Nearly half the lawyers responding to a recent poll said the Australian market was either at its limit or offered very ‘limited’ opportunity for future high-profile mergers.

Brand strength

Only 28 per cent of respondents were confident that the local market still had scope for global law firms. Another 24 per cent fudged the issue, suggesting vaguely that any future mergers depended on ‘the strength of the brand trying to enter’.
Despite the mixed results, legal profession consultants in the country were still trying to talk up the jurisdiction’s potential for the global players. The publication Lawyers Weekly, which conducted the survey, quoted lawyer-turned-consultant Ted Dwyer as claiming more big name firms would enter the Australian market.
Mr Dwyer also suggested that some firms might launch expensive, stand alone practices in the local market. ‘International firms will increasingly need to come to Australia,’ he told the newspaper. ‘But if merger partners run out they tend to have very big pockets.’

Multi-jurisdictional work

Mr Dwyer maintained that the transactional market in Australia continued to be of interest to global law firms: ‘Major international companies require a lot of legal servicing in different markets of the region and there’s a lot of multi-jurisdictional work available.’
Pennsylvania-base law firm K&L Gates is the most recent global player rumoured to be eyeing up an Australia incursion. At the end of June, London-based international firm Herbert Smith announced its merger with local firm Freehills.
The survey results coincided with a report in The New Lawyer that Australian national firm Slater & Gordon that it is to merge its Hobart office with Tasmanian personal injury practice Hillard & Associates.
Slater – the first law firm in the world to be publically listed – announced in the spring its merger with London-based Russell Jones & Walker.