Source: academic paper

Global law firms are a particular subset taken from the collection of advanced producer service firms. Abiding by a common set of laws (Anglo-Saxon Common Laws), their servicing of international economic actors creates a network of operations linking global cities together. Global law firms lubricate global capitalism through transnational lawyering and law making (Faulconbridge et al. 2008).

Global law firms rely on expatriates to extend a common work culture and maintain a strategic organization of the company. They need to be able to deal in the same way with multiple legal jurisdictions, different cultures and varying expectations.

J.R. Faulconbridge, J.V. Beaverstock, D. Muzio and P.J. Taylor set out to collect data on 16 global law firms active in 105 cities. Eager to see where the most ‘lawyering’ is taking place, they conducted a network analysis in the same way the GaWC has dealt with advanced producer service firms in the past (see Taylor 2001).

Results They produce a ranking of the top 20 cities for global lawyering. It includes an expected duopoly at the top – London and New York. Their results reveal the ‘legal’ importance of international financial centres, capital cities and eastern European cities (where new lawyering is accommodating newly created capitalism). The authors mention the importance of national regulatory frameworks in so far as they condone (or not) the operations of global law firms within their territory.

The global law firms network is still relatively small and geographically limited. It is however expected to grow steadily as global lawyering reaches the global cities of the South.