for world sport group see world sport group . this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . september 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message world services group industry association network founded 2002 founder stephen j. mcgarry headquarters houston texas area served global key people gary assim chairman robert falvey global ambassador maricarmen trujillo chief operating officer jessica ferdinand chief marketing officer services multidisciplinary network legal investment banking accounting website www.worldservicesgroup.com wsg also branded as world services group is a multidisciplinary professional services network of independent law accounting and investment banking firms . it ranks as one of the largest among the more than 200 professional services networks in the world . wsg members are independent law accounting and investment banking firms . according to the organization s website as of 2016 update wsg was formed in 2002 as a multidisciplinary network with the objective of bringing together professionals in a professional services network that creates business opportunities and relationships to better service their clients globally . its members have more than 19 000 professionals in more than 115 countries in almost 400 offices . its global headquarters are located in the houston texas 1 contents 1 history 2 a technical platform 3 corporate governance 3.1 officers 3.2 directors 4 global structure 4.1 africa and middle east 4.2 asia pacific 4.3 caribbean 4.4 europe 4.5 latin america 4.6 n. america 5 representative members 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit 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 msi global alliance 6 morison international 7 the geneva group 8 and world services group . 9 focus today in 2010 the board made the decision focus on three services legal accounting and investment banking financial services . a technical platform edit different from traditional networks in the industry wsg s development centered on a technical platform to provide multi tier networking capabilities . 10 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 . corporate governance edit 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 . 11 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 . officers edit robert falvey global ambassador & chairman emeritus gary assim chairman larry b. pascal chairman elect mark j. harty secretary alejandro antillon a. treasurer maricarmen trujillo chief operating officer jessica ferdinand chief marketing officer directors edit the 16 directors are representative of their regions . david a. allard legal canada j. michael bernard legal michigan usa corina bove legal uruguay johan de bruycker legal belgium francesco gianni legal italy rand hannun adv. legal jordan pablo iacobelli legal chile jeffrey m. jones legal utah usa weronika pelc legal poland yukuo takenaka investment banking japan judith whitehead legal bahamas global structure edit 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 12 members regularly rank in chambers and partners 13 super lawyers 14 best lawyers 15 legal 500 16 international financial law review 1000 17 and other rating organizations africa and middle east edit region consists of 16 member countries with over 600 professionals . there is currently no regional council chair . asia pacific edit region consists of 21 member countries with over 1300 professionals . the regional council chair is rebecca silli of minterellison 18 in china . caribbean edit region consists of firms in 8 countries with over 150 professionals . the regional council is headed by judith whitehead of graham thompson the largest law firm in bahamas . europe edit region has 44 members with over 6 000 professionals . it is the largest network after the big 4 accounting networks the regional council is headed by dirk w. kolvenbach of heuking kuhn luer wojtek 19 one of the largest law firms in the country . latin america edit the latin america region has 21 members with over 1 400 professionals . its regional council is led by ramon ignacio moyano of estudio beccar varela 20 one of the largest law firms in the country . n. america edit the north american region has 25 members with over 6 000 professionals . its regional council is led by hunter rost of waller 21 representative members edit asters shevchenko didkovskiy and partners ukraine deacons hong kong delphi sweden garrigues spain haynes and boone texas hunton & williams virginia husch blackwell missouri lowenstein sandler new jersey shoosmiths england pacheco coto costa rica minter ellison australia stites & harbison kentucky verrill dana maine walder wyss switzerland guyer & regules uruguay see also edit umbrella organization business networking organizational studies professional services networks references edit wsg retrieved on august 31 2013 . american bar association commission on multidisciplinary practices final report appendix c reporter s notes july 2000 jacobs accounting firms covert forbidden fruit piece of the u.s. legal market wall street journal p.b1 may 31 2000 final report aba commission on multidisciplinary practice 2000 commission report perera h. a. rahman and s. cahan globalization and the major accounting firms australian accounting review 13 1 27 37 2003 msi global alliance morison international geneva group wsg well connected the lawyer september 19 2010 mcphee jennifer going global report on law associations canadian lawyer february 2007 . see the lawyer european awards chambers and partners super lawyers best lawyers legal 500 international financial law review 1000 minterellison heuking kuhn luer wojtek qestudio beccar varela waller . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title world services group & oldid 713971565 categories professional networkslegal organizationsinternational organizations based in the united stateshidden categories articles with a promotional tone from september 2011all articles with a promotional tonepages using infobox company with unsupported parametersarticles containing potentially dated statements from 2016all articles containing potentially dated statements 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 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