An international lawsuit over a capsized ship, a dissatisfied patient who files a dispute against an insurance company, a businessperson held in prison for behaving against the local customs – these are all examples of legal cases that require international engagement.
Such clients are highly likely to work with international law firms to resolve their issues. Such companies need to offer more services and provide deeper expertise in different fields of law to be able to successfully participate in those cases.
Let’s see what a law firm needs to possess to be qualified as an international legal entity.
What Are International Law Firms?
International law firms are business entities that provide legal services to clients in different countries. An international law firm is typically headquartered in one country. Such a law firm might have a third-party partner that carries out legal operations on its behalf. Also, it might open a separate branch in one or more foreign countries.
What Do International Law Firms Do?
Top international law firms need to cater to their domestic clients’ needs, but large legal companies don’t stop there. They need to operate on a wider scale and ensure cross-border communication, just in case their domestic clients require international expertise.
One of the main obligations of successful international law firms includes studying various differences in legal systems and possessing the know-how to handle the relevant legal affairs. For instance, if a law firm represents a car manufacturer from Germany that faces a lawsuit in the USA, the approach is different than when they have to cover the same thing in Spain. The reason is that the legal systems in two European countries have more in common than those in the USA and one in Europe.
Finally, a law firm with an international presence needs to understand the relevant geopolitical relations to successfully participate in those legal cases.
Does a Law Firm Need an Office Abroad?
Whether or not an international law firm should open an office abroad is both a matter of branding and mathematics. If a law firm has a higher number of partners or clients that carry out foreign operations, launching a brick-and-mortar office overseas or abroad seems like a logical step.
Having a special physical branch in another country means that the law firm in question can attract the pool of local legal pundits and cover more bases for its business operations. In contrast, if a legal company doesn’t have a foreign office (not the Foreign Office), it may overlook some details of the foreign legal practice, which could cost the business and its clients a significant amount of money.
On the other hand, having a law office abroad opens a whole world of opportunities. Hiring local lawyers and other law experts is the most obvious one. When an international law firm can rely on the knowledge and experience of local lawyers, compliance specialists, and law professionals, it can get familiar with the local legal framework and regulations more closely. Not being capable of fully grasping the local rules, laws, and previous similar cases can lead to failures.
International Law Firms and Digital Presence
If we assume that a law firm has gone international, ensuring proper digital presence is one of the first things it should do. From localizing the existing website to one or more target languages to launching and maintaining social media pages and email marketing, digital presence is today the face of the business.
Also, the choice of the social network where a law firm will keep showcasing its services and successful moments plays a certain role in its online presentation. LinkedIn is the most important medium, which is the case for every company. X is another vital network for promoting any kind of business today. When it comes to other networks, every international law firm should do its own math and analysis to check what other networks may be useful for its specific global services.
Proper visual coverage may be just the right deal breaker in the sector of international law firms. Posting videos of successfully completed cases on your social media channels (a YouTube channel could be handy here, as well) can attract new clients, as well.
Legal Interpreting for Cross-Border Cases
Being able to understand what each side is talking about and how this manifests in the legal reality in which they have a dispute is essential in cross-border law practice. In other words, providing legal interpreting services is a must for every internationally acclaimed law firm.
For instance, if a law firm is dealing with a case of intellectual property protection in two different legal systems, it might face different laws. What is more likely, the respective laws could be the same, but their application might differ. For example, the US system of registering and protecting patents is probably one of the most successful such systems in the world. So, an international firm protecting a US entrepreneur filing a lawsuit against someone in another country whom they think has stolen their registered patent will require the services of a legal interpreter. If that law firm has a strong and frequent presence in the related market, having a legal interpreter in the house, i.e., as a full-time employee, can give this company an edge in a competitive environment.
Court interpreting is also important in medical law. With medical services being available to a global audience and medical tourism growing at a high rate, patient experience is becoming an important subject in this field. If a patient isn’t satisfied with the medical treatment they received on a vacation, they might want to file a lawsuit. The most common cases are those in which a patient sues an insurance company whose policy they have paid for beforehand. In case they didn’t receive or they think they didn’t receive the service they paid for, they might want to seek justice in a formal way.
What Risks Are There for International Law Firms
A law firm planning to provide or already offering cross-border legal services must protect itself against various risks. We’ve already highlighted the importance of having a team of lawyers and other experts in relevant foreign territories. Also, court interpreters and legal interpreters are invaluable assets for precise and punctual cross-border communication.
There’s also some sort of financial risk in every domestic legal procedure, let alone the cross-border ones. A far-sighted law firm will most probably want to keep experienced finance professionals by its side to keep the financial side of its cross-border projects as neat as possible.
What’s more, top international law firms usually mind the ethical and cultural differences that operating in two or more countries or regions can bring. From the courtroom procedures to the customs of the society in question, all these details can matter a lot in specific legal cases.
For all these reasons, every international law firm needs to prepare its internal protocols and policies, in compliance with the relevant domestic and international standards, such as the International Code of Ethics. With such procedures in place, international law firms mitigate the risks of breaking the law.
The Future of International Law Firms
As the world is getting more connected, there will be a growing need for the work and expertise of top international law firms. To stay on top, such companies need to prepare for their cross-border activities in the ways explained in this guide. The international legal cases of the future will most probably include fewer in-person travels, but the cross-border communication will remain the same, and probably become even more intense. Therefore, the future of international law firms is bright, but only for the ones that provide top-notch services.
Pavle has a decade and a half of linguistic experience, first as an ESL teacher, then as a translator and interpreter. In the last third of his career quest so far, he has turned to content marketing, as the most exciting branch of applied linguistics.
Having worked as a content specialist and editor while following the latest linguistic and tech trends, he has specialised in bringing the current affairs in the lingtech sector to the spotlight.
When he’s not crafting his briefs and drafts, and writing his stuff, he likes to pluck a chord or two on his old guitar, or just go to a pub quiz; a father of three, a husband of one.
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