non profit corporation registered in delaware 1 founded 1980 1980 headquarters chicago united states number of locations 300 area served africa asia australia new zealand europe north america south america key people carol b. ervin chair board of directors ; 2 3 lee stephen macphee interim chief executive officer 4 website alfa international alfa international the global legal network inc. commonly known as alfa international is a global legal network consisting of 145 independent law firms including 80 u.s. law firms and 65 member firms in other countries . 1 5 as with other types of professional services networks the organization serves as a business referral and resource pooling network between member law firms . contents 1 history 2 membership 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit the organization which was originally named the american law firm association 6 was founded in 1980 . 6 7 it is the oldest u.s. based law firm network 1 and one of the largest law firm networks in the world . 8 at its creation it consisted of 12 u.s. law firms that performed insurance defense work for insurance companies with nationwide operations . 9 during the 1980s alfa expanded to include more than 50 law firms in the united states . the membership included firms that handled other types of litigation not just insurance defense as well as transactional legal work . during the 1990s alfa membership grew to include 80 law firms in the united states and 25 law firms in europe latin american and the pacific rim . during the 2000s alfa expanded its international membership to include 60 member firms . membership edit as of 2013 the alfa international network comprises 145 law firms and approximately 10 000 lawyers 5 in 300 offices worldwide . 10 alfa international membership is exclusive to one law firm in each metropolitan area state or country . 6 11 12 member law firms are full service corporate firms 11 and on average each firm consists of approximately 75 attorneys . 1 firms must undergo a rigorous application process prior to being admitted to the organization . 6 13 14 member firms are then regularly audited 12 13 and underperforming firms may be removed from membership . 15 member law firms have no legal ties to one another . 16 see also edit umbrella organization business networking professional services networks multidisciplinary professional services networks references edit a b c d alfa fact sheet pdf . alfa international . retrieved 19 december 2013 . alfa international board of directors . alfa international . retrieved 19 december 2013 . carol b. ervin biography . young clement rivers llp . retrieved 19 december 2013 . alfa international staff . alfa international . retrieved 1 november 2014 . a b young clement rivers news . retrieved 19 december 2013 . a b c d hearn rebekah 30 april 2005 . burch porter touts usefulness of legal network . memphis daily news . retrieved 30 december 2013 . alfa international global legal network . guidestar . retrieved 19 december 2013 . largest law firm networks . hg.org worldwide legal directories . retrieved 19 december 2013 . alfa international history . alfa international . retrieved 19 december 2013 . alfa international law firm associations profile . lexisnexis martindale hubbell . retrieved 30 december 2013 . a b doe john 31 july 2009 . joining the alliance . asia legal business . retrieved 30 december 2013 . a b becoming an alfa international firm . alfa international . retrieved 19 december 2013 . a b doe john 5 october 2009 . smart networking considers the risks . lawyers weekly australia . retrieved 19 december 2013 . dahl dick 2 january 2008 . networking . new england in house . retrieved 19 december 2013 . whealing justin 11 june 2010 . the ties that bind pdf . lawyers weekly australia . retrieved 19 december 2013 . kane brad 19 september 2011 . local law firms leaning on global affiliations . hartfordbusiness.com . retrieved 19 december 2013 . external links edit irs form 990 filings for 2009 2011 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title alfa international & oldid 743372122 categories professional networksbusiness and industry organizations based in chicagolegal organizations in chicagoorganizations established in 19801980 establishments in illinois501 c 6 nonprofit organizations navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 10 41 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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