office in a target jurisdiction is the psychological trust that comes with knowing there is a local office to support your legal services. It makes your law firm more approachable and gives it an edge over virtual legal service providers.
Additionally, an overseas office allows you access to new talent and diverse legal professionals who can help build your firm’s area of expertise while giving it a global approach.
No new venture is easy; this is true for your global law firm expansion plan. Like with all new ventures, you will need all the support you can get to acquire new clients for your firm. One great strategy for small and medium-sized firms to venture into new markets is to enter into select strategic partnerships.
This means identifying like-minded lawyers and law firms in target foreign jurisdictions to develop close working relationships with them. These relationships need not be exclusive, but should be based on solid common interests and skills, with a well-articulated set of milestones to measure success.
Unlike popular law firm alliances, select strategic partnerships are more than referral services. With the latter, member firms actively market together based on an agreed-upon business plan and budget, and work on identifying common projects, including client acquisition.
Partnerships and joint ventures with well-established local firms congruent with your areas of expertise will help you seize mutual benefits through strategic sharing of knowledge, client referrals and creating a synergy.
When expanding to different countries, you will have to deal with varying laws and regulations that apply to client operations and the conduct of legal service providers. Regulations vary depending on the jurisdiction and industries in which your clients operate.
The easiest way to successfully enter a new international legal market is to understand your target jurisdiction’s local laws and regulations deeply. This way, your firm will be better positioned to analyse potential opportunities for legal services in the market. Additionally, you will be ready to approach prospective clients with plausible legal solutions.
You want to be confident you can competently handle the local legal framework, regulations, systems and practices. Differences between your country’s systems and those of your target jurisdiction can significantly impact how legal services are delivered. Failure to adhere to local laws, regulations and professional standards will jeopardise your credibility in that overseas market.
The importance of having an online presence cannot be stressed enough in today’s digital world. Social media is one of the best digital marketing tools and an effective client magnet. A strong online presence can be just the push your firm needs to offer cross-border legal services.
Building your firm’s online presence through social media handles can be the key to attracting new clients in the international market. An online presence serves as your firm’s digital face across platforms, allowing potential clients from across the globe to connect with your services.
Capitalising on social media applications, strong websites and email marketing can be a creative way of showcasing your expertise and client testimonials. To make this approach sustainable in the long run, you will need to create informative and quality legal content in various forms, including legal articles, press releases, videos, blogs and explainers.
Referral programmes offer many benefits, from enhanced client retention to client loyalty. These programmes allow you to expand your global client base practically and effectively from your existing clientele.
An authentic recommendation from a colleague or friend works better than any creative marketing strategy, especially when picking a firm to tackle legal matters. Joining an effective referral network will help spread the word about your legal services in the new market.
Scaling your practice overseas and managing international business can be challenging because you are still poorly conversant with the market. To address this challenge, consider working with third-party services that understand all jurisdictional requirements and have feet on the ground to obtain requisite information.
A compliance and entity formation partner providing a single point of contact for building your global presence can go a long way in easing your expansion plan. Firms looking to expand into other countries are likely to encounter roadblocks due to jurisdictional differences. The host country’s laws, rules and regulations are not always clear. Since it is often easier to underestimate the nuances and amount of work, you need to work with expert third parties who can help clear out the confusion.
The success of global business operations depends on adapting to local culture. When expanding your law practice internationally, you must demonstrate your firm’s cultural sensitivity and adaptability to effectively engage with clients, regulatory authorities and colleagues in the target jurisdiction. The intention is to build professional relationships founded on mutual respect and trust.
This entails understanding that clients in your overseas market will have differing needs to those in your home country. Therefore, you should assess the target market to establish whether demand exists for your services and whether or not local providers are adequately meeting it. This way, you can tailor your services to stand out and obtain a competitive advantage.
Expanding your firm’s global reach exposes you to various risks, including regulatory compliance, ethical considerations and geopolitical uncertainties. As such, you must establish a robust risk management protocol before offering cross-border legal services.
Besides legal compliance, you want to consider global expansion’s reputational and financial risks.
When venturing into new overseas markets, you must also pay close attention to your human resource acquisition strategy. Your firm is more likely to be accepted in the new jurisdiction if the expansion benefits the host country.
Recruiting skilled local lawyers experienced in your area of expertise will ease your passage into new international legal markets. Their language and cultural competency will enhance your reputation and capabilities, making your practice more attractive to the locals you wish to serve.
Another way to position your firm to attract international work is through bar associational activities. Active participation in professional associations is a great way to raise your international profile. You can participate through committee involvement and participation in programmes, mainly speaking engagements.
Most state bar associations have international sections that offer an opportunity to gain exposure to foreign legal trends, developments and colleagues. Additionally, the International Bar Association has a global membership of lawyers focused on every area of legal practice, and it is known to conduct annual conferences and seminars on a broad range of topics.
Listing your law firm on global legal directories like Global Law Experts means joining a network of like-minded legal professionals from around the world. This presents an opportunity for you to collaborate with colleagues in overseas jurisdictions on cross-border projects.
A global legal directory will also make finding your legal services easier for potential international clients.
Entering the international legal market is just one half of your law firm’s global expansion plan. The other half is gaining the trust of new clients. One of the most efficient ways to attract prospective clients is by offering free consultations.
You can do this virtually and at the office if you have already set up an overseas office. Free consultations help build trust and goodwill while marketing your firm’s expertise. The more people connect with your firm through these free consultations, the more clients you will have in the future.
With online consultations, you can easily reach potential clients from around the world and pitch your firm’s cross-border legal services without investing much effort and resources.
The legal profession has been expanding its reach to the global market for a long time. The rise of the Internet has accelerated the globalisation of many businesses, facilitating seamless contact and workflow worldwide. As an intrinsic part of the global economy, it is thus inevitable that legal service providers must expand their scope across differing markets and jurisdictions to keep up with the ever-changing international business law.
For lawyers and law firms struggling or wondering how to attract clients to achieve their goal of global expansion, an effective and well-thought-out expansion strategy is what you need. Knowing what to do will go a long way in realising your goal.
References:
Warwick Place Legal: The Global Market for Legal Services – Is Staying Out An Option?
BBCIncorp: How Law Firms Expand Global Reach and Scale Client Intake
Business Money: How To Boost Your Law Firm’s Online Reach for Maximum Impact
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