Garrigues' Fernando Vives says focusing on clients' needs rather than wins in the courtroom will pay off

It has been said that major multidisciplinary law firms are lucky in that in times of crisis, when the big M&A deals are few and far between, the lack of work in certain areas (such as corporate) can be offset by others (such as litigation and insolvency law) that are apparently "booming" in these challenging times.

If all of this is supposed to mean that during crisis periods we lawyers in the corporate/commercial law department sit twiddling our thumbs while those in the litigation department are leaving their desks at breakfast time, then this idea is very much mistaken. Happily, the truth of the matter is that the workload in each of the firm's various practice areas has remained much the same over recent years.