With competition intensifying, and greater
commoditisation of services, making compliance a profitable area of
practice is, for some firms, increasingly hard work.
Competition in the market for compliance-related legal advice is
escalating. With much compliance-related work now becoming
commoditised, ensuring such work is profitable is a major challenge
for some law firms. However, the good news is that there is a
massive untapped market for compliance advice in both Spain and
Portugal – those law firms that are best able to sell the
benefits of compliance to clients are sure to prosper.
Many clients are still only at the early stages in terms of
developing a compliance programme, says Alejandro Touriño,
managing partner of Ecija. He adds that, consequently, it is not
yet certain how profitable this work will be, but acknowledges that
law firms have to provide such a service to clients. "We need
to be there, but it can be a nightmare," he says.
Gómez-Acebo & Pombo
