Chairman’s Corner
It's Another Globally-Connected Year

Greetings from Cleveland, Ohio, USA

 

The New Year (Roman calendar) is now well underway. Global financial markets have sent only the latest message that we are all much more closely tied together on this planet than we would have ever dreamt just a generation (or even a decade) ago. Although still separated by natural and political borders, languages, cultures and customs, our business worlds and financial markets are colliding and becoming increasingly intertwined.

Twenty or thirty years ago doing business in a foreign country was an exotic notion to most middle market companies. Now, it is becoming almost routine, and often critical to survival, in a world where global competition has become the norm rather than the exception.

What a difference technology has made in our lives! Thirty years ago communications with the few “international” clients that my firm had in Belgium, England, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands was slow and tedious. Sometimes there were language barriers. Other times it was shoddy international telephone connections, inconvenient telex (remember that?) service, excruciatingly slow international (snail) mail, and somewhat better (but still too slow by today's standards) international courier service. Then came “facsimile transmissions” (faxes), followed by the last ten years' fantastic improvements involving the Internet, e-mails, web-based technologies, and services such as Skype. Now, although I can easily be contacted by people from all over the world with requests to invest his (or her) trust funds in my personal bank account, those requests have been gradually diminishing, thanks to another nice new and improving technology called the “spam-filter.”

Today, more and more “local” clients are doing business globally, or even domestically, but in places outside of our home jurisdiction. Being an active member of Lawyers Associated Worldwide helps us to serve the needs of these clients. Without the prompt, efficient and high-quality service that is expected and delivered to our fellow LAW member firms in other jurisdictions, it would be much more difficult for us to represent today's successful middle-market companies.

The New Year brings us a fresh reminder that we are all in this globally-connected business (and this globally-connected profession) together; that we all want to represent our clients in the most professional and cost effective manner possible; and that it is increasingly necessary for us to rely upon the skills, expertise and responsiveness of our fellow LAW member firms to help our clients achieve their goals. That is what LAW is all about.

How has LAW been helpful to your firm in serving its existing clients or gaining new ones? Let us know your “success stories” so that we can share them with the group.

Yours in global service,

Christopher C. McCracken
Chairman, Lawyers Associated Worldwide