According to Legal Week, lawyers from Magic Circle trio Allen & Overy, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May as well as Hogan Lovells have all rushed to register on the Law Society of Ireland solicitors roll ahead of next week’s referendum on Britain’s future in the EU. There are fears that should the UK opt to leave the EU, it will become more difficult for UK-qualified lawyers to practice in the EU unless they are also registered in an EU country. Registrations in Ireland are open to all UK-qualified solicitors with three years’ PQE or more and will set applicants back a €300 one-off admission fee plus €2,000 annually to qualify as a practicing solicitor.
Not a ‘quick fix’
Several City firms are reportedly funding certain members of their practice, both associates and partners, across many different practice areas to register in the Republic of Ireland before 23 June in order to safeguard their operations in the EU. However, Slaughters’ Brussels-based competition partner John Boyce has warned against viewing the Irish solicitors’ roll as a ‘quick fix’ for UK-qualified lawyers in a post-Brexit landscape: ‘If the UK were to leave the EU, it would be open to the Law Society of Ireland to discriminate against non-EU nationals and charge a higher fee than payable by Irish or other EU nationals – including for UK nationals who had been admitted before the referendum,’ he warned.
Source: Legal Week
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