Research Trends and Conclusions: Trade & Customs 2010

• November 2010

• Trade & Customs

With the benefit of over 10 years of research and thousands of votes from clients and private practitioners, Who’s Who Legal takes a closer look at developing trends in the trade and customs legal marketplace worldwide.

This year’s research into the world’s leading trade and customs lawyers finds more professionals in more jurisdictions than ever before. Of the jurisdictions that featured in the previous edition, 61 per cent post year-on-year growth in the number of domestically-based lawyers recognised as world class experts by the clients, peers and industry sources we canvassed. However the overall market share of the leading jurisdictions has been reduced by the increased geographical diversity of the listings.

Many of our sources pointed to the wider economic indicators underlying these trends. In September, World Trade Organization (WTO) economists forecasted a 13.5 per cent expansion in international trade in 2010, an increase on the earlier estimate – made in March – of 9.5 per cent. According to WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, such figures underscore “the wisdom governments have shown in rejecting protectionism” over the past year. A number of the lawyers we spoke to noted an increase in bilateral and free trade agreement related work and, for many sources, “an increase in the number of countries and multinational clients served.”

Chart 1.1

Chart 1.2

2010 Overview

After months of research, during which we received thousands of votes from lawyers and industry professionals worldwide, we can conclude that the 251 private practice lawyers in this edition are quantifiably the world’s leading names in trade and customs law. This marks an increase of 76 lawyers on the previous edition of this guide, published in October 2009. This edition finds lawyers in 38 jurisdictions to merit inclusion in our listings: an increase of 12 jurisdictions on the previous year (Chart 1.1).

Such figures further attest to what many lawyers identified as “widening levels of expertise worldwide”, both in established jurisdictions and in emergent countries. The practice of trade and customs law is reaching higher levels of sophistication internationally, and consequently a number of previously unrecognised jurisdictions have increased their visibility on the world stage. Traditional centres of excellence – such as Washington and Belgium – still field the largest contingent of first class lawyers in our rankings, and remained the busiest jurisdictions for trade work over the past year. Washington is the single largest jurisdiction with 84 experts listed, followed by Brussels in second place with 27.

New Jurisdictions

The increase in the prominence of several jurisdictions – particularly in the United States, Europe and the CIS, the Asia Pacific and Latin America (Chart 1.2) – confirms EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht’s assertion earlier this year that “globalisation works”. Our sources noted that increased international activity among leading companies, facilitated by governments’ awareness of the benefits of free trade, has led to higher levels of international trade and, as a direct consequence, to increased sophistication in the practices of trade and customs lawyers.

The United States

Chart 2.1

Chart 2.2

As the legislative heart of the United States, Washington is the most populous jurisdiction for leading trade and customs lawyers in our research (Chart 2.1). However, this year we identify lawyers in a total of eight US jurisdictions compared with last year’s five, with high-ranking lawyers featuring for the first time in Florida, Maryland and Texas (Chart 2.2). Our listings for California, Washington, Illinois and New York have all expanded since 2009, while the listings for Virginia remain the same. DC remains the most populous US jurisdiction in terms of lawyers listed, however, the state saw a fall in its national market share from 87 per cent in 2009 to 83 per cent this year.

One reason lawyers suggested for this increase in non-DC listings is the continuing rise in popularity clients of small and mid-sized law firms and boutiques in this sector. According to one source “fee pressure, combined with a lack of work resulting from the financial difficulties of the 2008 to 2009 period has squeezed some larger firms out of the market and allowed smaller firms to flourish”. Of the 17 non-DC-based US lawyers in this edition, 11 are from small firms or boutiques focusing exclusively on trade and customs related work. All of the lawyers listed in Illinois and Texas, and two-thirds of those listed in New York, are from small, trade-focused law firms.

Washington, however, is still dominated by full-service firms, with the majority of the 17 new inclusions for this year hailing from the trade departments of larger firms that have already established their credentials in this area. In particular, the lawyers we spoke to in DC reported an increase in intergovernmental work – encompassing bilateral trade agreements and export control issues – which is engaging the services or “large, interdisciplinary teams capable of offering international support.”

Asia

Chart 3.1

Chart 3.2

While the number of lawyers recognised in China has increased slightly since last year, the country’s dominance of the other Asian jurisdictions in our listings has diminished slightly compared with last year’s figures. Chinese lawyers were responsible for 38 per cent of the total Asian listings in 2009 (Chart 3.1) but only 31 per cent of this year’s Asian total. Expansion in India, Korea, Japan and Indonesia, as well as new inclusions for Hong Kong and Vietnam, accounts for the overall increase in Asian listings (Chart 3.2).

India saw the largest increase in listings in the region, featuring six lawyers in this year’s research (17 per cent of the regional market share) compared with two in 2009 (8 per cent). Unlike local rivals such as China and Japan, all of India’s featured lawyers are from domestically founded law firms.

The increasing openness of the India marketplace may have contributed to this expansion. India signed a free-trade agreement in goods with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2009 and is pursuing a similar agreement on services and investment. November 2010 saw India increase its trading partnership with the US, and much-debated India/EU, India/EFTA and India/Japan free-trade agreements are also expected by the end of the year. With these advances in free trade and the increasing influence of foreign clients in India, the lawyers we spoke to predicted that the country’s trade and customs bar would continue to grow in sophistication.

China remains India’s strongest trading partner however, and new inclusions in Hong Kong and Vietnam also enjoy good links to China through the recently supplemented Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement and newly formed Dongxing Trade Zone respectively. As such, with China-related work still dominating lawyers’ portfolios internationally, some sources suggest the increased visibility of smaller jurisdictions in Asia is largely thanks to Chinese trade.

Latin America

Argentina, Brazil and Mexico all list more lawyers in this edition than the previous book, with an additional seven, five and four listings respectively. Last year, one half of all the lawyers listed in Latin America were based in Brazil and one-third were based in Mexico. This year’s research finds a more varied picture, with a huge expansion in listings from Argentina and new listing for Venezuela.

Argentina suffered particularly badly as a result of the global financial crisis and has posted generally poor trade surplus figures in 2010. It was also one of 32 WTO members to report anti-dumping proceedings in the first two-quarters of this year, during which time the EU and China both accused the country of restrictive measures. Trade cases and demand for advice in Argentina is consequently high.

Lawyers in Mexico were quick to identify an increase in anti-dumping and WTO proceedings in the country in parallel with the government’s move to unilateral lowering of tariffs, taxes and duties over the past year, leading to increased visibility for the national trade bar.

The CIS and Europe

Chart 4.1

Chart 4.2

This edition sees lawyers listed from Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Belarus listed for the first time, and both Belarus and Ukraine exceed or match the totals fielded in the Netherlands, Poland and France (Chart 4.2).

While largely isolated from the US and the EU by sanctions and heavily regulated bilateral trade, Belarus maintains a strong trading relationship with other former Soviet Union member states, particularly Russia and Kazakhstan with whom it is part of a customs union. Ukraine meanwhile enjoys a bilateral trade agreement with the US and is moving toward a free-trade agreement with the EU. The success of both jurisdictions in this edition, and their consequent reordering, with Azerbaijan, of our European and Central Asian listings, illustrates the comparable merits of eastern and western-looking trade models in the CIS region.

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Despite charting year-on-year growth in the number of lawyers listed from among the most populous jurisdictions, our research also finds a reduction in the overall dominance of these jurisdictions worldwide.

These figures attest to the increasing geographical diversity of the high-calibre trade and customs law being practised internationally, and the expanding profile of smaller jurisdictions. The sharp contraction in international trade as a result of the global financial crisis and the WTO’s insistence against protectionist reactions by members has contributed to a growth in the sophistication of trade and customs lawyers worldwide, particularly in less established jurisdictions and in a marketplace much less dominated by full-service law firms. As trade figures continue their expansion to pre-crisis levels, the majority of the lawyers we spoke to internationally noted that work levels are “strong and growing” and that 2011 is set to be a busy year.

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