Over the past few years, law firms and lawyers have grappled with a rapidly changing business landscape, thanks in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with new ways of working, the industry has seen the emergence of new practice areas. For legal networks, this has meant guiding their clients through uncertainty.

In today’s world, general counsel face an ever-increasing demand to manage exponentially more risks, involving greater complexity, in much shorter time frames and with more potential impact on business performance. As expectations upon them evolve, law firm networks are assisting GCs in making their organisations more agile and effective. 

When the pandemic hit, law firms went into a state of emergency as they looked to mitigate the worst of the impacts. Now, as the conditions begin to evolve and economies look to re-open, firms are carefully weighing up what the picture may look like in the longer term. Assisting them are legal networks, which are working hard to ensure their members can operate at their best.

Law firm networks are today a critical part of the legal industry globally. In this roundtable, senior representatives of four leading networks talk about how they are going the extra mile to get member law firms future-ready, assisting clients to cope with changing global business conditions, and setting strategies and goals for the coming years.

As firms in Asia adopt a more global mindset and are increasingly expected to have cross-jurisdictional capabilities and expertise, lawyers are using legal networks as a means of spreading their resources further and improving their global connectivity and understanding of new markets. But networks are also guiding them on other key aspects: marketing, business development and helping them build their brands.

International law firm Dentons recently launched its 280-member Nextlaw Global Referral Network, aiming to provide an alternative to the more traditional legal networks. However, the latter don’t see any reason to get worried just yet, reports Ranajit Dam.