What London Law Firms Need To Know When Expanding Internationally

More and more London law firms are looking to establish themselves abroad and gain a foothold in the international market. This is due to increased demand and new types of laws appearing in multiple countries. If you are operating a law firm in the London area, you may want to expand abroad, but how can you achieve this? Let’s look at some of the things you need to know when expanding internationally.

An Overseas Set Up

One of the first things you should consider is how you will set up abroad. You will have to decide if you want to open a physical office abroad or just want to build connections. You could be looking to build up a connection by creating a network of local lawyers and your own lawyers so that you can pool together resources and dilute the work.

You may decide that opening your own office abroad is the best course of action. This may give you more direct control over your operations, but it will mean that you have less understanding of the local setup. This could change in time, however. Either way, you must understand the cross-border practice rules. This is highly regulated, so you must take this seriously.

The choice is completely yours on how you choose to operate going forward. However, you must take your time to research and make an informed decision when you have all the possible information.

Analyse The Local Economy

Before you leave to set up abroad, you should understand the local economy more. This can help you decide on where you want to set up, and where you can afford to set up. It will also help you work out if the locals can afford your services and help you set the prices, to begin with.

There should be plenty of financial information available for you to read about. If not, you could hire the services of a financial expert to conduct information for you. This could also help you with your key market research. This market research could also help you figure out what sort of services the people require in your targeted area. Collect as much useful information as possible before you expand abroad.

Be On Top Of Legal Translation

It will be imperative for your London-based law firm to be on top of legal translation. High-quality legal translation can help ensure that all your documents are legally binding and have exactly the correct information that was intended. If you try and translate these documents and processes yourself, you may miss some important details or, even worse, make a mistake that ruins your entire case.

For this reason, it will be crucial for you to work with legal translation experts. You won’t be able to effectively grow your operations abroad from London without being on top of legal translation. When looking for experts, you should find ones with plenty of experience with major names, such as Rosetta Translation. Their legal translation services are highly recommended and can assist you in even the most complex and specialist legal translation needs. As well as assisting with documents, they may also be able to assist with court interpreting for the benefit of your clients.

Your London-based law firm won’t be able to have much success abroad without having clear documents for the benefit of your clients and any international employees you hire. It’s worth remembering that you will likely need to hire international employees when you’re setting up abroad, whether you need an office or not, just to gain a foothold.

Understand Local Laws

As you can imagine, it will be incredibly important for you to have a key understanding of local laws when trying to establish your law firm abroad. You should set time to research the local laws and the framework and processes that are in place. Ensure that you and your employees are aware of local laws and that your firm follows the local laws when establishing. It could be best for you to gain more of an understanding of international law, too. This can help you understand the mutual understanding between countries on matters such as human rights and international trade. This knowledge could serve you well.

You will certainly benefit from hiring local lawyers and experts, as they can then give you a first-hand account of the local laws and tell you what you need to know. While you should know yourself, it will be useful to have experts across your targeted area of the law that understand the local country and the area. It could be that you decide to partner with a local law firm when setting up abroad.

This could come in the form of completely acquiring the firm, or it could come in the form of a mutual partnership. Either way, this could be your best entry point into setting up your law firm abroad, as you need local law knowledge.

Read Into The Culture

Not only should you gain more of an understanding of local laws, but you should also understand the local culture. Understanding the local culture will help you communicate with locals and allow you to further understand their needs.

If you don’t understand the culture or how things work in this other country, then it’s unlikely that you will actually be able to help them in the way that they want. If you are unsure about the local culture, then it will be worth your time to hire an expert and sign up for relevant courses, where possible.

Essentially, you should do some reading into the local culture ahead of time. You could do this by purchasing books that are focused on the culture or just look into what’s popular here and engage in that. Finding out what’s popular will be a great way for you to improve your understanding of the local culture.

All of this will help you with your expanding efforts abroad. Consider these tips wisely, and remember that they may not all apply to your law firm.