By: Alejandro Galisteo in Madrid

The global leaders of the largest law firm in the world by number of lawyers invite other firms in our country to join their team in Madrid, a market in which "the best lawyers in Europe are".

Leaders in the Spanish-speaking legal market. That is the message that Joseph J. Andrew and Elliott I. Portnoy, chairman and CEO of Dentons, want to convey. An obsession with an idea “unprecedented in legal history. There has never been a law firm that has as many offices in as many Spanish-speaking countries as we do. Dentons has a unique connection with Spain,” says Andrew, reelected as global chairman in 2018 of a firm that has 181 offices in 80 countries. "We are the fastest growing law firm in Latin America," explains the leader about the firm’s presence in 27 Spanish-speaking countries, which encourages him to say that Dentons is "a more Spanish law firm than Garrigues or Cuatrecasas."

Therefore, from the office in the Paseo de la Castellana, sitting next to Jesús Varela, managing partner of the firm in Spain, where in addition to the headquarters in Madrid, the firm has another office in Barcelona, he sends a message to any competing firm. “I look out the window and see that it is possible to make great alliances. I want to invite any local firm to join us. We are growing, making more space in the building, you just have to call Jesús,” says Elliott.

The executive director uses an anecdote to explain the interest in Spain and, in particular, in Madrid, by a law firm whose payroll includes more than 10,000 lawyers.

“Two weeks ago we announced a great transaction in the US. The combination with two firms whose joint income exceeds US$150 million, and in which more than 300 lawyers work. When we asked their clients where they want to invest, the common denominator was Madrid,” says Portnoy about the capital city’s legal market, which he considers “has an exceptional demand for legal services and the best lawyers not only in Spain, but in Europe”.

The world leaders of Dentons affirm that the biggest advantage of being a law firm with a polycentric model (in which each office depends on local management) is that they can face the challenges that arise anywhere in the world.

“Small firms may be worried about Brexit, about what happens in Bolivia, about commercial tensions between China and the US or about natural disasters. However, with our model, which is what sets us apart from the competition, Dentons clients always have a lawyer nearby,” explains Portnoy.

From the statements of the global leaders of the firm, it follows that they do not fear the future in any way because they have overcome adversities in the past. "Ten years ago, nobody thought we were going to have to compete against the big four for offering legal services," says .

New competitors

For his part, Elliott assumes that he will have to face the entrance of technology companies in the legal sector. “The idea that in five years there will be new competitors in the legal market is quite predictable,” he explains, whose recipe for continuing to add value to his clients is that, increasingly, lawyers will need to coexist with other professionals within the law firm.

“All businesses will be technological. If architecture, finance and automotive companies are adapting, the legal sector must be able to do so too,” concludes Portnoy.  

Continuing to scale the firm globally

During their trip to Madrid, Andrew and Portnoy spoke of their strategy to scale across Spain (where its two offices employ 14 partners and 46 associates), as well as to continue expanding across Latin America and globally.

"Only this year we have announced mergers in New Zealand, Argentina and South Korea," says Portnoy.

For his part, Andrew focuses on Asian markets. "We are looking into expanding in Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand," explains the global chairman of Dentons, an firm that has different agreements with 192 firms that hold the first 200 positions in the TTR ranking. "This gives us a competitive advantage by having access to a huge amount of data that we can analyze and that our lawyers share," says Andrew.

Click here for original article