British lawyers could be left 'high and dry' if the UK gets a 'Canada-plus' Brexit deal, according to Law Society president Joe Egan. As reported in the Brief, he said that a number of EU countries could impose restrictions on legal services from non-EU countries if they were not included in the trade deal negotiated between Britain and the EU. With legal services worth £25.7 billion, this needed to be included in negotiations if UK lawyers were to enjoy free trade in legal services, Mr Egan said, adding that a deal similar to the much mooted EU-Canada trade agreement was not comprehensive enough to include legal services. 

Bespoke legal services exit deal

Mr Egan's comments follow calls from the City of London's lobby group TheCityUK which has said that Brexit poses a threat to the primacy of English law governing international cross-border trade and investment. In its recent report, it asked for the government to join, or incorporate into UK law, a host of international agreements governing contracts and various dispute resolution mechanisms. Furthermore it called for a bespoke exit deal relating to legal services. 

Dangers for legal services

Some of the other dangers highlighted around legal services include limits on the ability to give advice attracting legal professional privilege to clients. Communications with and advice given to clients in the EEA by non-EEA lawyers cannot be kept private. They may be obtained and used by the European Commission in competition proceedings against clients with the result that businesses would no longer wish to use UK lawyers for deals between UK and EEA businesses or proceedings arising from them. 

Possible restrictions 

In the worst scenario, UK lawyers would have to register a physical presence in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and Spain in order to practise law. UK lawyers could no longer provide cross border advice from the UK to clients in 12 EU member states, including to UK citizens resident in the EU on purely UK matters. UK law firms with a presence (branch or subsidiary) and US law firms operating under UK regulatory banner in 15 member states would need a different regulatory authorisation and possibly restructuring to remove UK only qualified lawyers and/or head quartering in another EU member state in order to maintain a presence in those member states. 

EU contract law

Jonathan Goldsmith, head of the CCBE, warns that there will be other implications including plans to introduce a European contract law which both the UK government and the Law Society oppose it. He said that the UK’s refusal to countenance it had a powerful effect and was taken seriously by EU officials and politicians. Once Britain leaves the EU, he says that if there is eventually a single contract law in the remaining member states, it will have an impact on the influence and currency of the English common law as a default law used in contracts.