City lobby wants clear post-Brexit plans for legal sector
An influential City lobby group has called on the UK government to urgently and clearly articulate its plans to safeguard the interests of the country's legal services industry post-Brexit.
In a report published on December 20, TheCityUK said the legal sector was “a vital asset for the UK” thanks to the widespread use of English law to underpin commercial contracts and international dispute resolutions.
Around a quarter of the 320 legal jurisdictions worldwide are founded on English common law principles and 4% of governing law in global corporate arbitrations is English law, according to the report entitled The impact of Brexit on the UK-based legal services sector.
The UK legal services industry contributed around £25.7 billion to the UK economy in 2015 and currently employs some 370,000 people – of which more than a fifth work in City-related functions – according to TheCityUK.
Miles Celic, chief executive at TheCityUK, said: “It is vital that the key challenges and opportunities for the sector are addressed in the Brexit negotiations and that its competitiveness is maintained and enhanced.”
TheCityUK outlined four recommendations for the UK government that it believes will help safeguard the sector’s competitiveness.
These include working with the legal profession to promote the “ongoing value and validity of… English law in its Brexit messaging”; articulating how cross-border civil litigation will be handled once the UK leaves the EU; maintaining the sector’s access to the free movement of professionals practicing legal services; and engaging with industry bodies to assess and understand knock-on impacts of Brexit on the legal sector.
