In this special interview, Juris talks to James Mendelssohn, Chief Executive, MSI, for his take on the opportunities available to mid-sized firms and the young lawyer who joins them today.

Q: Legal work is becoming increasingly global. Many transactions involve both local and regional or international aspects. What can smaller law firms do to ensure that they remain profitable and competitive in such a challenging environment?
For smaller law firms, the key to success is networking. For instance, if you are a mid-sized law firm in Singapore and your client says “I am thinking of opening a business in Tokyo”, rather than saying “I cannot help you because my area of expertise is limited to Singapore”, you can tell your client that “I belong to a network of high-quality, like-minded firms that share the same size and philosophy, and I can link up with them to satisfy your request”. So there is an alternative to going to a very big firm. You could also highlight to your client that he would be an important client to you, rather than a small client in a big firm.

While such networking has been going on for some time, there has been a huge growth in popularity and interest in the last few years. This has been driven by two factors. One is that it is so much easier to do business internationally now. The entrepreneur in Singapore has come to realize that it is important to expand his business overseas. The second factor is that there is a growing disaffection with anything large. More people are trying to source good services from the smaller, more specialist providers than the massive ones.

MSI is one such network. We are a global network comprising 250 independent high-quality mid-sized law and accounting firms in 100 countries.

Q: Why should a student consider working in asmaller law firm?
If you are a student who has just left university and want to be a good lawyer, you of course hope to obtain a good depth and breadth of experience. If you are at a very big firm, the risk is that you would be a small part of a large team working on a particular point in a particular project for months. You may not even understand what the whole project is.

Whereas if you are in a smaller firm, you would get much more responsibility to work on client matters because the issues would be smaller. As a student making a choice, you may have to strike a balance between name, reputation, CV and work-life balance against quality of work.

But the choice is not as stark as that. There are smaller firms which may be part of a network like MSI. In these firms, the typical client would be smaller and you would get that real responsibility and breadth of experience, but you would also not be restricted to working exclusively on a small local matter. By being part of a network, these smaller firms would get work from overseas.

I think students should broaden their outlook and know what their options are when they are making a choice. There is a credible and worthwhile life outside the “magic circle” law firms. The quality of work, breadth of experience and reputation is also present in smaller law firms, and they are a viable option for students.

Q: How can young lawyers add value and be an asset to their firms?
Take some trouble to get to know your clients. If you are working with a client, do not just look at the files and focus merely on the legal aspects of the case. Try to understand who they are, know what they are doing and why they are doing it. People love talking about their own business, and talking to them establishes trust. You want your client to chat with you. This is much easier if you’re a more important and bigger part of providing a service to the client.

To find out more on MSI and what it does, please visit its website at www.msi-network.com

Ang Houfu is a first year law undergraduate and associate editor of the Review. – Juris Illuminae Vol. 3 Issue 5 (March/April 2007)