Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
Great Power Competition and How to Manage it in the 21st Century
What are the implications that international geopolitical events have for law firms in the mid-2020s?
Guest contributor Gerald J. Kirkpatrick examines post-World-War-II diplomacy by the great powers and what its disruption or continuity might mean for the world in 2025 and beyond.
This is part of an ongoing series of informed commentaries on world events and the risks and opportunities they might present to law firms everywhere and their clients.
“New Law”: When Being an Excellent Lawyer is not Good Enough
As one managing partner of a U.S. law firm recently commented, "Today we have to be experts in subjects that they never taught in law school, not even five years ago. Being an excellent lawyer is no longer good enough."
Advising clients about compliance with international economic sanctions is one such challenging "new law" area.
Preparing for the Trojan Horse
As reported recently in this blog, Indian lawyers anticipate a liberalization of restrictions on foreign lawyers and law firms in the near future; although the concept is not without opposition from some members of the profession. Walker Clark clients elsewhere also have had to respond to the effects that the entry of foreign lawyers and law firms have in markets that previously were largely insulated, either by local market conditions or by regulatory design, from foreign competition.
Our experiences advising national and local firms in these markets suggest five basic questions that lawyer and law firms should ask as they start planning to meet these new competitive challenges.
Five Asia-Pacific Legal Markets to Watch in the Next Five Years
This is the first of a series of six posts that will be published over the next three months and that will report our firm's analysis and forecasts for five Asia-Pacific legal markets that we believe will offer the greatest growth in the demand for legal services from international law firms and well-established national and local firms.
Resisting the Temptation to Cut Costs
Although some of the world's law firms are beginning to enjoy the results of a slow economic recovery, many others are not. In eastern Europe and Russia, for example, many firms are confronting the prospects of sharply declining fee revenues in 2015 from what were some of their most profitable practice areas and clients in 2013 and 2014. In such a scenario, it is very tempting to start cutting operating costs.
Resist that temptation.
What Binds Us Together
In these days of sanctions, sabre-rattling, and "red lines," it is refreshing to see how the common values and commitments of the legal profession prove stronger than the political, economic, and ideological differences that would divide us.
This is one of the ten most frequently read posts in the Worldview Archives, with more than 11,000 views since it was published in 2014.
