Hi everyone,
Please see below my paraphrased write up of the Financial Times article! I hope you find it interesting
Also worth noting that on my vacation scheme at Latham, they stated that they had registered the vast majority of their London-based lawyers in Ireland too in order to mitigate potential Brexit disruptions.
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Financial Times: ‘Legal sector faces £3.5bn hit from no-deal Brexit, says Law Society’
(1st August 2019)
The Law Society has warned that a no-deal Brexit would cut £3.5bn from the legal sector and put 10,000 jobs at risk in the UK. The professional body is imploring the UK to negotiate crucial rights for practising lawyers to protect the profession and clients after the UK's departure from the EU.
The UK legal sector contributed £27.9bn to the economy in 2018 and the UK is Europe’s largest exporter of legal services.
The fear is that a disorderly Brexit would inhibit UK lawyers from accessing the European legal market which, in turn, would prevent them from advising European clients on EU matters of law and from appearing in European courts. There would also be a threat to lawyer-client confidentiality in the EU under legal professional privilege.
The Law Society has approached the government pleading that they extend these rights in the form of a negotiated agreement to allow UK lawyers their continued access to the European market. The body wants the duplication of the Lawyers’ Directives in the UK and the EU which would enable Welsh and English qualified lawyers to continue their practice within Europe.
The EU has similar agreements with Norway, Iceland and Switzerland at present.
Law firms have been reasonably vigilant and mindful of the threats of a disorderly Brexit by registering their lawyers in Ireland to protect client confidentiality and retain professional privilege. Law firms such as Pinsent Masons, Clyde & Co and Fieldfisher have all opened Dublin offices since the referendum vote and more are expected to follow suit. Other firms have also been bulking out their presence in EU member states to try and minimize the risks associated with a no-deal.
Law firms with a heavy IP or tech focus are likely to be even more vulnerable in an instance of no-deal because trademarks will no longer have EU-wide recognition post-Brexit.
Fieldfisher has registered more than 20 London lawyers who focus on competition and trademark law to curtail these issues and they also started making plans for an opening in Frankfurt as a strategic financial market within a strong EU country.
By mid-August of 2018, over 1,600 lawyers had signed up to the Irish Roll of solicitors compared to just 186 in the first 6 months of 2016. The Law Gazette reported that English and Welsh solicitors accounted for 14% of the Irish Roll by May of this year.
