As a growing number of firms branch out into new overseas markets and form partnerships with  ‘sister firms’, lawyers have an enhanced opportunity to gain a secondment to a new location and an opportunity to gain exposure not only to another culture, but to a firm’s overall strategic objectives.  However, the process is not without its challenges.

One recent example of a strategic alliance is Australian firm Gilbert + Tobin and Chinese firm King & Wood. G+T recently sent lawyer Angie Ng to King & Wood for two years on secondment in the anti-trust and competition practice. "There are challenges in secondments. When people are involved in their own busy day-to-day practices, it's often difficult for them to incorporate a secondee in the work. Hosting firms and partners have to put a lot of structures around secondments to make sure they actually do work. They need to understand the objectives of the secondees and deliver on those to ensure it's a rich experience for the secondees. Developing a good secondee program is something that is incremental and it takes a bit of effort," said Gilbert + Tobin partner Peter Waters. A long term strategic view will help firms understand how valuable a secondment will be. “These are young lawyers who may one day grow into leaders in each firm. It's a longer-term investment and is not part of a short-term solution to the need of expertise in a specific area," said Waters.