Dentons is averaging one office expanding firm merger or acquisition (“whole-firm combinations” mostly) every three months for the last seven years. That’s… astounding.
About a month ago, I got some flack for referring to the persistent global spread of Dentons as the “Applebee-ification of the law.” The thing is, I didn’t mean it as an insult. Rather, I explicitly rejected popular culture’s go-to reference for globalization, “McDonaldization” in favor of an omnipresent food chain that provides a higher quality of fare. It’s not my fault that Applebee’s was the best restaurant I could think of that has outposts all over the world that offer a consistent level of quality. If Jean Georges offered the same menu at all of his restaurants I’d have used that, but he doesn’t because consistency isn’t the same virtue in fine dining that it is in the provision of legal services. So change it to the Ruby Tuesday-ification of the law if you aren’t an Applebee’s fan, I don’t care.
The point is, Dentons is growing rapidly and appears committed to spreading into every market it can through either merger or combination (two terms that Dentons swears are different). But how does a firm even manage to expand this much? Roy Strom over at American Lawyer got an inside look at the Dentons expansion process. It’s safe to say if you live in a country without a Dentons, you won’t have to wait long.
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In previous years, [CEO Elliott] Portnoy and [global chairman Joseph] Andrew reached out directly to every firm they were interested in. While they still handle a lot of those introductions—offering an in-person meeting over lunch or coffee to “compare notes” on the local market—the sourcing of deals today is also supported by Dentons’ eight regional CEOs.
There’s a niche of management texts focused on the importance of letting go. The general thesis is that managers who refuse to step back from their companies become a noxious cocktail of rigid and complacent and crowd out employees closer to the ground with the initiative to forge superior solutions. This isn’t to say that chief executives should relinquish their roles in guiding a company, just that distributing a healthy share of responsibility to others can reap benefits.
It looks like Dentons — with its verein structure — takes those lessons to heart, trusting executives to understand what clients in their regions need.
If a firm is receptive to Dentons’ outreach, Portnoy and Andrew will typically join the regional CEO in the first meetings with leaders from the combination candidate. Then, what the pair calls the firm’s “global chiefs”—its global chief financial officer, global legal counsel and the like—would meet with the firms to conduct due diligence. The same Dentons team has conducted due diligence on law firms ranging from China to Australia to Singapore, Amsterdam, Peru and Uganda, Portnoy and Andrew say.
The due diligence effort relies heavily on information sharing, a process Dentons has streamlined. The firm has a confidential website that includes audited financial information on the firm; info on its lawyers and clients; and other marketing-style materials such as how to talk with partners and potential clients about a tie-up. That information comes in tiers (each with its own password) that Dentons releases to other firms as they share that information in kind with Dentons.
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Portnoy and Andrew told Strom there’s discussion of a deal somewhere at almost any given moment. No wonder the process is so streamlined.
Another interesting wrinkle is the fact that Dentons makes all of its partners vote on proposed deals, rather than limiting the vote to one branch of the verein. Portnoy says the move allows all partners to understand the “talent and opportunity” that the firm adds. It’s also a sound internal public relations move — keeping the partners throughout the world steeped in the expansionist message.
And there’s no end in sight for the ever-growing firm. There are 500 cities with populations over 1 million. Andrew told American Lawyer, “until you start talking about having 500 offices, it seems to me you’ve got a long way to go before [a global law firm] could possibly say they’re finished.”
500 offices? Perhaps Dentons won’t object to “Starbucks-ification.”
How Dentons Puts the Pieces Together in Tie-Ups Around the World [American Lawyer]
Earlier: Why These Global 100 Numbers Should Scare The Bejeezus Out Of You
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.