Conclusion
If the Berkeley study is to be believed, law firms stuffed with Ivy League law grads are afraid of competition. Ask yourselves, when have type-A personalities like top tier lawyers ever shied away from fierce competition?. This is after-all no Akron, this is China, the second largest economy in the world: a veritable economic miracle, and tomorrow’s coming man (or woman).
The results of the Berkeley study may seem puzzling, but to long term China hands in the legal arena, not so much. Reading between the lines my conclusion is that foreign law firm firms have only hired “minders and grinders”, without giving fuller consideration to identifying and hiring “finders” as part of an overall strategy. An even less charitable conclusion is that lawyers in the foreign market are playing a kind of greater fool strategy with each new greater fool entering or expanding in china. They are doing just what they always have done – using their impressive credentials and promises of unbounded growth opportunities to transfer from firm to firm at a premium to themselves, leaving their investors to wonder where is the promised return further down the road. And who can blame them for doing so. It is, after all, up to the law-firms themselves to ensure that they have the correct mix of staff to optimize their China practices, and to invest the necessary resources to gain a genuine foot-hold in tomorrow’s brave new world.