Edward Nally talks about the importance of international relations and the Law Society’s efforts to pursue global opportunities for solicitors during his time as president

One of the most abiding memories that I shall have of my time as Law Society President is the reach and significance of English and Welsh law in the global legal marketplace.


Solicitors from England and Wales are established in more than 60 jurisdictions around the world, and active in many more. English law remains the primary choice for businesses worldwide. And of course England, Wales, and London in particular, are magnets for the international legal community – the historic birthplace of the common law and thus, a natural home for all common law jurisdictions.


As Law Society President, an important element of my role is to help maintain the Society’s global reach and its significance abroad, acting as an ambassador for the profession internationally and welcoming colleagues from the international legal community to the UK.


Lawyers everywhere are facing challenges in the modern world, and opportunities to discuss experiences and ways of addressing important issues have become invaluable.


In the first few months of my presidency, I was privileged to visit the American Bar Association, where I spoke on three or four major platforms during their conference. The topics covered were wide-ranging but very resonant of our experience here – money laundering and the fight to combat financial crime and international terrorism; regulation of lawyers and the need to preserve the rule of law and protect independence from the state.


For that particular audience, international human rights was a central theme, with the impact of the Guantanamo Bay internment camp on the international legal community falling into sharp focus. The Law Society took a central role in pushing for a resolution, and at the conference I joined 26 other international legal leaders in condemning the situation at the camp.


The Law Society has also taken a lead in worldwide trade liberalisation and has been working closely with World Trade Organisation and other key bodies to open markets of interest to solicitors overseas. We continue to lobby target markets, both bilaterally and at a multilateral level, and progress is being made.


In India, for example, the debate has now shifted significantly – from outright opposition to liberalisation to a consideration of when and how. I had the opportunity to visit India last year, not only to promote friendship and rapport with the Indian Bar Association, but also to continue to press for liberalisation at a time when the country’s GATS offer was imminent. It followed a visit by the then Department for Constitutional Affairs minister David Lammy. I met the Minister of Trade and the Minister of Justice, as well as numerous bar leaders and local practitioners, and the visit was a success.


As an emerging and important market for English and Welsh law firms, visits to jurisdictions such as India are vital. And they are taken seriously by local bars and senior local politicians whom we meet on these occasions.


Pursuing better co-operation with law societies and bar associations around the world is priority for the Law Society. In October, we jointly hosted with the Bar Council a visit from an impressive array of international bar leaders on the occasion of the opening of our legal year. We had the opportunity during that visit to forge friendships and bilateral agreements and to continue existing strands of work.


Specifically, a friendship agreement was signed with the Brazilian bar, which has now led to a mutual exchange programme. Five young Brazilian lawyers are here on secondment to study and, in due course, to work at English law firms. Next year, we hope young lawyers from England and Wales will be able to enjoy similar opportunities in Brazil. We have also cemented strong working relationships with the Brazilian Bar Association and our own law firms working with Brazilian lawyers.


We also enjoy close liaison with the International Bar Association (IBA), chaired over the next two years by English solicitor Francis Neate. The Clementi review has provided a centrepiece for discussions in all of the jurisdictions I have visited this year. At the IBA conference in Auckland, Sir David Clementi joined international bar leaders by teleconference. Once again, we were at the centre of many of the business sessions.


Add to that the work the Law Society undertakes with the developing bars in the Commonwealth, and discussions with our European counterparts on EU issues and the impact of European legislation on the domestic scene. It is both stimulating and worthwhile, and feedback from our international law firms is immensely positive. All in all, our international work is a good example of the best of the professional body working alongside law firms for the benefit of the profession at large.


Being the Law Society President involves a willingness to operate in all sorts of areas, and inevitably sometimes you are operating outside your own field of practice. But I have been struck with how many common themes apply to much of our work on the international scene.


The rule of law and its application to international commerce and human rights is non-negotiable in all developed democratic jurisdictions – and so it should be. What is remarkable is how consistently the law and lawyers stand up for those core principles.


Edward Nally is President of the Law Society