Finding New Markets
People often talk about the law and lawyers as old-fashioned, staid, hidebound by tradition. In fact both barristers and solicitors are constantly seeking new markets.
^ TOPRelative publicity
Much has been made recently of the surge of solicitor partners earning in excess of £1,000,000 per annum. A little less is said about the cause. Post-Enron, many businesses are finding the New York Stock Exchange listing requirements far less user-friendly than the London scene. However, that work can only come here because of the banking and legal expertise available. In turn that has a knock-on effect in merger and acquisition work. Whilst the lawyers are being paid handsomely for their efforts, they are actually helping to facilitate enormous capital inflows into the country with economic benefit for all. That gets rather less publicity.
^ TOPMore than potassium
This week I have been one of the participants at the Anglo-Kazakhstan legal conference taking place in London. I suppose everyone else has had the same reaction I have had from non-participants. The humour wears a little thin when the 100th person asks the same question about whether it is all like in the Borat film. Sacha Baron Cohen is very gifted and very funny, and I really enjoyed the film, but it has no more relevance to current affairs than the Marx Brothers films had. The real Kazakhstan has vast oil and gas reserves, and is expecting substantial inward investment. In their new commercial court, English language is to be used and English advocates will have rights of audience. Whilst it might not be everyone's idea of a potential new Hong Kong, lots of lawyers are taking it very seriously indeed.
^ TOPLooking to the future
The Chancery Bar Association and the Commercial Bar Association have worked with the Bar's International Relations Committee to facilitate the visit. City firms such as Norton Rose, Lovells, DLA and Denton Wilde Sapte and others have put substantial effort into organising events and ensuring that the trip is a success. Kazakh lawyers and Judges have visited, and Chancery and Commercial List Judges here have also been extremely helpful. An enormous amount of unpaid effort and time has been put in by both sides of the profession, (speakers, seminar participants and organising events) in an attempt to foster good relations with a potential source of considerable business. The key point is that everyone is putting this effort in now when the consequent benefits (assuming they emerge) may not be seen for some considerable time to come.
^ TOPMaking rain
Money does not just fall from the sky. Nor is legal expertise alone sufficient for success, even though it is a pre-requisite. Firms or Chambers that bring in large amounts only do so because they have identified and established the sources of work, as well as having the ability to do it.
Whilst there are those who consider the legal market and those operating in it to be old-fashioned and hence incapable of change, that view does not bear scrutiny. When the legal market is changed radically by the Legal Services Bill, providers of legal services will adapt to the change market. Many already have their plans in place. As they must. Whilst this will cement the idea that lawyers have to have business nous in addition to their legal expertise, that is already a fact of life in the marketplace.