Why there is still nothing like having your talent based locally in key legal markets

Despite international firms continuing their march from marketing guff to reality, it seems firms still can't kick the habit of appointing home-grown stars to manage foreign offices across great distances. This strategy is particularly obvious at US firms, which still sometimes opt to have US lawyers either partially or totally based at home running their European outposts. In competitive markets it often fails to deliver as it irritates lawyers in the local office, rivals notice the incoming star is hardly ever there and clients feel short-changed. And the foreign appointee, no matter how good they are, usually struggles to make an impact, spending one-third of their time on the red eye and another third outside the country.

For all the hype about the globalisation of law, one thing the last 10 years of upheaval has made clear is that physical location still matters a lot. It probably matters more than local Bar rules if you practise a globally-transferable law. That's why a good number of US-qualified lawyers prove a success in London, providing they are there full-time to build the client base. This shouldn't be a big surprise, as law firms have argued for years that much of what clients buy is commercial judgement and interpersonal skills and it is still pretty difficult to deliver those from a foreign country via your BlackBerry.

And while US firms are less prone to appointing global jet-setters to run London offices, it does still happen. Many believe a promising union in London between the local offices of Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae was undermined by a fudged decision to have firmwide chair Steven Davis take operational charge of the London office. Given the integration challenges of putting together two large firms, the relative sizes of the City offices and the strategic importance of London, you can understand the scepticism.

For similar reasons, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft will have a challenge on its hands if it is to convince the local market of its plan to rebuild its London arm under the leadership of firmwide managing partner Bob Link, who is also overseeing the firm's Beijing operation from the US.

However, top City firms have tried similar tactics, even in New York, a market both ultra-competitive and, in its own way, extremely parochial. As such, some have recently questioned the wisdom of having global head of finance John Tucker working between London and New York and serving as managing partner of the Americas.

Linklaters insists that having Tucker in the US has been a success, with his monthly trips across the Atlantic helping the firm win new work and extend existing relationships to secure US work that would never have come its way before. Whatever the truth, for many, Linklaters' US chops are better promoted through its steady pipeline of credible local senior appointments in corporate and tax, including most recently corporate partner Daniel Dufner from White & Case and tax partner Lewis Steinberg from UBS.

Also welcome is having strong performers like UK corporate partner and co-managing partner of the US, Nick Rees, making a long-term commitment to working in Manhattan full time. Your firm may be going global, but your clients still want your lawyers local.