World Services Group

Multidisciplinary professional services networks were an important phenomenon in the late 1990s and early part of 2000.[2] The Big 4 accounting firms were creating their own multidisciplinary networks by acquiring legal departments. Their objective was to share fees with the lawyers in the network. The shear potential of these potentially massive networks threatened independent law firms and questioned the whether or not it was a violation of the rules of legal ethics prohibiting fee sharing with non-lawyers.[3] After the fall of Enron, it became clear that a law firm controlled by an accounting firm and providing services to a common client contained an inherent conflict of interest. This led to the passage of Sarbanes–Oxley effectively prohibiting accounting firms from providing legal services through a controlled law firm. However, independent law and accounting firms creating networks in which no facilities and client profits were shared remained permissible[4] allowing a number of networks to take advantage of the availability of this exception for multidisciplinary networks.[5] They included Alliott Group,[6] MSI Global Alliance[7] Morison International,[8] the Geneva Group[9] and World Services Group.[10]

In 2010, the board made the decision focus on three services: legal, accounting and investment banking/financial services.

Different from traditional networks in the industry, WSG's development centered on a technical platform to provide multi-tier networking capabilities.[11] This allows the building of relationships and the maintenance, growth and interaction of members. The proprietary technology permits individual professionals to access each other, communicate, develop relationships, and establish internal preferences. Additionally, the systems content is individualized for each professional. The result is a database of 12,000 professionals at the member firms who can be identified by any terms within their profiles. WSG is one of the first global transparent networks of professionals that can be accessed for both their location, their expertise and experience challenging the industry to keep up with current advances.

WSG is a global professional services network of independent firms who represent their own individual client. In WSG, like most of these organizations member firms are individually evaluated and selected.[12] WSG is governed by a board of directors consisting of representatives from each region and from the various services that the members provide. WSG operates and is managed by a staff of eight professionals in the US.

From 2001 - 2004, Kimberly Jones (Naser) served as the network's first Director of Marketing and Communications and was instrumental in startup functions, member firms recruitment, financial management, and executive assistant to the Board of Directors.

WSG is divided into six regions: Africa and Middle East, Asia Pacific, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, and North America. Each region has a regional council consisting of six WSG member representatives. All WSG members are recognized as leading independent firms in their region by the top ranking publications and awards including,[13] Members regularly rank in Chambers and Partners,[14] Super Lawyers,[15] Best Lawyers,[16] Legal 500,[17] International Financial Law Review 1000[18] and other rating organizations

• Umbrella organization
• Business networking
• Organizational Studies
• Professional services networks