North America continued to be the largest region in terms of value, accounting for more than half - 52.9 per cent of the global market. Perhaps surprisingly, Asia-Pacific accounted for only 14.3 per cent of global business and Europe more than a quarter with 26.8 per cent. The US accounted for the vast majority, some 94 per cent, of the North American market.

'Struggling to generate growth opportunities'

Christopher Leyman-Nicholls, analyst for business research company MarketLine’s which revealed the statistics in its latest report explained: ’Although the market is forecast to grow in the near future, the rate of consolidation in the US suggests the legal services market is struggling to generate growth opportunities, explaining why the US market stood still in 2016. Given the dominance of this market, its decelerating growth harms the sector’s global value, encouraging large-scale mergers around the world.’

Increased number of M&As

The report also highlghted that the absence of growth in the year had encouraged the trend of mergers and acquisitions such as that of Sutherland and Eversheds, which has created a business of 2,300 legal professionals across 29 countries. And, more mergers are on the cards as the report suggested that although growth is expected to return to the global market from 2017 onwards, the speed of recovery would be relatively slow compared with growth achieved before 2016.

US 'main driver' of future growth

Leyman-Nicholls said: ’MarketLine expects the US to be the main driver behind future growth, despite failing to grow in 2016. The US occupies nearly half of the global market, denying any other single country an influencing role. Were the current trend for mergers and acquisitions in the US to stop or slow down without the return of sustainable growth, the global market would likely decline in value.’