Any of the top national UK law firms in this day and age is also an international practice as well. That's a trend which has become increasingly clear in recent years but is hugely apparent this week.
Not only am I off to Boston, USA, to take part in a Harvard Law School course called Leadership in Law Firms, but Hill Dickinson partners and lawyers are really going international this week.
The Harvard course is led by world legal expert Professor Ashish Nanda. My colleague Peter Jackson, Hill Dickinson Managing Partner, benefitted from it last year. It's on Peter's recommendation I am attending, as he found it incredibly stimulating.
I think that you only get out of a course what you put in, so I have been working hard to prepare for it - it's been demanding work, and has in fact taken up so much time that I even had to miss the last match of the season of my beloved Everton.
I am sure it will be worth the effort, as I will be attending alongside managing partners from firms in the UK, Ireland, the US, Germany, Brazil and Australia. We are all going to learn insights into the challenges we face in running and growing our businesses. It should be a fascinating week.
Meanwhile, members of our media law team, led by head of intellectual property and media Philip Woods and associate Samantha Lansbury has been hard at work at the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France.
I know it sounds glamorous! But Hill Dickinson is the first law firm to secure a dedicated stage at the UK Film Centre, and our role includes free legal surgeries to film-makers, producers and suppliers, so I am sure my colleagues will be too busy to even get so much as a film star
autograph...
It's a great move for us. Hill Dicks now has a pre-eminent role with the UK contingent at Cannes - last year we attended as a guest of the UK Film Centre and as result picked up the regional film agency North West Vision as a client.
The international aspect of our work has been a big factor for years - we are one of the largest, if not the largest, UK firm in Piraeus, Greece, where we have 17 people including four partners, two of which were recent promotions.
And the global effect has really hit home with our recent appointment of solicitor Lim Keong, who has joined our China and Far East business team. We already have well-established links with maritime and insurance clients in South Korea and Japan.
Liverpool has strong historic links with Far East cities and ports like Shanghai and Lim joins our recent recruit Edward de la Billiere, legal adviser to the Chinese Embassy in London.
So, a strong team with superb worldwide links. It's an exciting time for a dynamic practice like Hill Dickinson and it's important that Liverpool as a city does not get left behind in the competitive race among cities in the intellectual property arena.
So it's nice to know that when I return from Harvard, I'm looking forward to attending the inaugural Sound City event at the Hard Day's Night Hotel. Music business people will be coming from the States and all over the world to Liverpool to hear new music and talk about the
important issues facing the music business.
The world, as we like to say, in one city.