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Converge law firms in the US; diverge overseas?

An interview of Sun Microsystem’s general counsel, Mike Dillon, published on Law.com (Scott Martin), struck a spark about convergence (See my post of April 2, 2006 that challenges convergence and my article cited.). Dillon says that “probably five years ago we were using between 300 to 400 firms.” That number has dropped: “Currently in the United States we are probably down to about 100 firms, maybe 150.” Note “in the United States.”

Just before that comment, Dillon noted that “probably a little more than half our revenue now is outside of the United States.”

The spark came from my matching the decline by half in US law firms used with the doubling of foreign revenue earned. Perhaps some part of convergence in this country reflects a shift from US to foreign firms as revenue generation shifts from domestic to overseas markets?

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One response to “Converge law firms in the US; diverge overseas?”

  1. Domenic Leo says:

    Depending on how you read Dillon’s comments concerning outsourcing to India, one could infer that the shifting may be based on type of legal work versus geometric location. Still, I would be interested in a comparison of U.S. versus foreign in various practice areas, specifically litigation and IP. My bet is that all the changes have been on the Litigation/U.S. side.