Last month, about 700 Eversheds Sutherland partners congregated in New York for their firmwide partner conference, at which management laid out their priorities for the year ahead – with Stateside growth high on the agenda.

The firm, now almost 18 months old following last February's union of Eversheds and US firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, has built on the merger with a series of office openings and team hires, and co-CEO Mark Wasserman told Legal Week that further US expansion through a domestic merger was still one option firmly on the table.

He said: "We're still looking hard at the same geographies, including Chicago and California. It's unlikely we would be opening an office with a single person – it would be either about finding the right firm or finding the right team. We're constantly in various conversations, although nothing imminent is set to happen."

A fortnight after the conference, Wasserman and co-CEO Lee Ranson are reviewing how their strategy and aims for the business are unfolding. The duo have previously stressed their determination to create a common culture throughout the merged partnerships, and the firm is currently seeking feedback from partners on its "purpose and values", which it intends to announce to the entire business in September.

Wasserman said: "We really want a sense of unity and to make sure there's commonality to our purpose. We want everyone in our business to have a reason to do what we do every day, aside from financial success."

Maximising client relationships has also been a key priority for the firm, with everyone in Eversheds' international arm undergoing training about meeting client needs, along with a significant proportion of the firm's US business.

Ranson said: "We've spent a significant amount of time and energy making sure client partners are consistent in the way they perform in their role. The focus is making sure that relationships don't get siloed into practice lines. We want to encourage much more collaborative approaches – clients say they want the relationship partner to be able to deal with any challenges, but also point to people within the business that are subject matter experts."

The pair say that this approach has led to 19 new global client wins since the merger went live last February, as well as 330 joint pitch opportunities since then. Earlier this year, the firm announced combined revenues of $1.03bn (£700m) in its first firmwide financial results since the transatlantic tie-up; a figure aggregated from the 2017 performance of the firm's US and international LLPs, as well as its non-integrated network of European firms.

Technology was also a key part of conference, with a significant amount of time spent on discussing what systems the firm should be developing, according to Ranson.

The firm's most recent adoption is crowdsourcing app Idea Drop. The platform, which has a similar feel to well-known social media platforms, allows users to 'drop' ideas which other users can comment on, share, like and rate. Users can also submit a 'challenge' after identifying a specific need or issue that could be solved by canvassing ideas from the wider firm.

Ideas are monitored to ensure the best ones are captured and actioned, and users win points based on activity and feedback from others – with Ranson and Wasserman currently tied in eighth place. The partnership is currently piloting usage of the app, with the intention to launch it to all 5,000 Eversheds Sutherland employees in September.

The pair also want to make greater strides in diversity within the business after the firm revamped its gender strategy earlier this year, introducing a target of a 30% female partnership by 2021 across its European and US arms.

The firm's international leadership team is meeting in London next week and is set to discuss BAME lawyer career development within its ranks.

Ranson added: "It's about getting into the weeds of understanding why percentages of BAME lawyers aren't sustained throughout the business. We're looking closely at each stage of career development."