| Israel |
 A hive of activityFor a small country, Israel has a lot of lawyers – more per capita than any other jurisdiction. Over the past ten years most of them have had plentyof work, but now the economy could struggle to feed such a buzzing legal profession. By Becky Pritchard Israel has the highest number of lawyers per capita of any country in the world – one lawyer for every 166 people – and so far it has managed to keep them all busy. For a country with a population of 7.3 million, a legal profession boasting 44,000 participants is quite some feat (the UK has 150,000). In the past decade many of the top Israeli firms have doubled in size and have regularly been outperforming the wider market. The economy has flourished, international business has taken off and law firms have reaped the rewards. Now they just have to keep up the momentum. Israel’s economic boom encouraged more sophisticated deals and international players fed off the market. ‘The legal practice in Israel is a mirror of the economy, which is quite strong,’ says Ofer Glusman, a name partner who practises corporate law at mid-market firm Glusman Shem-Tov Chowers Broid & Co. Between 2003 and 2007 the economy grew around 5% per year and many law firms increased their revenue by up to 15% a year. But even during the depths of the global financial crisis Israel’s economy did comparatively well, with GDP contracting by just 0.3% last year. The rude health of the economy has been good news for the legal sector: according to Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), a market intelligence service, the combined revenue of the top 20 law firms actually rose by 8% to $506m last year. To read the rest of this article subscribe to Legal Business. 
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