Legal Week (UK) is reporting that?? HSBC has added four US firms to its knowledge-sharing venture in a bid to improve its understanding of the US legal market.
Here’s the report in full and url.. what interests us at HOB is how many other financial institutions are doing the same thing with law firms in the US and in other jurisdictions ?
http://www.legalweek.com/legal-week/news/2030097/hsbc-adds-firms-knowledge-sharing-venture
White & Case, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Wilmer Hale and New York State law firm Phillips Lytle have been added to the bank’s in-house SmartSearch database – taking the roster of firms sharing their know-how with the bank to 17.
SmartSearch, which allows HSBC’s legal team to access legal know-how and precedents at panel firms, now comprises magic circle firms Linklaters, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy (A&O) and City firms SNR Denton, Norton Rose and CMS Cameron McKenna.
Other firms signing up to the database in the last two years include Wragge & Co, Eversheds, Pinsent Masons, Australia’s Dibbs Barker and offshore firm Ogier. Mayer Brown became the first US firm to sign up in 2009.
All the firms which are part of the knowledge-sharing venture also hold a position on one of HSBC’s legal panels, but it is understood that firms are given extra incentives to join the knowledge-sharing database, including guaranteed work levels.
One adviser commented: “In order to gain access to a firm’s know-how and precedents, clients have to provide us with incentives to do so. This can include arrangements whereby a firm will be used exclusively in particular areas, as well as a guaranteed amount of work over a certain period.”
The SmartSearch system was rolled out three years ago following a pilot scheme in 2007 involving five panel firms, including Norton Rose and A&O.