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This week, the partners of accounting firm Compagnie Fiduciaire announced the creation of Compagnie du Droit, with lawyer Tristan de la Rivière. This news should be analyzed in the context of a new look at interprofessionality.
By Dominic Jensen, member of the Paris Bar, expert in law firm strategy and organization
It’s only a small firm, since the “Compagnie du Droit” announced this week plans to have just three partners. However, the news is worth a closer look.
The balance of power seems to be in the accountants’ favor…
The choice of name for this new firm is emblematic and perhaps symptomatic. Created by a major accountancy firm (Compagnie Fiduciaire, ranked 21st in France), in association with a lawyer, the firm adopts the semantics of the accountancy profession. The term “company” is much more familiar to chartered accountants and auditors than it is to lawyers. This approach to the market is not unlike that of In Extenso Avocats, the legal arm of the Deloitte-affiliated In Extenso accountancy network, which has chosen to fully assume the network’s name.
Another novelty is that the announcement of the creation of this new firm is made with a clear and unabashed display of capital-based interprofessionality. Although this has existed since the law of March 28, 2011, few professionals have publicized the fact that chartered accountancy firms have taken stakes in the capital of law firms via SPFPLs. We therefore had to wait for the Macron law and the interprofessional practice with the new pluriprofessional practice companies for capital-based interprofessionality between lawyers and chartered accountants to finally “come out”.
As many lawyers feared, these transactions between accounting firms and law firms appear to be more a process of digestion than rapprochement. However, this is far from inevitable. At last count, there were 21,113 public accounting firms and associations, the vast majority of which are neither part of networks nor major groups. Let’s put this into perspective with the 7,553 structures for practicing lawyers and the 20,000 lawyers practicing individually. All these small and medium-sized law firms, as well as those involved in sales and marketing, represent an opportunity to consider alliances, shareholdings or cooperation agreements.
…but far from inevitable
Why should lawyers be the weak link in a dominant-dominated relationship? There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be. Chartered accountants essentially sell products (balance sheets, payroll, etc.) and struggle to add value to their advice. Lawyers sell their advice, but would often like to be better at selling products (approval of accounts, leases, employment contracts, etc.). These obvious complementarities must be explored without taboos. It makes no difference whether interprofessional projects are implemented within the framework of an SPFPL or an SPE. Each project will find its most appropriate legal vehicle. Lawyers need to be less shy, and allow themselves genuine freedom to reflect on their professional and financial projects. Indeed, interprofessional cooperation can also be a way for accountants and lawyers alike to consolidate and enhance the value of their businesses.
Until now, interprofessionalism has mainly been a subject for internal reflection by the professions concerned. Now it’s time to take the subject to customers and the market. Communication will play an essential role in this. The concept of interprofessionalism between lawyers and chartered accountants is attractive to clients. We need to transform the concept into a business project, so that the operational reality is also attractive. Let’s dare.
To find out more
Read Le Monde du Chiffre‘s article on the partnership between Compagnie fiduciaire and a lawyer.
