 Ten legal providers gave nominations for the Visionary Firm of the Year – Legal Services Award and the winning firm was adjudicated by our independent judges Sue Lynn Koo and David Miles.––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– • Axiom • Eversheds • K&L Gates • Lee International • LNT & Partners • RHTLaw Taylor Wessing • Shanghai Qin Li • Simpson Thacher • Trowers • ZICOlaw ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– General Counsel and their in-house legal teams throughout the In-House Community are seeking new and ever more cost-effective ways to engage external counsel. Change is coming through client demand, as predicted by some – most vocally Professor Richard Susskind. Much of this is due to cost pressure arising from an ever more competitive and congested legal market place and the need for corporates and financial institutions to cut costs. But it is also a phenomenon linked to the great levelling achieved by the internet and other technical innovations over the past 20 years. The practice of law gets increasingly technological as each day passes. Law firms are no longer the only repository of legal knowledge, and no longer the only game in town when General Counsel are seeking external support. There are now many non-partnership structured and technology-assisted legal providers competing for the international legal services market. And with the global market not growing and with firms competing for the same in-house dollar, it’s much more about market share, making the most of that market share and therefore, law firms having a competitive edge by new and innovative means. In other words: to be visionary. The ‘Visionary Firm of the Year – Legal Services’ annual award seeks to encapsulate this new paradigm and celebrate by example the firm, whether it be a traditional law firm or a new law entrant. Our judges selected Eversheds as our ‘Visionary Firm of the Year – Legal Services’ for 2016. Amongst those who made submissions, no other law firm has so consistently embraced the reality about and the connection between legal budgets and the risk taking partnership that is necessary between a global in-house team and its external lawyers. The Eversheds submission established the firm’s credentials by providing verifiable examples of budget-orientated project management as a fully customised fee model for a leading listed Chinese client, with capped fees and agreed budgets for all legal work. Preventive work for the same client has reduced pressure on the legal budget with Eversheds providing a global risk management system – the fence at the top of the cliff rather than the ambulance at the bottom. But more innovative are their other offerings provided to General Counsel and their teams: As General Counsel become ever increasingly sophisticated buyers of global legal services, all of the above will most likely prove standard quite soon. All law firms – Eversheds included – will need to continually innovate to stay afloat in this increasingly crowded legal market. But for this year at least, a more traditional law firm, albeit one with innovative add-ons, has won the ‘Visionary Firm’ accolade. As one General Counsel commented from the many testimonials provided “Eversheds have really set the standard on how to plan and execute complex jurisdictional projects”. Congratulations Eversheds! And keep it up. We predict that the 2017 ‘Visionary Firm of the Year – Legal Services’ will be even more keenly contested! |
| Our In-House Community Commended External Counsel are (alphabetically):
Australia China Hong Kong India Indonesia Japan Malaysia |
Philippines Cheng Yoke Ping, Rajah & Tann Davinder Singh, Drew & Napier John D. MacKay, Latham & Watkins Kala Anandarajah, Rajah & Tann Kelvyn Oo, Pinsent Masons Kent Phillips, Berwin Leighton Paisner Low Kah Keong, WongPartnership Mark Cheng, Rajah & Tann Ng Eng Leng, Rodyk & Davidson Prawiro Widjaja, Allen & Gledhill Sandy Foo, Drew & Napier Sean Prior, Ashurst South Korea Taiwan Thailand Vietnam United Arab Emirates United Kingdom |
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