With many firms scrambling to reposition themselves for an increasingly global client base, flag planting is firmly back in fashion. In the last week Eversheds chief executive Bryan Hughes has set out details of the mandate he and his management team have been given by partners to seek a US merger, while Simmons & Simmons has announced plans to open in Luxembourg.

These moves are worlds apart in terms of their significance and indeed exemplify the widening gap between those firms seeking to be global and those that are content to build more limited, international networks. But both stand in contrast to the approach of the handful of leading independents in each country that continue to pin their hopes on the effectiveness of referral relationships with like-minded firms to carry out lucrative cross-border work.

Few would contest the notion that multinational companies are demanding a greater consistency of legal advice across the world and are often consolidating their own legal teams into larger regional hubs. In response to this, firms are splitting into three camps: those seeking to be all things to all people everywhere (often via mergers), those seeking to set up their own smaller offerings in numerous locations (perhaps adding alliances in trickier regions) and a tiny number staying true to their independent roots.

Within all three of these groupings though, some firms are perhaps losing sight of a crucial ingredient for long-term success: the need for a differentiator.

While further consolidation in the commercial legal market both in the UK and internationally is inevitable, there is still room for all three types of firm to prosper. But just as many in the overcrowded UK mid-tier have already discovered that there is no room for also-rans, others will find out that bigger does not necessarily mean better globally. On the other hand, staying small without the rainmakers needed to guarantee top-tier clients is equally, if not more, perilous.

Ultimately which club firms opt to join will matter less than how they intend to distinguish themselves within it. As the articles in our independent law firm online special suggest, identifying and building on what sets them apart from the competition is essential for smaller independent firms. Whether they realise it or not, this approach will prove to be equally important for larger international firms and the global giants too. Only those firms that stand out can be successful.