100+ Jurisdictions, 17,000 lawyers, 18 years
of getting it right for our clients.
First Law International's member firms have provided legal support to hundreds of clients over the last two decades. Our experts specialise in small to large-scale cross-border legal projects, enabling each of our clients to achieve growth and success on a global scale. FLI is a network created by GC’s for GC’s, supported by GC's; ideally placing it as the cross-border network of choice for businesses worldwide.
FLI's carefully selected and vetted firms share our mission to deliver high quality, timely, legal advice. All our member firms are highly-ranked Chambers & Partners/Legal 500 firms and are either top-tier or second-tier in their respective jurisdictions.
“It can be really challenging managing Legal advice from multiple countries, often all at the same time! FLI's centrally managed approach, eases this pressure and offers a unique opportunity to work with a single point of contact. FLI's firms strive to be consistent on a global basis and that was the appeal.” Senior Partner, FLI Member
2000
FLI founder Orlando Casares leaves his EMENA GC post from a NYSE listed Corporation and sets up his office in a spare room in his house in Belgium, Brussels.
The big idea: To replace the full-time, in-house employee persona for a portable, rentable, disposable, no-headcount, for-hire attorney... already in the trenches.
2001
Negotiating a series of retainers in NYC proper for global coverage at this time was a poignant reminder of FLI's emerging value proposition of being well-represented with boots on the ground.
2002
With the frenzy of the IT-bubble and an unprecedented level of M&A, FLI’s nascent company was ready for business and the phones started ringing… Micromuse, Magma Design, Kinetics and Adaptec.
2003
FLI quickly realized that in-house legal teams really appreciated support in areas ill-suited for the faint-hearted and started expanding and recruiting member firms in emerging and high-risk jurisdictions such as Angola, Indonesia, Mozambique, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Vietnam, Iraq, Nicaragua and Kazakhstan.
2005
In FLI’s 5th year, new clients, including 2 of the top Fortune 50 US conglomerates, engaged FLI for cross-border support, at a time of exponential growth. To set FLI apart, Project Manager support (all former GC’s) was added to FLI’s cross-border service offering. Providing Assistant-GC support to our clients’ in-house legal teams proved a game-changer.
2006
With each additional FLI NET member joining the network after completing our rigorous vetting process, FLI started hosting its annual general Spring and Regional Asia Pacific Fall conferences. For many these gathering soon became as popular as attending the ACC, IBA or ABA and planned their schedules accordingly.
2012
Chambers and Partners approached FLI when they started ranking networks. For the first five consecutive years, Orlando authored the Overview of the Global Elite Networks chapter.
2013
FLI instituted an unprecedented and pioneering anti-corruption certification compulsory program for all member firms. To-date member firms in over 50 countries have successfully completed the training.
2014
FLI becomes a sponsor at the coveted annual Association of Corporate Counsel Conference. Since 2014 FLI has consecutively been showcasing it’s Assistant GC cross-border capabilities by importing an impressive delegation of FLI NET members from all over the world. To-date, over 3000 ACC attendees have become familiar with FLI’s value proposition.
2015
With FLI now well-established as the go-to network of choice for many multinational clients, recognition by The Financial Times and The Lawyer lead to a partnership with Thomson Reuters to produce the multi-jurisdictional Investing In Guide. To date, 37 FLI Net members have authored their local chapters in this coveted guide. FLI was the only global network recognized by FT as a “personalized service with high impact that is truly innovative.”
2016
FLI’s Advisory Board was assembled to accelerate business growth and development. Carefully selected Board members have played crucial roles especially during the FLI annual conferences. This includes chairing Practice Groups and breakout client sessions during FLI events and most recently embracing FLI’s digital transformation and promoting cohesion among members across the entire network.
2017
With a solid global footprint, FLI’s members are empowered to reach out to their existing local clients to offer cross-border support across FLI’s membership base, further strengthening the bonds between members.
2019
FLI launched its ground-breaking iOS and Android App, ‘Assistant GC’ allowing FLI clients to submit engagements across 80 jurisdictions, 24/7. The App was introduced during FLI’s 7th consecutive sponsorship during the ACC and it was once again featured by the FT in its 2019 Innovative Lawyers edition considering it ahead of the game in “Originality, Leadership and Impact.” FLI’s clients are now eagerly awaiting FLI’s new self-help tools.
2020
FLI appoints Chief Digital Officer to help drive the evolution of FLI’s tech-lead service offering. FLI’s CDO brings with him a talented group of strategy, design and, tech experts to support FLI’s digital transformation and shift the delivery into a friction-less platform.
Whatever your industry, connect with a member of our cross-border team today. We’ll take care of the rest.
