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Norton Rose has just combined with Fullbright and Jaworski to form Norton Rose Fullbright,
a top 10 global legal practice; and joining me to discuss the changing Australian market
is Wayne Spanner, who's the Managing Partner in Australia. Wayne thank you so much for
joining BRR Media. Thank you very much Kate, it's great to be
here. Now Wayne firstly what was the motivation
behind the combination with a US firm? There were a number of factors as to why we
considered the US to be very important in terms of our global strategy. First and foremost
our clients were saying to us if you're global you need to be international and you need
to have US presence. The US without doubt is the world's largest legal economy. In order
to be able to service the needs of our client, to be able to work on the international transactions,
to be able to work with the multi-nationals across borders we needed to be able to offer
to our clients a full service and a full offering across the US. Through the combination with
Fullbright we effectively now have 11 offices across the US, in the main financial centres,
with almost 800 lawyers in the US now. And how have you seen the Australian market
change over the last 10 years? Kate the legal market in Australia has changed
significantly, probably more so in the last three to four since the GFC. What has been
the reasons? The reasons are principally around globalisation, we have seen the political
and economic shift from west to east and we've seen the rise of the Asia Pacific Region,
countries not only in the Asia Pacific but emerging nations such as Brazil as well, India,
but China most importantly South Korea. Our clients have started to work across the jurisdictions
and they need providers that can assist them, so we're looking at transactions which involve
cross border movement of capital, investment into resources and the clients effectively
expect that we are able to provide that service and we do and so again the combination of
Fullbright is fundamentally important to us to be able to provide a number of offices
around the world effectively, 50 offices around the world with over 3,800 lawyers in those
offices. You mentioned a number of changes facing clients,
what are some of the challenges? I think our clients have been facing a number
of challenges not least of which is short term profitability, sustainability, but importantly
also trying to find long term growth. From a legal perspective we talk to our clients
regularly, I talk to our clients regularly, and the challenges that they face currently
really relate to globalisation, the impact of globalisation on their business what they
need to do, how do they do it, in a globalised economy and a globalised world. Second to
that is the growth in regulation, the growth in regulation over a number of years, particularly
since the GFC we've seen a rise in financial regulation across Europe, across the US and
into Australia and other countries, and importantly in regulations such as anti-bribery and corruption
they get regulation across the world. But as we see nations emerge as we see a growth
in the middle class, we will find more and more significant regulation coming out of
jurisdictions where our clients are doing business, such as in China, such as in countries
across Africa, such as in Brazil, India and South Korea.
And Wayne you mentioned a shift from the west to the east, what role do you see Australia
playing in this new economy? Australia's got a fundamental important role
in the position it plays in the world. It sits within the Asia Pacific region and financially
and fundamentally we are strong in the region. We play a significant role not only because
of the position we sit in the region but because of the emergence of the US now out of its
slump, so we will see ourselves in a position where we will have countries looking into
Australia in terms of natural resources into the spaces such as agriculture, but also in
terms of Australian capital looking for investments in other places in the world, be they emerging
markets or traditional western countries as well.
Wayne thank you so much for your time. Thank you Kate.