20821 A&O Alumni Yearbook 2016_pages

PROFILE: WIM DEJONGHE AND ANDREW BALLHEIMER
none. Then you need U.S./New York law
capability across your network, as a parallel
offering to English law.
Andrew: To put it into context, 50% of the
global legal industry is based on U.S. law.
Unlike any other jurisdiction, the U.S.
regulatory regime is extra-territorial; if an
act has any nexus into the U.S., even if the
act happened outside of the U.S., both the
U.S. prosecutor and the U.S. Courts can
claim jurisdiction over it.
For a global firm, having that extraterritorial
impact on our business means we
have to have a robust offering across all
practice areas. We aim for A&O to be at the
forefront of the global elite. We currently
have 150 lawyers in the U.S. and around
150 U.S. qualified lawyers elsewhere
in the world. We have 1,000 English-law
qualified lawyers, so we need to extend
our U.S. offering.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES
FACING A&O AT THE MOMENT?
Wim: There’s increasing uncertainty around
the world, not just in the financial markets
but also because of political instability and
terrorism. Our challenge is to navigate that
uncertainty without overreacting, but also to
be alert to long-term changes to the market.
We’re a well hedged business and we can
take changes on the chin, but sometimes
these things come out of the blue, which
creates an even bigger challenge. Brexit
certainly came as a great shock to many,
particularly outside the UK. Now, there
seem to be more and more incidents where
globalisation is being challenged by
nationalist parties: in the UK, that’s what
Brexit was all about; you can also see traces
of nationalisation in Austria, France and
even in Germany.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES
FACING BUSINESSES IN GENERAL?
Wim: Businesses in general face the same
issues as law firms. They’re also dealing with
uncertainty for them and their clients.
Globalisation – the philosophy of inclusion
– is being challenged. Over the next ten
years, I believe we’ll see the tension between
globalisation and exclusion leading to more
nationalism. For all businesses, this will
have an effect on their strategic decisions.
We’re a secondary business: we follow our
clients, so whatever happens to them has an
impact on us.
Andrew: If you’re at a local firm without
an overseas presence, then you’re far more
exposed to the local environment.
Something like Brexit will have a far greater
impact on you if you don’t have
an international footprint which provides
a hedge.
SO, ON 24 JUNE, DID YOU FIND
A LOT OF CLIENTS TURNING
TO YOU FOR GUIDANCE?
Andrew: Yes. We had scheduled a briefing
call for 2,000 clients which ended up being
hugely oversubscribed, so we shared the
recording with a further 4,000. Because
there were only a finite number of lines, we
invited employees who wanted to listen in to
join us in the auditorium. When I came
down, the auditorium was packed with more
than 500 people. They were standing, sitting
on the floor or packed into the lobby outside
where there must have been 100 people.
I couldn’t actually get in – it took me half an
hour to get to the front!
Wim: During the call, it was like the images
from the Second World War where people
were listening around the radio. I’ll never
forget that day. After the call, I spent the
whole day driving around London on the
back of a scooter from one media interview
to another. It was surreal.
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE MAIN CONCERNS
BOTH FOR A&O AND FOR BUSINESS
IN GENERAL FOLLOWING BREXIT AND
HOW HAS A&O BEEN ADDRESSING
THOSE CONCERNS?
Wim: In the first instance, we ran the
briefing call which dealt with the implications
of Brexit for the regulatory environment,
what immediate action people should take,
passporting, financial products etc, all of
which was very carefully prepared to give
clients an immediate steer. On the back of
that call, clients have been planning and
hedging their risks and we’ve been helping
them with that.
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