Two phrases stood out in the latest review of the offshore marketplace by The Lawyer magazine.
The journalist, who knows many lawyers in the offshore field, described the offshore legal industry as a 'murky world' and 'highly secretive'. She bases these opinions on the fact that unlike their UK counterparts the lawyers in offshore jurisdictions are reticent about revealing virtually any information about revenue and turnover. Less than a third of the firms in the magazine's annual survey provided any information on revenue.
I think it's time that law firms responded to the market environment in which they work, in a similar fashion to the offshore jurisdictions.
While some of the journalists comments may be borne out of frustration and the limited response, it is no longer acceptable for firms not to provide some measure of their financial performance if they want to be part of the more transparent world in which global financial services now exist.
We are all quick to complain when mainstream media categorise the offshore locations as secretive and opaque, but we are not helping ourselves when the category of professional which is our biggest export into the wider financial world continues to create this impression of secrecy - even with its own professional media.
Perhaps through the various Law Societies, the firms could agree a format so that all firms provide similar data on revenue or on profits so as to help rid ourselves of this unhelpful image.
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