WLG President's Message: September 2019
It seems like it was just yesterday that I was honored with the opportunity to assume the role of President of World Law Group – it’s hard to believe that it was two years ago. Although the time flew by, there is much to report on.
One of this Board’s main priorities at the beginning of my tenure was to increase the awareness of WLG and the involvement of lawyers other than Key Contact Partners within our member firms, and in particular, re-invigorating our practice & industry groups to do so. I am pleased to report that we have added five new groups, 22 new group leaders, and have seen a distinct increase in engagement of the members of these groups. I am hopeful that the momentum of this initiative continues.
In terms of engaging another generation of our firms, the WLG’s Young Lawyers program has also grown through both increased firm participation in the International Exchange Program and through greater participation at our regional conferences.
In terms of growth of our organization, we’ve added three new member firms – UAE firm Al Tamimi & Company, Cayman Islands firm Campbells and Paraguay firm Gross Brown – to grow the network to 59 member firms with more than 400 offices in 89 countries.
We launched a new website with a more modern look, that, following extensive input from our members, offers an enhanced user experience and improved functionality.
At the heart of our network’s purpose, the raisin d’être so to speak, are referrals. Referrals between our firms both in number and dollar value continue to increase. From 2017 to 2018, we saw an increase of 17% in reported referrals by number, and an increase of 17% by dollar value, and that is without the benefit of any sophisticated reporting system that would certainly capture materially higher direct and indirect referral activity and benefit to our network and our individual firms.
And as I have mentioned before many times, we have achieved and continue to maintain the ranking of Elite in terms of International Networks by Chambers and Partners.
I am very proud to belong to such a great organization that can not only boast of these accomplishments but can do so while being one of the lowest cost global networks on the globe, with a very healthy financial position and strong financial outlook for the future.
It has been a true honor and privilege to serve WLG and its members over the past two years. I cannot express enough how much it means to me to have received the trust, confidence and support from you, the members, whom I respect so deeply.
A very special thank you to Håkan Fohlin, Katy Spillers, Maria Elisa Gualandi Verri, Victor Xercavins, Stuart Young, David Kay and Luc Attlan - my fellow outgoing board members and Committee Chairs - for their commitment and service to WLG; our achievements would not have been possible without you.
I have enjoyed seeing so many of you in Vietnam this week and look forward to all the great things to come under the guidance of our new President and incoming Board.
Sincerely,
Neil Sheehy