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Welcome back to The Global Lawyer, our weekly summary of the important news and trends affecting the legal industry around the world.

This week we will be taking a look at:

  • The Big Four and more ALSPs
  • Brexit alert
  • Asia-Pacific law firm expansion
  • Mexico's legal market

I'm Lisa Shuchman, senior international editor of Law.com. My colleague Paul Hodkinson and I invite you to check out our daily international coverage here.

The Big Four and more

It's no secret the Big Four have been aggressively promoting their legal services arms across the globe. And this week we heard directly from the newly appointed global head of legal services for KPMG.

In an interview with Australian correspondent Christopher Niesche, Stuart Fuller said he plans to further expand KPMG's legal services, especially in Asia-Pacific and in the Americas, and make the legal arm more visible both inside and outside the firm.

Reporter John Kang wrote previously that KPMG Legal already has plans to open in Shanghai this year. And Fuller said the firm has other markets in Asia-Pacific, the Americas and even in Europe under review.

So, should traditional law firms worry? Fuller, who joined KPMG in 2018 after 27 years at King & Wood Mallesons, dismissed concerns that the Big Four accounting firms were taking work from traditional law firms. He said the market is big, and all the players can "coexist quite nicely".

But are the Big Four becoming the gift that keeps on giving? A mid-tier global accounting firm, Moore Stephens, now says it, too, has launched a legal services arm.

Christopher Niesche wrote that the firm plans to act like an outsourced general counsel for clients. Alexander Nielsen, who was previously a partner at Dentons and is now heading up the legal arm of Moore Stephens in Victoria, said the Big Four have proven that clients want the kind of multidisciplinary approach that accounting firms can provide.

Brexit alert

As our readers no doubt know, the U.K is scheduled to officially withdraw from the European Union in less than 90 days – with or without a deal. The divorce proceedings have been going on for more than two years and so far no path to a negotiated break is in sight.

The U.K. has a new government, however, and while U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not given anyone hope that a Brexit deal will be reached, The Law Society of England and Wales issued a bold statement last week: If Britain, Europe's biggest international provider of legal services and number two in the world, crashes out of the EU with no orderly plan in place, it would put 10,000 legal jobs at risk and may cost the industry £3.5 billion ($4.2 billion).

As the Financial Times explained, the legal sector contributed £27.9 billion (about $34 billion) to the economy last year, according to the Office for National Statistics. That's equivalent to 1.4% of the country's gross domestic product.

And as we've written previously, a no-deal Brexit would put an end to lawyers' unfettered access to the European legal market, preventing them from advising European clients on EU legal matters and appearing in European courts.

And as my colleague Paul Hodkinson and reporter Rowan Bennett recently explained, the hedge that law firms were counting on – getting many of their U.K. lawyers qualified in Ireland – may, in the end, prove ineffective.

Now, U.K. lawyers are urging the Johnson-led government to negotiate a future agreement that enables broader access for legal services, so that English and Welsh solicitors can maintain their right to practise in the EU.

The clock is ticking.

"According to our estimates, the volume of work in legal services would be down £3.5 billion – nearly 10% lower than under an orderly Brexit."

—Law Society of England and Wales president Simon Davis, describing what could happen to the U.K.'s legal services industry under a no-deal Brexit

APAC expansion

Law firm growth in Asia-Pacific continues. Last week, Dentons announced it will combine with the New Zealand firm Kensington Swan, adding another 113 lawyers to its global headcount, which exceeded 10,000 earlier this year.

In addition to New Zealand, Dentons now has an Asia-Pacific presence in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar and Singapore.

Kensington Swan is one of New Zealand's largest law firms, which means the merger will make Dentons the largest global law firm in New Zealand from day one, the global firm said.

Meanwhile, reporter John Kang wrote that U.S. firm Cooley will soon add a fourth Asian office – this one in Singapore.

Until early last year, Cooley had only one Asian office, in Shanghai. In the past year, it has added an office in Beijing and another in Hong Kong. Now, with Singapore in the mix, it's clear that Cooley is convinced that outside of the U.S., Asia is the place to be.

Our Latin America correspondent, Amy Guthrie, wrote last week about the changes in Mexico's legal market, one year after populist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was swept into office. Read the story here.

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More Global Reads

Allen & Overy Recruits KWM Partner to Head Sydney China Desk

Facebook and Google Face Crackdown in Australia as Regulators Propose Limiting Their Market Power

That's all for this week. Please remember to check out our daily international coverage here.