Big Mc

Many years ago there was an odd little law office based in Aldwych, Central London, which was looked down upon by all the other smarter, cooler law firms. They were rude about it in private and they never invited it to any of their parties. After all, it spoke with an odd, indefinable accent, had dubious relations in funny foreign countries and was generally regarded as an oddball.

In reality, this odd little firm — let’s call it Baker & McKenzie — was highly enterprising and was a pioneer of genuine globalisation. And now it is rumoured to be on the verge of overtaking Clifford Chance as one of the largest two law firms in the world.

Meanwhile, its former chairman, Christine Lagarde, has been a very distinguished member of the French Government. But it still speaks with an indefinable accent. So, well done, Baker & McKenzie. It looks as if your time has come.

Norton triumph

Another firm whose moment has arrived is Norton Rose. It stunned everyone last week by announcing a merger with Deacons, the Australian firm, and thereby signalled that there are new ways of making globalisation work.

Just off the plane from Oz, Peter Martyr, the CEO, told me that the merger would rewrite the rules of how to build a global brand — not least because it was based on the accountancy model of firms such as Deloitte rather than the “old-fashioned, single-profits pot” favoured by law firms.

Deacons offers a fast-track route into the all-important Asian market where Aussie rules actually provide the regulatory infrastructure for a great swath of countries. Anyone tempted to whisper a disparaging didgeridoo put-down should remember that’s what they used to do to Baker & McKenzie.

Facebook?

With a couple of maverick law firms coming to the fore, perhaps the big legal personality will also return. For example, Jonathan Metliss, now of Davenport Lyons and a founding partner of S J Berwin, is irrepressibly exuberant about the law and, indeed, life.

Even a slightly wacky bendy-bus speech by Boris Johnson at a Mansion House dinner, where we met up last week, failed to overshadow Metliss’s relish for getting close to the clients, giving them a good time and a first-rate job. Not so much a business strategy, then, from Metliss more a way of living.

Meanwhile, a lunch with Ian Burton, the white-collar-crime lawyer par excellence of BCL Burton Copeland, at the intriguingly discreet Mark’s Club in Mayfair, underlined that it’s not so much how well known you are but who you are known by. In the weeks of Bernie Madoff’s demise, Burton had a finger in that and every other deliciously newsworthy pie, including the extraordinary Julius Meinl ¤100 million (£850,000) bail case. Big personalities are too busy to seek out big profiles. They just let the results do the talking.

edward.fennell@yahoo.co.uk

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