At the Global Independent Law Firms Forum, Norton Rose Fulbright chief executive Peter Martyr told John Malpas how he changed his firm's mindset and urged business lawyers to give more back to society

What are your views on the state of the global legal market?
It is a very confused picture out there and I suspect there are some people experiencing good times, but a lot who are seeing less good times. I remember talking to my partnership in 2007 or 2008 and saying: "Do you realise this is the first time in the economic history of the world that every economic bloc has been in growth?" And you look at it now and you wonder whether that will ever happen again. 

That is the new norm and it's led to a lot of rethinking. It leads to confusion within the market and brings forth two characteristics among lawyers: either a kind of paralysis or becoming a herd animal. It seems hard to find anybody in between. 

Either people just do nothing, hang tight and operate a philosophy of cost-cutting, which you can only do so much of. Or it's 'my god, what's everybody else doing? We'd better do the same thing'. For many years, we operated in that category of 'what is Linklaters doing?', which was a mistake for us. 

But for the market in general, and for those with end of April financial years, the first part of last year looked reasonably good. November to the last quarter, though – from what I hear from most people – was pretty poor. It is a little hard to understand why, except that we lawyers do seem to sit about six months after turns in the cycle, so maybe we're about to see a bit of an uptick during the summer.

Are there any regions that are more promising? 
Asia has been pretty quiet but there is, particularly in Hong Kong and China, a pent-up desire to do deals. So I believe that will come back this year. Africa is the hotspot, though it is not for the faint-hearted and people have to be careful. As for the US, being in the doldrums at 3.7% growth doesn't sound too bad to me; it is extraordinary how resilient the US market is.

You picked up a powerful litigation practice in the US – was that fortuitous or was it deliberate?
Every firm in the US is pretty powerful in litigation – even those we describe as corporate or banking firms. But even outside the US, litigation has been the driver of legal work in the past couple of years and I don't see that slowing down. 

There is some pressure in the US about big-ticket stuff as well as these massive depositions and things that take forever. But I think that is being replaced by an increasing emphasis on regulation, the new 'no cap' area of business. 

Once you have a bunch of directors facing a massive fine or the end of their company, they're more understanding about legal fees. I can't see the US legal market really getting too depressed.  

What about clients? Has there been a