Speakers at the event:
Michael Herlihy, general counsel, Smiths Group plc
Liz Walker, chief counsel, EMEA & Latin America, BT Global Services
Jonathan Scott, senior partner, Herbert Smith Freehills
The issues discussed were:
- What are the new emerging trends in the demand for and provision of legal services and how receptive/responsive have large corporate law firms been to these trends?
- How do corporate clients prefer to contract legal advice and services? What business models are most attractive and why?
- How can law firms address the changing needs of international clients, and expand into new markets? What challenges will expansion bring?
- What opportunities and challenges can mergers, international and domestic, have on law firm culture?
- What factors are changing the way global businesses work and what impact do these changes have on the in-house sector and the firms they instruct?
- What are the dominant market forces and how might the lawyer and law firm of the future be shaped by these forces?