When three law firms combined to form Dentons in 2013, our goal was to create the world’s first truly polycentric global law firm. Polycentric is a collective term we use for attributes such as having no dominant national culture or single global headquarters and embracing the diversity of our lawyers and professionals and the cultures in which we operate. Here are a few lessons we’ve learned along the way.
Law firms are like smartphones – it’s better to create something new than to keep adding to an old model. Remember your first smartphone? It didn’t look like your old mobile phone. It operated differently – and it did a lot more. When Dentons was created, the founding firms combined their strengths and best practices to create something unique. In future combinations, including our upcoming deal with Asia’s largest law firm, Dacheng, we will reinvent ourselves again. This helps preserve our polycentric nature while guaranteeing that each successive combination partner is fully integrated with the firm.
