The Story Behind the Name: Joachim Maiss on Founding GBL
- Jul 7
- 4 min read
Every network has an origin story. For Global Business Lawyers, that story starts with a member of an old school legal network who wanted change, a short list of twenty possible names, and a firm belief that things could be done differently.
We sat down with Joachim Maiss, one of the founding fathers of GBL and the man who came up with its name, to look back at how it all began.
From Frustration to a Fresh Idea
Before GBL, Joachim was active in another legal network together with Thomas, a colleague based in Paris and Toulouse. That network had its problems. There was no rotating board, directors stayed in their seats indefinitely, and for German members it was especially limiting, since it had started as a network of German firms with only around twenty members in the country. Not exactly a recipe for generating new business.
When Thomas switched firms and found himself without a network to join, he suggested they simply start their own. Joachim agreed, but with one condition. Thomas's idea was for his own firm's name to become the network's name. Joachim didn't think that would work. Law firms don't want to rebrand themselves under someone else's name to join a network, but they are happy to join a network that carries its own identity. Thomas brought the idea to his partners, who agreed.
Finding the Name
Finding that identity became Joachim's job. He drew up a short list of about twenty possible names. From that list came Global Business Lawyers, GBL. The founding group reached out to a small circle of trusted contacts: Hans in Amsterdam, Carla in Finland, Marek, a colleague in Istanbul, and later Romney. The organisation was incorporated in France, with the founding minutes drafted at the end of 2016.
A New Kind of Legal Network
From the start, GBL was meant to feel different. Meetings would run midweek, arriving Wednesday evening, working Thursday, and home again for the weekend, rather than the traditional weekend format ending in a gala dinner. The articles of association were written to guarantee a rotating board, balancing fresh energy with experience, so no one could sit in a leadership seat for over a decade without change.
Another founding principle was to admit only one firm per jurisdiction. This made membership genuinely attractive: joining as the sole firm in your country meant becoming the network's go to lawyers there.
The first official meeting took place in Amsterdam, hosted by Hans's firm in an industrial, standing room only venue by the harbour. About thirty delegates attended, a strong turnout for a first gathering. Growth continued steadily from there, reaching over a thousand members before the pandemic. Today GBL covers roughly 96 countries, with the ambition to reach 150.
Proud Like a Father
Looking back, Joachim describes GBL as a living body. What was once called “our baby” is now, in his words, a teenager who skipped a few grades, smart and heading toward adulthood. Seeing the network succeed, and seeing members build real friendships alongside real business, is what makes him proud, much like a father watching a child grow.
On AI and the Future of the Profession
Asked about the mission and values of the Alliance today, Joachim points to artificial intelligence as one of the biggest challenges the profession has ever faced. He has watched translation tools go from rough to remarkably good over the past seven or eight years, and now sees AI supporting legal research as well. His advice to fellow lawyers is to use these tools rather than fear them, while making clear to clients that AI is not a replacement for a lawyer's judgment, especially where dealing with courts and authorities is concerned. Clients should be able to focus on running their business and leave legal matters to their lawyers, just as they leave medical matters to their doctors. It is no surprise that AI was a central topic at the GBL conference in Ljubljana.
For the next generation of lawyers, Joachim believes GBL's value lies in exposure to different perspectives through international colleagues. He encourages member firms to send their younger attorneys to meetings and to make sure everyone within the firm, not just the partners, knows what GBL is and what it offers.
A New Chapter, Personally
Joachim recently moved from partner to of counsel, a change that lets him choose the clients and cases he takes on. For the first time, he can take four weeks off with a clear conscience, while still enjoying the occasional weekend of work when the mood strikes. He speaks fondly of his father, a macroeconomist at the World Bank, who kept taking on projects well into retirement simply because he enjoyed the work. It is a model Joachim hopes to follow himself.
Final Words of Advice
Asked what message he would leave for future GBL members, Joachim borrowed a line from comedian Lily Tomlin: the road to success is always under construction. GBL, he says, is a living thing that needs fostering, mending and growth, much like a child needs love and care from its parents. His hope is simple: that in a hundred or two hundred years, people will still enjoy GBL as a network, a platform and a home.
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