| Type | Delaware Corporation (for profit) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Professional services |
| Founded | Houston, Texas 2002 |
| Founder(s) | Stephen J. McGarry |
| Headquarters |
600 Travis Texas77002 |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Ronaldo Veirano (Chairman) Stephen McGarry (President) Maricarmen Trujillo (Vice President) |
| Services | Network of Firms Legal Accounting Investment Banking Financial advisory |
| Website | www.worldservicesgroup.com |
WSG, also branded as World Services Group, is a multidisciplinary professional services network of independent law, accountng and investment banking firms. It ranks as one of the largest among the more than 200 professional services networks in the world.
WSG members are independent law, accounting and investment banking firms. According to the organization's website as of 2011[update], WSG members have more than 19,000 professionals in more than 90 countries in almost 400 offices.
Its global headquarters are located in the JPMorgan Chase Tower (Houston), Houston, Texas,[1]
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Multidisciplinary professional services networks were an important phenomenon in the late 1990s and early part of 2000.[2] The Big 5 accounting firms were creating their own law firm networks. Their objective was to share fees with the lawyers in the network. Lawyers and law firms were threatened by the size of these networks. They felt that this was a violation of the rules of legal ethics which prohibited sharing fees with non-lawyers.[3] After the fall of Enron, it became clear that a law firm controlled by an accounting firm and providing services to a common client contained an inherrant conflict of interest. The passage of Sarbanes Oxley effectively prohibited accounting firms from providing legal services through a controlled law firm.
Independent law and accounting firms creating networks in which no facilities and client profits were shared remained permissible.[4]
A number of networks took advantage of the availability of this exception for multidisciplinary networks[5] to expand. They included MSI Global Alliance[6] Morison International[7] and the Geneva Group.[8] WSG was formed in 2002 as a multidisiplinary network.
WSG Network WSG was founded by an organization committee of seven lawyers: Stephen McGarry, Jaime Carey (Chile), Harvey Sorenson (Kansas), Tim Powers (Texas), Paul Hally (Scotland), Jorge Gonzalez (Puerto Rico) and Mark Whitehead (Illinois). The organization process lasted more than two years. WSG was officially launched in October 2002 at the first annual meeting in Dallas, Texas. It then consisted on 57 firms with 9,000 professionals.
The primary objective of WSG is to create global access for members and non-members to professional services by location (state or country) and by the expertise (practice area or industry) of each professional. WSG has database of expertise and the interests of each 12,000 professionals.
Member firms were individually evaluated and selected.[9] The result is a database of 12,000 professionals at the member firms who can be identified by any terms within their profiles. WSG is one of the first global transparent networks of professionals that can be accessed for both their location and their expertise and experience. The original services were:
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Focus Today WSG expanded to 150 members by 2008 which had more than 19,000 professionals. In 2010 the board made the decision focus on three services: legal, accounting and investment banking/financial services.
The development of WSG centered on a technical platform to provide multi-tier networking capabilities.[10] This allows the building of relationships and the maintenance, growth and interaction of members. WSG has proprietary technology that permits the individual professionals to access each other, communicate, develop relationships, and establish internal preferences. Professionals can transparently interact. The systems content is individualized for each professional.
WSG is a global professional services network of independent firms who represent their own individual clinet. As almost all networks, WSG is governed by a board of directors consisting of representatives from each region and from the various services that the members provide. The bylaws provide for 16 directors chosen from the member firms. The president is also a board member. An executive committee of the officers meets monthly. The board meets in person four times a year. The terms of the board of directors are for 4 years. WSG operates and is managed by a staff of eight professionals in Houston.
The 16 directors are representative of their regions.
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WSG is divided into 7 regions: Africa/Middle East, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, Caribbean, and North America. Each region has a regional council consisting of 6 representatives from the member firms. At least one member of the council is also on the board of directors.
Africa and Middle East /Africa consists on 16 member countries with over 450 professionals. The regional council chair is Eve Sinare of Lex law firm in Tanzania Asia/Pacific has as members the largest firms in the region. The China-based Dacheng Law Offices has[11] around 1,600 attorneys across 42 offices. Minter Ellison has 1,500 attorneys in 9 offices. The regional council chair is Mark Harty of LCS[12] in Taiwan.
The European regional network consists of firms in 43 countries with over 6,000 professionals. It is the largest network after the Big 4 accounting networks The regional council is headed by Weronika Pelz of Wardynski and Partners the largest law firm in Poland. The Latin America region has 27 members. Its regional council is lead by Jorge Velarde of Rodrigo Elias Medrano[13] one of the largest law firms in the country. The North American regions is lead by Larry Pascal of *Haynes & Boone
Many members of WSG annually are nominated for awards in their countries and region.[14] Members regularly rank in Chambers and Partners,[15] Super Lawyers,[16] Best Lawyers,[17] Legal 500,[18] International Financial Law Review 1000[19] and other rating organizations.
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