Map of the Caribbean. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Andersen Global is barreling into another region—the Caribbean—as its international expansion continues, and even hastens, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The collaboration agreements in Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Suriname bring 113 tax and legal personnel to Andersen, which aims to have a presence in 10 countries in the Caribbean by the end of the year.

Andersen has been on an ambitious globalization drive for nearly seven years, having signed deals in 95 countries—with legal in 82—in an effort to mirror the geographic footprint of the Big Four accounting firms. The pandemic has not curbed those efforts: In the first half of 2020, Andersen signed almost the same number of deals as in all of 2019.

"We've actually accelerated our expansion because it's just so much more efficient," Andersen Global Chairman Mark Vorsatz told Law.com international.

Prior to the pandemic, Vorsatz estimates he spent half of each month on the road. Time on airplanes means time lost, he now realizes, marveling at how he engaged with 28 firms by Zoom during June alone.

Vorsatz, who is based in San Francisco, described the break from travel as refreshing. His last trip was in early March, to Mexico City, where he secured a collaboration agreement with tax firm SKATT.

"I think we're going to see a lot of changes in the way people do things because of the pandemic, and I think a lot of people are not going to get on airplanes as regularly," he said.

Inking multiple deals via in-person meetings in the Caribbean, for example, would require boomerang travel between the islands and Miami, because most of those countries do not have flights connecting the islands to each other.

The Caribbean is a diverse region that depends heavily on tourism, with some islands having developed deep knowledge in offshore investments and trusts. Immigration and tax issues are also fertile ground for lawyers there, as is advisory on mergers and acquisitions.

So far, most of the deals Andersen has locked down in the region involve tax firms. The aim is to complement those services with legal.

In Trinidad and Tobago, for instance, Andersen has paired with Johnson, Camacho & Singh, a full-service law firm with 13 attorneys covering corporate and commercial law, litigation, property development, oil and gas, mergers and acquisitions, insolvency, banking and finance.

The pitch to prospective partner firms goes like this: Multinational clients are looking for one-stop shops, so Andersen is looking for quality client solutions in as many geographies as possible.

"Companies are everywhere, and we want to be everywhere," says Vorsatz, comparing Andersen's geographic ambitions to those of Coca-Cola and Amazon.

The strategy is similar to that undertaken by Dentons, which has expanded into at least 25 new countries within the last five years.

COVID-19 opens doors

The economic fallout from COVID-19 has led to a greater openness to talk collaboration, says Vorsatz, even though the pandemic has stirred concerns that countries will embrace more nationalism, crimping cross-border business.

"Technology has changed our lives forever. And notwithstanding nationalistic views on doing business only in my country, you can't stop the international flows of business," said Vorsatz. "That international integration, globalization, I think it's an irreversible trend."

"Therefore I think that the legal industry is going to continue to mature and consolidate, like any industry."

Firms that align with Andersen share the view that globalization is here to stay: "We look forward to collaborating with Andersen Global as the organization's platform will enable us to provide our clients with an integrated approach of tax and legal services in a seamless manner regardless of borders," said Siegfried Kenswil, founder and managing director of Kenswil & Co, a tax and legal firm in Suriname that specializes in oil & gas and mining, with extensive experience in M&A, tax advisory and compliance.

Though Suriname is on the northeastern coast of South America, culturally the country is considered part of the Caribbean. Dutch is the official language of government, business, media and education, while Sranan Tongo, an English-based creole language, is a widely used lingua franca.

Andersen has filled out coverage in the Middle East, with the exception of war zones, while negotiating alliances in 38 countries across Africa. As Andersen covers more geographic ground, the plan is to eventually evolve into service lines—such as oil and gas—while also aligning geographies culturally and by investment sources.

That means a firm in the Dominican Republic, for instance, would tie in with Latin America while one in Haiti would coordinate with France. Oversight for the Caribbean as a whole is likely to come from the United States.

Andersen has collaborations in 14 Latin American countries, with 272 lawyers and total personnel of 1,043 in the region. Coverage gaps include Chile, Latin America's highest-rated sovereign and a leading destination for foreign investment in the region.

Vorsatz says that as Andersen grows, the organization will continue to be broken down into smaller units, with a separate management structure for each region.

Andersen engages firms via collaboration agreements that are not exclusive and require no financial commitment. After a year or two, if the firms are getting along, Andersen will offer them membership. It only admits members once a year.