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K&L Gates chief blasts Norton Rose's 'Noah's ark' mergers

Clients I have spoken to about existing vereins have often been dubious about the service they get, and I'm dubious about the verein as the best structure for international law firms. There is an old saying: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is... The highly flexible nature of the verein means that law firms can do literally whatever they want with it; I suspect the limits of a verein will only be tested when the chips are down, and I wouldn't like to be the client caught in the crossfire at that point. The fact remains that if you are a partner in one law firm office and your 'partner' in another office is not connected to you by either profitability or liability, you have little incentive put your own integrity on the line for him/her in the way you would with a full partner. Kalis is right. The verein is convenient but it is more akin to a commercial arrangement such as franchising.

16-Nov-2010

3:58 pm