While competitors across the legal industry scramble to complete cross-border mergers, Dentons — the world's largest law firm by headcount — is wagering that its existing global footprint will give it a durable edge.

Global chief executive Kate Barton told City AM that the firm is prioritising deepened client relationships across its established international network rather than pursuing headline tie-ups. "We have 87 countries in our footprint… that's 35 more than the next nearest competition… so we think we've got the footprint," she said.

Barton, a trained lawyer who spent 35 years at EY in senior leadership roles, joined Dentons in 2024 to succeed predecessor Elliott Portnoy, who presided over an extended period of geographic expansion. Her arrival came as the Big Four accounting firms — including her former employer — have been steadily growing their own legal services arms, adding a new layer of competition for traditional law firms serving multinational clients. Although Dentons encompasses legacy firms dating back a century, Barton emphasised that the firm's unified identity is only about 14 years old. She noted that her Big Four background gave her direct experience with global scale and the integration of people, processes, and technology at an organisation with an even larger footprint than Dentons.

Dentons operates under a distinctive polycentric model: it has no single headquarters and distributes its management committee across 11 regions. The structure means that member firms in different countries often maintain separate financial entities and varying levels of autonomy — a factor that helps explain why profitability disclosure varies across the firm's regional arms. "We are pretty pleased with our footprint… we are just now really trying to focus on bringing that to our clients and making sure that we're serving our clients in that footprint," Barton said.

The firm's current strategic priority is internal — ensuring that lawyers in every region can serve clients across the globe, with compensation structures aligned to platform usage. Barton explained that Dentons has "special regimes" through which partners are rewarded based on how effectively they leverage the firm's worldwide network.

The drive to capitalise on this footprint reflects a clear gap: Dentons ranks as the largest law firm globally by scale, yet it does not place in the top 10 by revenue. The disparity stems in part from the firm's expansion model of combining with local practices across emerging markets and smaller jurisdictions, where billing rates are considerably lower than in London or New York. While that strategy delivered unmatched geographic reach, it has yet to produce the revenue density of more concentrated rivals.

In its most recent financial disclosures, US revenue climbed seven per cent to $828m, with profits per equity partner (PEP) rising to $1.83m. Meanwhile, the firm's UK, Ireland and Middle East entity reported £336m in revenue for the financial year ending April 2026. That arm has historically not disclosed PEP or profitability figures, though reports indicate UK partner PEP falls in the range of £600,000 to £700,000 — considerably below the sums commanded by rival firms.

'Team lifts' over mergers

The legal sector has undergone significant consolidation in recent years as British and US firms pursue combinations aimed at achieving "Global Elite" status — a loosely defined tier combining premium pricing, high revenue per lawyer, and comprehensive cross-border capability to win the most lucrative multinational mandates. Over the past year, Herbert Smith Freehills merged with Kramer Levin, Ashurst combined with Perkins Coie, and Winston & Strawn joined forces with Taylor Wessing.

Barton argued that Dentons faces no "getting-to-know-you" integration drag in the US market because the country was one of the firm's four founding markets and Dentons is already deeply embedded there. As a result, the firm avoids the two-to-three-year post-merger integration process that confronts competitors entering or expanding in America.

Rather than mergers, Dentons has pursued what Barton calls "team lifts" — recruiting groups of partners from rival firms. "Dentons in the US is one of the top three firms that has added direct admissions, and so we're very proud of that… we continue to do team lifts… [as] groups of partners from other law firms want to come to Dentons because of our unique structure and how we reward partners for using our platform," she said.

AI investment and guardrails

Like the broader legal industry, Dentons is accelerating its technology investments, with artificial intelligence at the centre. Courts and bar associations in multiple jurisdictions have begun issuing guidance on AI use in legal practice, placing firms under growing pressure to establish internal guardrails. "We're probably one of the largest institutions in the law firm context that's using enterprise ChatGPT," Barton said.

"We have three endeavours right now, three huge countries that are doing private labelling based on the enterprise version of ChatGPT… similar to like what a Kirkland & Ellis is doing with Palantir," she added.

The rise of generative AI has brought well-publicised hallucination incidents across the professional services sector, including documented cases where lawyers submitted filings citing nonexistent case law. Barton said one of Dentons' 10 AI principles is explicit: "You must check your work, with consequences if lawyers don't follow policy."

"As a firm, we want to make sure that we are not going to not use AI because that could still happen even if you were using humans… somebody could make a mistake, so you have to review the work," she explained.

The firm's AI push is also reshaping junior lawyer training. Beyond teaching prompting skills, Dentons is placing significant emphasis on emotional intelligence (EQ). "We are really big on what's the differentiator from the machine, and I think more youthful lawyers are going to do client service faster, and they're going to have to be able to read the room and connect dots in ways they haven't done traditionally," Barton said.

Eyes on the Law is a weekly column online and in the newspaper focused on the legal sector.