ISFIN to compete against BIG FOUR's in the Legal & Accounting markets

PwC, EY, Deloitte & KPMG are back in the legal market with high ambition to compete with top law firms. Towards an alternative model to compete against the BIG's.

Speaking at a London conference, Legal markets expert and ISFIN Ceo, Laurent Marliere explained that "the ENRON case, that led to Sarbannes-Oxeley legislation, is now dead and buried. It seems all forgotten". After the ENRON scandal, Big audit firms were obliged to separate from their legal arms to prevent conflicts of interest. They were kicked out of that remunerative market segment and had to close their multidisciplinary practice.

The Big Four are however coming back in full force and with high ambitions for the legal sector. A EY managing partner said that the ambition is to become within 5 years a top 20 global law firm. In the UK, EY and PwC have recently been granted the authorization for the "alternative business structures". These entities allow non-lawyers to take shares in law firms. In many jurisdictions across the world, the start up law firms linked to the Big Four enjoy stellar growths.

Marliere says that "Big Four law firms are playing in the first league but not in the Champions' League yet. They are investing and attracting good players to reach the top and compete against Magic Circle firms. They have learnt from Arthur Andersen's mistakes and are now much stronger".

Managing partners should have sleepless nights, Marliere says. The strong brand, the fabulous portfolios, the experienced management, their investment capacity, their IT superiority and their commercial know-how make them strong challengers.

The ones who will suffer most are the independent non aligned law firms, Marliere says. Indeed, in order to compete against global law firms and the Big Four, they can only rely on loose networks of best friends. Those global networks of independent law firms are often "offer-driven and not "market-driven". They can only react to a market or a deal, they can rarely anticipate it.

This is the reason why Marliere pleads for a revised international networking in the legal sector.
He says: "ISFIN is typically the new alternative to "the old boy's club" where partners exchange business cards. ISFIN is not a network, it is a service provider that offer networking opportunities in one of the fastest emerging segments of world industry".
That segment being the Islamic markets and Islamic finance which experience substantial growths. A project like ISFIN intelligently completes the law firm's involvement in a general network.

The BIG FOUR and the most prominent global firms have all developed a strong practice in Islamic finance. They know it is a huge and promising market. However, they have only invested in the  banking and finance segments of the Islamic industry. ISFIN has understood the bigger picture and is advancing seriously on the real estate, corporate, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, insurance sectors of the Islamic economy.

"We have reached a level of knowledge that none of these firms have !" Says Marliere.
"Actually, we are offering a one stop-shop for companies willing to operate with the Islamic markets. All our resources are invested on that profitable niche market making it difficult for BIGs which have a bunch of industries to deal with, to reach our level of focus."

"We are now expanding in the Audit and Accounting services, partnering with the best independent tax firms in the world."

ISFIN is the world’s leading platform for professionals specializing in Islamic Finance, investments from and to the Muslim world and the Halal industry. The alliance covers more than 65 jurisdictions around the world.
ISFIN is composed of the most innovative and highly regarded independent professional firms.

Contact Information

Zineb Bensaïd, Senior Consultant ISFIN
Telephone : +(32) 475422149
E-Mail : ZB@isfin.net
Website : www.isfin.net