Baker Tilly is looking to work with a legal firm in the US in order to increase the breadth of services it can provide clients.
The company's CEO, Alan Whitman, stated that "Baker Tilly's legal network will soon be in the US."
The decision may increase competition for US law firms, which have already seen non-lawyer-owned legal businesses emerge in areas like Arizona and Utah that are experimenting with cutting-edge service-delivery models.
An agreement was started a year ago between Baker Tilly International and the UK law firm Freeths. As a result of the relocation, Freeths became the first independent law firm in Europe to join the network of accountants.
The accounting company hailed the Freeths' action as furthering their foray into business law. The legal firm's 600+ attorneys provide corporate advice on topics like mergers and acquisitions, insolvency, and competition law.
Whitman serves as both the board of directors' chairman and the CEO of Baker Tilly US. Although he did not name the US legal firms Baker Tilly International would collaborate with, he did say the company hopes for a deal that is comparable to Freeths.
At least a few businesses could cooperate with us, he claimed. "We need cultural alignment so we can operate together, even if we're not merging,"
With a total international revenue of almost $4.3 billion, Baker Tilly is one of the top 10 accounting companies in the world.
This year, it anticipates generating $1.5 billion in US revenue. According to data gathered by The American Lawyer, that would position it among the 30 biggest law firms in the nation.
Ownership -
Several states in the United States are exploring relaxing restrictions on non-lawyers operating legal businesses. Arizona has repealed its rule prohibiting fee splitting between lawyers and non-lawyers.
Utah launched a programme to examine new legal ownership structures two years ago. Changes have also been considered in larger markets such as California, New York, and Illinois.
The revisions might allow law firms to attract direct outside investment, paving the road for the Big Four accounting firms and others to compete with them in the US for the first time.
According to Jennifer Leonard, executive director of the University of Pennsylvania's future of the profession initiative, the Big Four and others are unlikely to compete directly with US law firms unless more states ease ownership restrictions—and even then, they would encounter challenges.
"There's been so much hoopla over the last decade about how the Large Four are going to swoop in and immediately grab the big law firms' lunch," Leonard said. "We're not a risk-taking profession." Companies are unlikely to make substantial changes to how they acquire legal services in the near future."
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