If year-on-year fee increases and a buoyant M&A market imbued a certain stasis, five years of economic woes have certainly driven change through the conservative legal profession.

The comparative proliferation of global giants of the ilk of Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright and, more recently, King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin (KWM) serve as fine examples of the diverging market, with an increasingly international client base driving the case for cross-border mergers.