A Letter From Our Chair: Seyfarth Opens in Australia

To Our Clients:

At Seyfarth, we continue to grow and evolve our business model to mirror and respond to the needs of our clients. We recognize that, like your company, our firm exists and competes in a global environment. The world economy brings challenges to all of us. At Seyfarth, we are committed to finding solutions to such challenges through sound business practices and growth strategies that meet the needs of our clients.

Through the years, our unrelenting commitment and focus on our clients’ needs has led to the diversification and growth of our U.S.-based practices. Building from our historic strengths in the labor and employment and benefits practices, we now have one of the largest and strongest real estate practices in the United States. We have also strengthened our commercial litigation and general corporate practices to provide the depth and quality of services our clients need across a variety of disciplines.

Seyfarth’s search for innovative solutions led us to reinvent the way legal services are delivered by adapting principles of Six Sigma and Lean manufacturing (SeyfarthLean) to ensure and strengthen quality and efficiency.  Our adoption of these practices is unique within the legal profession. Our continued evolution -- a journey taken with many of you -- has resulted in our widespread acknowledgement as one of the world’s most innovative law firms. For example, we are consistently listed by Financial Times as one of the top ten most innovative firms and are listed as an “innovation idol” in a general market analysis performed by BTI Consulting. 

We bring the same innovative spirit to serving our clients around the globe. We have followed a different model than most firms. We opened in London in 2011 when we were joined by Pete Talibart, who previously headed one of the largest global employment practices. We announced our Shanghai opening earlier this year when we were joined by Wan Li, one of China’s preeminent transactional and employment attorneys.  Our decisions were based on several key factors: Locate operations in important financial centers to our clients and friends, attract incredibly talented people to join our first-class existing team, and strive to operate seamlessly across geographies.  That expansion has been warmly received by many of you. Thank you.

Building on these same themes, we are excited to announce the Firm’s expansion into Australia, with offices in Sydney and Melbourne. Like our openings in London and Shanghai, we have attracted a team of the finest practitioners who share our values and commitment to serve our clients. The new team of Seyfarth partners in Australia consists of:

• Darren Perry, Chris Gardner, Justine Turnbull, Ben Dudley and Luke Edwards from Herbert Smith Freehills LLP
• Rachel Bernasconi and Michael Tamvakologos from Ashurst LLP
• Henry Skene from Arnold Bloch Leibler.

Our newest team members are superbly accomplished attorneys who operate at the highest level.  Individually, they are acknowledged as being among the finest practitioners in Australia.  Together, this accomplished team provides us an exceptional presence in the employment and industrial relations space in Australia. Our entry into this market mirrors the Firm’s long history of success in these practices in the United States, as well as London and Shanghai.  Our offices in Shanghai and Australia are also well-positioned to help you deal with issues and challenges across the continents of Asia and Australia.

As many of you know, over the past few years, the Firm has pioneered what we believe is the world’s preeminent cross-border employment practice.  Our cross-border team, led by Darren Gardner, the Chair of our International Practice, is the largest such practice in the world and has the privilege to work with many of the world’s largest companies on some of the most significant cross-border transactions and global projects.  We have handled projects as large as 150 countries at one time. Our newest team members strengthen an already stellar group and provide an additional dimension to our ability to serve you in this space.  

Throughout our history, the growth of the Firm has mirrored the challenges and opportunities facing our clients.  That continues to hold true with regard to our most recent growth.  We continue to build the strengths of our firm in many different ways, whether it is through innovative approaches to our business model, strategic global expansion or expanding our success as a full-service firm within the U.S.

At the same time, our core values have not and will not change.  Our unrelenting focus on client service, our innovative spirit, our commitment to excellence in serving you are only reinforced by our newest team members.  We will never forget that our success is inextricably intertwined with your success.  We are deeply grateful for your support over our almost seventy years of practice and look forward to many more years of serving you across our platform.

As our business evolves, we will continue to keep you posted.  In the meantime, please feel free to contact any member of our team. 

Very truly yours,

J. Stephen Poor
Firm Chair and Managing Partner