{"id":1702,"date":"2012-12-26T14:40:17","date_gmt":"2012-12-26T14:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bignondekeyser.siteadwin.fr\/en\/the-french-legal-market-and-the-current-economy\/"},"modified":"2016-09-21T12:41:28","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T12:41:28","slug":"the-french-legal-market-and-the-current-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/the-french-legal-market-and-the-current-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"The French legal market and the current economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The French legal market remains, one of the\u00a0most important\u00a0in Europe, but clearly smaller than for\u00a0example the UK market.\u00a0As an illustration, the Top 100 of\u00a0the French law firms\u00a0was, according to the magazine\u00a0D\u00e9cideurs, reaching a combined\u00a0turnover of \u20ac 3.15\u00a0billion in December 2010. In comparison,\u00a0the turnover of\u00a0the top 50 UK firms amounted to \u00a3\u00a012 billion in the same\u00a0period.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Although the business law legal market is\u00a0concentrated for\u00a0more than 80% in Paris, it is much more\u00a0fragmented in terms\u00a0of size of firms than the English or\u00a0German market. As an\u00a0illustration, only a minority of the\u00a0law firms has over 200 lawyers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Consolidation has not\u00a0really set in. Even through the economic\u00a0crisis we see\u00a0that many new law firms are founded which\u00a0disrupt the\u00a0balance in the market and impact the competition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The\u00a0French legal market is a market where the supply is not\u00a0only competitive and segmented, but also diverse with\u00a0many\u00a0actors of international origin competing with\u00a0French independent\u00a0firms and even with firms who are a\u00a0member of multidisciplinary\u00a0audit networks, particularly\u00a0in tax law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The location of France in Europe, the size of\u00a0its economy, its\u00a0large industrial and financial groups and\u00a0its key role in arbitration\u00a0are just a few of the reasons\u00a0that explain the presence\u00a0of many international law firms\u00a0in France:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">US firms (35 are present in Paris, with 5\u00a0having more\u00a0than 100 lawyers, including 14 firms which\u00a0opened in\u00a0France since the beginning of 2000);\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">UK\u00a0firms (28 are present in Paris, 5 having more than\u00a0100\u00a0lawyers) and\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Canadian firms (2 are present in Paris (2\u00a0are present\u00a0in Paris).\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">International firms have often a\u00a0dominant place in: M &amp; A ,\u00a0private equity, capital markets\u00a0and international arbitration.\u00a0For their part, French\u00a0independent boutique and full service\u00a0firms face\u00a0international competition in the areas of litigation,\u00a0real\u00a0estate, public law and labour law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As a consequence, there\u00a0is a need to find new growth opportunities\u00a0and to focus\u00a0on ways to assist clients in the management\u00a0of the crisis\u00a0and the difficulties that result from it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Face with this context and the expectations of the customers of the legal services, themselves often facing difficult transformations, we would make the following 6 key observations:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">1. The growth\u00a0of the law firms has been limited or even\u00a0absent, but\u00a0there are clear differences in performance\u00a0between firms\u00a0and between areas of competence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">2. The increased number\u00a0of questions asked by international\u00a0law firms on the\u00a0reasons for their presence in\u00a0France and this in\u00a0particular in the context of pressure\u00a0on their profitability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">3. The desire to\u00a0maintain cost-effectiveness and rate\u00a0levels, has resulted\u00a0in many restructurings\u00a0(departures of partners and\u00a0associates; reduction of\u00a0administrative staff\u2026) in recent\u00a0years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">4. The volatility of\u00a0the market illustrated by an unprecedented\u00a0number of\u00a0movements of partners between\u00a0firms, revealing a lack\u00a0of well-being among partners\u00a0as well as among more\u00a0junior lawyers questioning\u00a0whether certain firms have\u00a0lost some of their key\u00a0values.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">5. Strategic focus cost control and more successful\u00a0business development are at the heart of the\u00a0development\u00a0strategies of the firms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">6. The resistance to change in a still rather\u00a0traditional\u00a0market, with many firms and lawyers who\u00a0have not\u00a0yet truly adapted their behaviour and &#8220;business\u00a0model&#8221;\u00a0to ensure.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The French legal market remains, one of the\u00a0most important\u00a0in Europe, but clearly smaller than for\u00a0example the UK market.\u00a0As an illustration, the Top 100 of\u00a0the French law firms\u00a0was, according to the magazine\u00a0D\u00e9cideurs, reaching a combined\u00a0turnover of \u20ac 3.15\u00a0billion in December 2010. In comparison,\u00a0the turnover of\u00a0the top 50 UK firms amounted to \u00a3\u00a012 billion in the same\u00a0period.\u00a0\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1702"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1989,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions\/1989"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}