Building upon the innovations of yesterday’s and today’s law firm

The globalization of the world

Kohn said he first expressed an interest in international legal work when he attended law school. As he began practicing commercial finance law, he discovered more and more international elements to transactions.

And like any lawyer learning any new field, he built a practice from scratch. He studied how one goes about making loans and taking collateral in other countries. He investigated what legal and cultural perspectives existed overseas.

He built relationships with law firms in other countries, and his knowledge and experience led to his conducting seminars for clients and writing articles in this area.

“The globalization of U.S. businesses has presented tremendous challenges for law firms, especially small and medium-sized firms,” Kohn said. “The very large firms have traditionally done a lot of international work, but the small and medium-sized firms, in most cases, have not.

“The fact that the U.S. middle market has become so globalized is putting incredible demands on these firms to become sophisticated on international issues.”

Today, international business and transactions flow in every direction, said Philip Suse, managing partner of Baker & McKenzie’s Chicago office.

A German company may purchase a Latin American company, or an Asian or Middle Eastern government may do business with a European company, he said.

More clients than ever are using multiple firm offices more often for their legal matters, Suse said. The complexity and risks of global deals has increased, and the world is becoming a single market, he said.

Clients expect their firms to have fluency and seamlessness of service across offices and borders. Just as their local operations are uniquely local and adaptive to local customs, a client wants its law firms to also be that way, he said.

Law firms no longer have home offices, and firm management doesn’t come from one office, or even one country, he said.

Pro bono efforts have also gone global. Baker has gotten involved in such international pro bono efforts as Kosovo’s final status negotiations, he said.

“Our reach and our mission has always been the same: to be the premier global law firm,” Suse said.

“We’ve had to adapt with the changing global environment. It requires fluency in the way we think, fluency in the way we work, and fluency in the way we behave. It makes it a fun place to work.”

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