Latham's Middle-East Trifecta
Within weeks, Latham & Watkins is expected to open not just one new office in the Middle East, but three, spurred by what it says were client requests to do so.
The new offices, in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar, are the latest example of why what was once a Los Angeles law firm is now among the “Sweet Sixteen” international law firms, reports the Lawyer.
To staff the new offices, it is relocating five partners and a team of associates. While this wouldn’t be feasible at many law firms, due to financial considerations, the firm’s partner pay structure makes it possible at Latham & Watkins, says consultant Friedrich Blase of Kerma Partners in New York.
“Latham’s doing this because it can,” he tells the legal publication. “If your lawyers are working in an eat-what-you-kill, performance-based system, they won’t go. Latham is truly a one-firm partnership, so it has the flexibility to do this and the confidence among its lawyers that they won’t suffer financially as a result.”
Bill Voge, the firm’s global finance chair, predicts that Latham will soon become known as a Middle East powerhouse among international firms. “In terms of the number of deals we’ll be doing and the number of people we’ll have on the ground, I don’t think there’ll be anyone that can touch us,” he says.
