Ensuring a law firm performs as well in the good times as it does in the bad is a hard task, but Crispin Rapinet seems to have pulled it off. He tells ALB about how his firm is riding the counter-cyclical wave.
Where the end of financial year may have been cause for the popping of many a champagne cork in years past, it seems things are decidedly more subdued for many law firms across the region this year – a time to take stock and pinpoint just where the financial wheels fell off. But whereas many managing partners are approaching financial-year end with a measure of trepidation, Crispin Rapinet tells ALB he is looking forward to the vindication of what, in his mind and others’, has been a successful year.
“2008 was a year of tremendous growth across Asia and the Middle East by every measure,” he says. “We saw increases in fee-earner numbers across the board, our partner ranks increased and although things tailed off for us and other firms from November onwards, Asia proved resilient,” he says. As ALB went to press, Rapinet found the financial vindication he was looking. Worldwide, Lovells saw modest increases in its fee income, reaping £531m for the financial year 08/09 compared to £479m in 07/08 – an increase of just over 1% after forex fluctuations are accounted for. And although PEP went down from £661,000 to £585,000, just which practice areas brought in most revenue is telling, as is the financial growth of the firm’s Asia and Middle East practices. According to the figures, dispute resolution accounts for a third of total billing when disputes in activity in areas such as tax, real estate, IP and employment are taken into account, while the firm also says that the revenue generated by its Asia and Middle East practice now accounts for 10% of its global revenue figure – a 30% increase on last year, according to Lovells. “Asia and the Middle East have always been important in the firm’s global strategy and just how important they are can be seen not only in financial terms but also in terms of resourcing,” Rapinet says, noting that an increasing number of partners are now located outside the firm’s UK headquarters.
New world importance
However, despite the firm’s financial success, he concedes that building the importance of Asia and Middle East within Lovells has not been easy to achieve – for several reasons. “There may have been an attitude in the past where operations outside the law firms’ traditional heartland, the US or UK, were considered secondary to the strategy of the firm,” Rapinet says. “Ten or 15 years ago the rationale for the Asian or Middle East model was: ‘Well, our big client wants to do business in Asia so we need to have an office there’. But while the region will always be client-led, there is more of a whole-hearted focus on the region now, a developed domestic client base, more investment in people and resources; a proven commitment to the region.” It is hard to question Lovells’ commitment to the region. The firm was among the first international firms to enter liberalised legal services sectors across the region. Its China presence spans some 30 years; it was one of the first international firms into Japan and various markets in Southeast Asia and the Gulf region. All of which begs the question, will Lovells open an office in the subcontinent once the legal market there is prized open? Rapinet says unequivocally that it’s not a question of ‘if’ but a question of ‘how quickly.’ "We have been working in India for a long time and the developments pertaining to the legal sector are being closely monitored by the firm,” Rapinet says. “If and when the market opens, we will be there. It’s just a question of when that will happen and how long before clients tell us: ‘You need to be in India’.”
A question of culture
Instrumental to integrating Asia and the Gulf regions into the global operations of any firm is the issue of firm culture and Rapinet is adamant about its importance to Lovells. But just what is firm culture? He has a clear concept of what it is – and what it’s not. “It’s about making sure everyone is on the same page, ensuring partners – whether they are in London, China, Vietnam or Dubai – know what the firm’s goals are and have a commitment to working together as a team towards these ends,” he says. “But this cannot be forced. Building a sound and effective culture in a law firm is a never-ending process. It starts with bringing the right people on board and extends as far as business and financial models. There are no single-office cultures at the firm. We are financially integrated, have a global partnership and a number of our partners joined Lovells soon after graduating – these are the foundations on which we build our firm culture.”
Pro bono is not just PR
An indispensable aspect of the firm’s culture is its pro bono efforts. Lovells is among just a handful of international firms to have appointed a full-time pro bono officer to drive its efforts in the area (the firm established this post 11 years ago). Rapinet is all too aware of the more cynical views surrounding the pro-bono efforts of law firms, but says it’s about much more than PR. “Pro bono is an important theme in the key values of our firm and we will be stepping up the work we do here regardless of what happens with the financial crisis,” he says. “It is not a question of it being good for the brand of the firm. We don’t do it to see our name in the papers or for any other of these cynical reasons. We do it because we know we need to. We have a responsibility to give back to society by offering legal advice to people who would otherwise not have access to it.” The internal benefits that the firm is reaping from its pro bono initiatives are just as manifold, with Rapinet saying that levels of workplace satisfaction, motivation and staff morale have all noticeably increased. “Our pro bono initiatives play a role internally in making sure that staff continue to be engaged in their work and the real world,” he says. “From associates to partners, the view of the world you get from toiling away in large corporate transactions or in a courtroom is not necessarily always accurate. We like to see these initiatives as giving back as well as helping all of our lawyers to stay switched in to the real world.” ALB
This is a HTML version of the feature which appeared in ALB 9.6