Take a look at this excerpt below from Law.Com. The full list is of the world’s top 100 law firms by revenue.
The top 10 firms below alone bring in over $20 Billion dollars in revenue, with about 25,000 lawyers. Although clearly not an internally equitable spread, that’s about $800,000 in revenue per lawyer.
| 2008 Rank by Revenue | Firm | Gross Revenue, Most Recent Fiscal Year |
| 1 | Clifford Chance International (U.K.) | $2,660,500,000 |
| 2 | Linklaters International (U.K.) | $2,588,500,000 |
| 3 | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer International (U.K.) | $2,358,500,000 |
| 4 | Baker & McKenzie International (U.S.) | $2,188,000,000 |
| 5 | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom National (U.S.) | $2,170,000,000 |
| 6 | Allen & Overy International (U.K.) | $2,034,000,000 |
| 7 | Latham & Watkins National (U.S.) | $2,005,500,000 |
| 8 | Jones Day National (U.S.) | $1,441,000,000 |
| 9 | Sidley Austin National (U.S.) | $1,386,000,000 |
| 10 | White & Case International (U.S.) | $1,373,000,000 |
Not bad for “pushing paper” as my former client at the tabloids used to accuse us of!
What is glaring is that fact that these top ten firms are exclusively American and UK firms. Even more stupefying is that almost all the top 100 law firms come from the UK and USA, some from Canada and Australia. As these firms grow, the practice of law in English, as in business, will only increase exponentially.
Recently it has become trendy to talk about the demise of law firms and big law. It may happen to a few big firms, as it is happening to a few “ancient” businesses like General Motors. But the legal services market is essentially opportunistic. Lawyers are valuable whether the client is going up or down – we just don’t bet against them. Some of the largest USA/UK firms in the world were built on the founder’s bankruptcy practices dealing with the volatility of the 1850s- 1920s. No, I don’t expect big law to disappear, except maybe from the reach of the mass of lawyers graduating every year.
Ok, back to the English only point: will this mean that all laws in major economies (OECD and BRIC) will be translated into English? If that happens, what will become of local laws in Spanish, Urdu, Russian or Chinese? I don’t expect that local laws in native languages will disappear – certainly not from the courts. But I can see how the culture of law will also be changed by the use of English only.
Maybe the proliferation of English language only laws will affect only the financial elites like multi-nationals and banks. Will this in turn create an exclusive cadre of global lawyers that can literally practice without borders – or has that already happened?
What do you think?
It is my understanding from reading about some of these firms that they have formed alliances or bought out local firms in several international cities. This makes sense for both firms-the smaller firm in china now is part of a large international firm(prestige and money) and the large firm has local attorneys to show them how to get things done in their local area. After attending one of henry Trawick’s lectures (he has written a widely used book in florida on civil pro.) l I heard give a young attorney a lecture about the need for local counsel even in different counties in florida because as he put it each circuit in florida has its own customs and rules which are followed. This makes me feel it won’t change or go to english in other parts of the world that quickly. Law has slow to change to date but this presents attorneys an opportunity to look for in todays world.
Thanks, Rob. I know of Trawick’s. We all had to have a copy of his civ pro book in the 90’s. 🙂 When I did litigate, we knew never to show up to any county outside of SE Florida without local counsel. The Keys were invariably a fast learning experience on local customs and rules for naive Miami lawyers.