REPORT
The Law Society Report W
e have all been affected in numerous ways by the Coronavirus and the restrictions that have been implemented to keep us safe. Solicitors, and the legal profession overall, are no different. Members across England and Wales face the same challenges as everyone else: from how to keep themselves, their employees and their clients safe; to how to keep their businesses viable; and dealing with the physical and mental impact of the pandemic. The Law Society of England and Wales has continued to work diligently throughout the last ten months to support our members during the turbulence brought on by the Coronavirus crisis. All of our guides and resources are available on our website, which I would encourage you to review.1 However, as the year draws to a close, I would like to shine a light a key piece of the Society’s work that you may have missed during the pandemic; namely our work on supporting the profession through the end of the Brexit transition period. The Law Society have been undertaking high profile work of vital interest to the solicitor profession and have been making continuous representations on behalf of our members in advance of the UK’s departure from the European Union. Following the referendum, the Society set out key priorities for legal services and the justice system as part of any agreement: ■ Access for lawyers to practice law and base themselves in the UK and EU and EFTA member states ■ Civil, commercial and family judicial co-operation, including recognition and enforcement of judgements and respect for choice of jurisdiction clauses across the EU ■ Collaboration in policing, security and criminal justice ■ Legal certainty throughout the process of withdrawal ■ Government collaboration with the legal services sector to continue to promote England and Wales as the governing law of contracts, the jurisdiction of choice and London as the preferred seat of arbitration These priorities have been the basis of work influencing stakeholders in both the UK and EU. The Law Society have been continuously engaging with a number of these key stakeholders to discuss the legal sector priorities for the EU negotiations. These include: the lord chancellor; solicitor general; justice minister and business minister. We have also had regular contact with civil servants in the Ministry of Justice, the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. We have repeatedly met with MPs and peers on our Brexit priorities and have given written evidence to over 15 select committees, and oral evidence a further seven times. This led to our policy recommendations being included in several reports and has been key to ensuring stakeholders in parliament and the EU are aware and receptive of our members’ priorities and concerns.
The Law Society have been actively engaging with the profession in Greater London, the South East and East to share our knowledge of the issues surrounding Brexit with our members, and how best to prepare as 31 December gets ever closer. We held virtual roundtables with Local Law Societies in the region, at which our then vice-president, David Greene, gave an update on the Society’s ongoing work and invited members to share their own concerns and experiences. However, at the point of writing the risk of the UK leaving without a future relationship remains, and it is likely there will be significant changes for individual solicitors and firms. We have been clear that UK lawyers working in the EU and EFTA states should already be taking steps to ensure their continued practice after 31 December. Our international team have prepared extensive country guides of the national regulations that apply in each jurisdiction in the EU/EFTA, and have been liaising with stakeholders such as the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), as well as individual Bar Associations, to establish the conditions for UK solicitors to practice under home title after the end of the transition period.2 We have been supporting the profession by providing guidance since the referendum, and are encouraging members to review this guidance in the run up to 31 December. Some of our latest resources include a 10-step checklist3 for law firms to prepare for the end of the transition period, as well as guidance on: the impact of the end of free movement and what can be done to prepare; EU legal professional privilege; civil judicial co-operation (including on the taking of evidence, service of documents, rules on jurisdiction, alternative dispute resolution, enforcement of foreign judgements and choice of court agreements); family law (private family law and public children law) and the practice rights of EU/EFTA lawyers in the UK and UK lawyers in the EEA and Switzerland.4 We have numerous webinars and podcasts available regarding the end of transition period that can be viewed on our website.5 A number of areas are still subject to negotiations by the UK and EU, and we shall update our guidance when the negotiations conclude. Further support will also be made available in the new year to assist members. Though this is just one example of our recent work, there are of course plenty of other examples of our areas of priority and recent successes available on our website.6 If you have not done so already, please sign up for a My LawSociety (My LS) account7 where you will be able to tailor the latest news, advice, practice notes and jobs relevant to your professional interests on a personalised dashboard. You can also add information to your Find a Solicitor profile and choose to opt-in to receive emails from your preferred Local Law Society via a tick-box. Continued on next page SURREYLAWYER | 11
