There is good news, but it is not much reported.
If you want relief from doom-scrolling about lack of investment in the UK, political uncertainty after two great resignations, an economy that is not perceptibly growing (never mind a worldwide rollercoaster ride of expanding wars and shocking geopolitical realignments) – read this article to find out how some things are going right, at least for a section of the UK legal profession and for the UK overall.
Before beginning, I know that there are parts of our profession – legal aid practices, for instance – which face severe challenges. But there is another group which is making economic waves worldwide.
The Law Society published a report last week, the 3rd edition of its annual ‘International Data Insights Report’. It has been barely covered in the national press (the Times’ legal pages being an exception).
The report gives the statistics behind the world-beating success of the UK’s international legal services market.
For instance, English law governs around 40% of all international business and financial transactions across a wide range of industries and areas. This percentage equals hundreds of trillions of pounds of value. The latest available figures are from 2021, and in that year the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives trade governed by English law came to £545 trillion, and metals to £9 trillion, sending English law into the stratosphere. After that, mergers and acquisitions amounted to (a mere) £250 billion, and insurance to £80 billion.
As for dispute resolution, it doesn’t matter whether disputes arising from these international transactions are settled in court or via arbitration. Our share continues to lead in both.
The London Commercial Court (LCC) outperforms by some distance (in terms of number of judgments) its nearest rival, the New York Commercial Division, as well as the equivalent courts in Dubai, Qatar and Singapore.
61.7% of litigants who appeared before the LCC over the last year came from foreign jurisdictions, representing a total of 93 nationalities, the highest ever recorded. After the UK, the most common nationalities were the United Arab Emirates (68 litigants) and the United States (66 litigants). Russia was close behind with 60 litigants, a huge jump from the previous year. Germany, Spain and Luxembourg together provided 78 litigants.
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As for international arbitration, London remains the most preferred seat according to a 2025 survey, selected by 34% of respondents, followed by Singapore (31%).
London’s advantage, as I mentioned recently, comes also from the curious two categories of arbitrations. One part is conducted through well-known institutions, of which the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) is our leader, ranking among the top five or higher around the world, depending on the metric used. There are other institutions based elsewhere: the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC, based in Paris), and successful national institutions in Singapore, Hong Kong, Stockholm and elsewhere.
But London also hosts ad hoc arbitrations under the rules of specialist trade bodies and organisations, such as the Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA) and the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA). These bodies host most of London’s arbitrations – so the LMAA hosted over 1700 maritime arbitrations over the last year, more than twice those hosted by its nearest rival, the ICC, and its appointment of arbitrators was also more than double that of the ICC.
Even when arbitrations are handled by foreign-based institutions, English law continues to dominate. At the ICC, English law is chosen more than twice as often as its nearest rival, Swiss law, and in the national arbitration centres like Singapore or Stockholm, English typically comes after national law in second place.
All of this contributes economic value to our country. The value of UK legal services exports has increased by £2.54 billion over the course of five years, rising from £6.48 billion in 2020 to £9.02 billion in 2024. The EU and the US are the two most important destinations for these exports. The trade balance in legal services, after deducting imports, came to £7.41 billion.
The overall turnover of solicitors’ firms in England and Wales grew by 7% in 2024 to £34.27bn.
The revenue of London-based firms grew by an even higher 8% to £23.16bn, meaning that London firms account for 67.6% of the overall turnover of the profession.
I could go on and on, but the picture is clear. English law and the services of those law firms which export legal services abroad are a stupendous success story, for which we can all be grateful. We are so used to hearing about our decline that this aspect of national life should be more widely celebrated.
The success of English law may be due to historic reasons, good and bad, but its prominent place is maintained in good part by the current crop of solicitors, whom we should congratulate.
Jonathan Goldsmith is Law Society Council member for EU & International, chair of the Law Society’s Policy & Regulatory Affairs Committee and a member of its board. All views expressed are personal and are not made in his capacity as a Law Society Council member, nor on behalf of the Law Society
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