Most New York firms scoff at these arguments. It is convinced that this will not hamper its ability to win work on the biggest transactions. Bob Joffe, Cravath's presiding partner, maintains that the most demanding and lucrative international assignments will always go to firms with the highest-quality lawyers, not those with the most lawyers in the most places. If a client needs a lawyer in another country, Cravath uses the traditional method of sharing the work with a local firm. We think that's better than telling the client that we're using our partner in Berlin because he just happens to be idle.
Big companies are sophisticated consumers of legal services.
In fact, most New York firms have not been as emphatic as Cravath. They view it as enormously risky and a threat to the quality of their service. It even disturbs me that our firm is spread over 12 floors here in a single building. I would prefer to be able to see all my partners every day. We're not making widgets.