According to AILFN president Stephen McGarry, the website allows users to identify new legal networks they may want to engage with and highlights the regions that existing networks have yet to reach.

He suggested that understanding where legal networks are absent can also indicate the scope of new opportunities.

“Locate Law Networks covers the entire Earth, even beyond any of the big four accounting firms. Not only can [users] see what networks are available to join, they see who to contact,” Mr McGarry said.

“The site is different because it shows what networks are not in a country or state. The fact each jurisdiction contains networks with “none”, will result in filling in the infrastructure quickly as local firms discover the opportunity to join a network with one click,” he said.

The site offers members a directory of law firms belonging to 150 different international networks, ranging in size, formality and budget.

Mr McGarry noted that development of the website benefited from the ongoing efforts of members over two decades. The cost of consolidating that knowledge and building it into the site has been “virtually nothing”, he said.

“Because the average law network was founded more than 20 years ago, the professional and personal relationships are extraordinarily strong.

“Dissemination of information about the site costs nothing, since we have an extensive mailing list of partners at virtually every business law firm on Earth,” Mr McGarry said.

The AILFN estimates that its member networks provided more than $100 billion of legal services across 5,000 offices last year.