Legal firms need to become ‘internationalised’, says Dublin chief of Eversheds Sutherland

Legal firms need to become international to match the increasing internationalisation of business, the managing partner of new global firm Eversheds Sutherland’s Dublin office has said.

Alan Murphy said the firm - the product of a merger between global firm Eversheds and US firm Sutherland, incorporating the existing Eversheds offices in Belfast and Dublin - was responding to the demands of clients.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Sunday Independent, he said: “With the market becoming more and more internationalised, clients have needs now well beyond the jurisdictions in which they’re present.

“For example, there’s a number of Irish plcs which now don’t headquarter in Ireland any more, and the majority of their businesses are not even European but global.

“The international legal market needs to follow that. It isn’t really enough to say ‘well I can service your needs within the borders of this country’. You need to be able to offer a client a multi-jurisdictional offering, across multiple practice areas, whether it’s reviews of HR contracts, or reviews of commercial contracts, or data privacy advice across 20 different jurisdictions.

“Clients are increasingly demanding that, so the combination in the US gives us that added ability to provide top-quality premium advice across the United States.”