Shipman Partner Glenn M. Cunningham Reflects on Five Years of Extraordinary Global Changes as Chair of Interlaw Network

After five years of leadership that included steering the organization through a global pandemic, Shipman & Goodwin LLP Partner Glenn M. Cunningham is marking the end of his time as Chair of the Board of Directors of Interlaw, a leading global network of independent law firms.  He will continue to be active on the Board as he was selected for a two-year term. Glenn’s contributions were celebrated at Interlaw’s 2023 Annual Global meeting that took place last week in Costa Rica.  As Glenn’s tenure concludes, Interlaw has grown to include more than 8,000 attorneys at 90 law firms in 138 different countries covering over 150 different jurisdictions with a combined annual revenue of more than $7 billion USD. In addition, Interlaw has seen an 800% growth on the African continent and has achieved 100% participation in all Latin American countries.

Glenn’s leadership term began in October 2018. He quickly began the implementation of Interlaw’s newly approved strategic plan - dubbed “Interlaw 2.0.” However, implementation was unexpectedly upended by the global pandemic and associated global business disruptions. Shortly after the 2019 Annual Meeting in Beijing, the COVID-19 pandemic closed borders, shuttered businesses, and created a remote workforce practically overnight. The foresight of Interlaw 2.0 proved to be invaluable for member law firms and their clients that could no longer travel. They were now able to work in an advanced remote setting sharing ideas from across the world. Glenn became the “voice of Interlaw” chairing and moderating hundreds of online meetings with members and clients. What Interlaw needed at the time was reassurance, a bit of good-natured humor, and most of all – leadership. Glenn provided all of these on a global scale.

Members benefit from new initiatives such as the Interlaw Academy, the Women of Interlaw Network, Leadership Live and a Client Management and Feedback System which won a commendation at the 2019 Legalweek Innovation Awards. Interlaw has been honored to receive 26 awards and recognitions in the past five years including Global Legal Network of the Year (The Lawyer), Elite Law Firm Network and Top Ranked Elite Network (Chambers & Partners).   

Under Glenn’s leadership, Shipman partners Andrew Davis and Alfredo Fernández spearheaded Interlaw’s Global per-and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) Initiative as part of the Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) international special business team for Interlaw. The focus of this initiative is to address global legal and technical developments regarding PFAS and provide jurisdictional resources to member firms and their clients. They led a discussion in Costa Rica last week at Interlaw’s 2023 Annual Global Meeting in the context of potential PFAS liabilities and risk management solutions in cross-border M&A transactions and what each jurisdiction is doing with legal requirements, litigation, technical developments, and more on the rapidly evolving PFAS issues.  Also at the Global Meeting in Costa Rica, Shipman’s Managing Partner, Leander Dolphin co-led an engaging discussion entitled “Succession Planning for Future Success.” Those in attendance found it enlightening and eye-opening hearing about how succession planning is approached in different parts of the world.

“I am thrilled to have led such an extraordinary legal network and look back on these last five years with pride as we saw unprecedented growth and reaching into underserved nations around the globe,” said Glenn. “The relationships Interlaw provides help us understand international perspectives on many legal issues. Incoming leadership will continue to lead the way for Interlaw members to compete globally, collaborate internally, and provide clients with best-in-class counsel.”   

Glenn is the Chair of Shipman’s Intellectual Property Practice Group. He represents publicly traded and privately held companies in industries, including manufacturing, software and technology, food and beverage, franchise, construction, and healthcare in intellectual property and technology cases throughout the United States. His trial practice includes the prosecution and defense of unfair competition, non-competition agreement, trade secret, trademark, patent and copyright cases.