This blog has commented on relocations of lawyers (See my post of May 25, 2008 – 7 posts.)
but the topic is not even remotely fully covered. An advertising section www.fortune.com/adsectins in Fortune, July 2008 at S7, lays out data from GMAC’s 2008 Global Relocation Trends. That report ranks the relocation obstacles companies face, which presumably apply to law departments.
The ten obstacles are “finding suitable candidates” (21%), “career management” (16%), “partner dissatisfaction” (10%), “policy exception control” (10%), “return on investment” (8%), “relocation reluctance” (7%), “adjusting to environment” (5%), “intercultural understanding” (4%), “education concerns” (4%), and “safety & security” (3%).
“Career management” may have to do with the difficulties of slotting the foreign posting into a career development plan for the lawyer, as well as what to do with them next. “Partner dissatisfaction” has to do with spouses, not lawyers at firms. “Policy exception control” may involve the difficult situations of making exceptions too often, such as how long a posting lasts. These plus the other obstacles are very legitimate and make it difficult for global law departments to distribute their lawyers around the world.