Clifford Chance's decision to hire one of the country's top business management strategists may herald a new era of aggressive competition in the legal market.Kevin Geary, 43, a former partner with international management consultancy firm Coopers & Lybrand, was appointed last week to a specially created post of head of business development.

He brings with him a wealth of experience in advising leading British companies and City banks on management strategy.Many see the appointment as a sign that top City law firms are now willing to adopt tough commercial practices to compete with the growing threat from US law firms.And Clifford Chance senior partner Keith Clark acknowledges that the arrival of Mr Geary marks a 'new phase of professionalism'.

He said: 'There is a need to ally this [new professionalism] with a completely professional understanding of the markets.'Mr Clark predicts only half a dozen truly international law firms will emerge from an intense period of competition between US and English practices.

And Mr Geary believes all law firms will have to recognise the importance of harmonising a legal service with business development.He warns that without this parity, law firms may succumb to more aggressive competitors, particularly from the USA.Mr Geary describes his brief with Clifford Chance 'to enhance the business development in the whole practice'.

To this end he will be working closely with teams of partners from all over the world to improve their business effectiveness.Mr Clark believes Mr Geary's skills will be invaluable in the firm's ambition of becoming a multi-jurisidictional law firm.

Last week the 229-strong partnership opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City, bringing its total number of offices to 23.

Asia, part of an ever-increasing legal market, is currently the focus of tough competition from international law firms.Says Mr Clark: 'We want to service the major business and financial centres on an integrated, one firm basis, worldwide.'He adds: 'All the different economies have been liberalising, so global players have increased their presences in individual countries.'As big businesses move towards more international operations, their call on legal services has diversified.

US law firms have responded quickly and are particularly to the fore.

Says Mr Clark: 'We very early on spotted that challenge and decided that we were going to take that on.

It is our belief that you must focus on quality and relish the participation from all the lawyers of the jurisdictional backgrounds relevant to service that global economy.'Those US firms which wish to succeed in penetrating an already highly-tuned London market, Mr Clark believes, will have to be 'very good' indeed.And while US firms are concentrating their efforts over here, Clifford Chance has recently beefed up its US operation by recruiting American lawyers to its New York office.Although Clifford Chance is aware of increased American competition in the London marketplace, Mr Clark says it is not the reason the firm has 'geared up its business development capacity'.

He says Mr Geary's appointment has come about through an evolutionary development of Clifford Chance's marketing department and the desire to provide a 'quality service'.'There are great opportunities in the legal industry for people who want to be niche players within a specific context,' he says.

'The big challenge for law firms is to decide whether or not they are going to respond to the demands of the wider sphere of operations.'He predicts that those firms caught between the two stools, neither offering a niche service nor responding to the internationalisation of the markets, will encounter difficulties.Mr Clark also believes it is important to be aware of the growing trend in the foreign ownership of British companies and he cites Barings, Midland and Warburgs as examples.

'We must understand what is happening in the markets, how it is impacting on our clients, how their legal needs are changing and how we need to shape up to that.'Law firms have traditionally relied on informal business structures and agreements in their practices.

Those that do not move towards more professional corporate methods may find the competition more difficult to beat.Mr Geary believes the differences in business management between law firms and city businesses have arisen because of 'different levels of competitiveness'.

But he says law firms are now recognising the growth in competition in the legal markets.

'The dominant competition is domestic but it will become increasingly international.

The boundaries between the two are getting more and more blurred,' he says.He explains that because of the 'lower competitive intensity' in which law firms used to operate it has been possible to be quite successful with 'quite modest' business development.'Law firms, like most professions, have been reluctant to make explicit the business development.

Previously it has been understated, quietly done by successful partners,' he says.

And sometimes, he says, this means business development processes have not been 'fully understood'.Mr Clark also believes it is important that all partners should understand how Clifford Chance is addressing 'product analysis' and 'client relationship'.The huge size of Clifford Chance's operation means it has to overcome communication and liaison difficulties that other firms do not.

Explains Mr Geary: 'The inputs required on a major transaction come from six or ten different depart ments within Clifford Chance.

So it is no longer possible to organise something around the coffee machine.''The challenge', he says, 'is how can we make it more formal, more explicit without imposing rigidity and still encourage imagination and initiative.'Mr Geary wants to see a move away from the traditional 'support' role of marketing to a partnership between business development professionals and legal professionals.He admits that he has had little previous experience of the legal profession and that his impression of lawyers before he joined Clifford Chance was of 'stiff, dull, boring and unimaginative' people.

Now he says he knows he is going to be dealing with 'very bright people'.And he concedes that he is facing a 'major challenge' because of the high expectation from Clifford Chance partners.