According to an article published on the ALB website yesterday.
They write by way of introduction
Asia crucial growth driver for Australian law firms
Asia has officially become the fastest growing market for Australia’s exported legal services, with lawyers saying Asia’s developmental needs will drive the growth further and see more law firms move into the region.
According to research issued this month by Australia’s International Legal Services Advisory Council (ILSAC), from 2006-2007 Australia’s exported legal services to Asia grew by 56.4%, compared to the 25.5% growth from the previous period (2005-2006). For the first time, China overtook the UK as the second largest market for Australian exported legal work, accounting for 16% of the total revenue generated. The United States remained Australia’s largest legal services market.
Although the research captures the market before the advent of the global financial crisis, Jim Dunstan, a Hong Kong-based partner heading Allens Arthur Robinson’s Asia operations, said the growth coming from Asia was likely to be sustained. He said the possibilities for legal work in Asia were almost "limitless", and that the region will remain somewhat insulated from the effects of the financial crisis.
"The underlying demand for infrastructure and the increasing wealth throughout Asia will drive growth over the next 25 years," Dunstan said. "The demand for those areas is almost endless and it will continue to grow as things sort out following the current crisis. In addition, the sophistication and rapid growth of middle-class wealth in Asia will provide more opportunities for the financial services industry to do more routine banking, [as opposed to] developed economies where they’ve come to the end of what they could do, [since] everyone has a bank or super account."
Full article at http://au.legalbusinessonline.com/news/analysis/asia-crucial-growth-driver-for-australian-law-firms/34666
The issue here is that both the UK & the US Law firms are looking to our region for growth especially in China and India.
Are the Australian firms big enough and tough enough to deal with the increasingly fierce competition in Asia’s Jurisdictions. We also see that local firms are getting bigger and increasingly sophisticated. We wouldn’t be surprised if many of the bigger locals don’t start taking on staff laid off from the US & UK firms thus giving them a wider breadth of knowledge and experience. The fact that Australian firms have been working in the region for a while won’t necessarily mean that they’ll have an easy time of it.
And culturally Australia is busy digging a hole for itself by pandering to the age old "yellow peril" fears that always occur when things get a little tough. Those sentiments don’t play well in Asia and are widely…very widely reported in local press. Not always good for business in the region!
