Solicitors' starship reaches the final frontier

I am struck by how the image of our profession has changed in a couple of generations, from the long-gone caricature of a man with a neat moustache and folded copy of The Times offering reassuring advice to a small company or a suburban family to … wait for it … a frontier industry in the government’s recently published industrial strategy. Who would have predicted that? 

According to the government, and they are right, we are right up there on the frontier with aerospace, life sciences and AI.

This has not happened by accident. Of course, lawyers and law firms have themselves effected this transformation, and deserve the first praise. But the Law Society has worked hard for years, and frenetically over the last few months, to ensure that our economic contribution has not been overlooked.

The latest statistics show that the legal services sector overall:

• includes 32,501 enterprises;

• generates £44 billion in turnover and £34.2 billion in gross value added; and

• creates employment for 311,000 people (nearly half are solicitors, with 201,000 in some legal role, and 110,000 in non-legal supporting roles).

On top of that, the international side of the profession’s economic contribution to the UK economy is stunning.

Again according to the latest available international statistics, English law is the most popular choice of law for commercial contracts, governing approximately 40% of global corporate arbitrations. In 2021, the UK exported £6.5 billion worth of legal services leading to a net balance of £5.5 billion, equalling 6% of UK’s positive trade balance, an upward trend since 2013. The Industrial Strategy mentions that 7 out of the 15 largest global law firms are in the UK.

Looking at the Law Society’s work behind the scenes, and starting with the international side, the Society’s international team is out on the road all the time, meeting bars and ministries of justice and trade in many, many parts of the world, arguing for freer access for solicitors. Only the Law Society has such access and convening power, on behalf of the totality of the profession.

The international team know the template for international cross-border practice off by heart. Can a solicitor provide temporary services inside the foreign country’s borders – if not, why not? Can a solicitor establish a branch locally (and under what conditions), requalify locally, go into partnership with local lawyers or be employed by them, take local lawyers into partnership with them or employ them, advise on local law? The list goes on. 

The international team argue for the lowering of barriers, point by point. They press year by year, including to our own government in terms of the trade agreements that it draws up with other countries. And they have repeated successes, incremental or substantial improvements to solicitors’ practice rights abroad.

For instance, in May of this year it was announced that the Bar Council of India (BCI) had published amended regulations which will for the first time permit foreign lawyers and law firms to practise in India on a reciprocal basis. The President of the Law Society said at the time: ‘The Law Society has been engaging with the BCI as well as the Indian Ministry of Law and Justice for more than two decades working on the opening up of the Indian legal sector.’ More than two decades! This is the unsung work that supports our profession’s own extraordinary economic success

But the industrial strategy also, and indeed mainly, covers the domestic side of the profession’s work. Solicitors around the country should be able to benefit from the more than £150 million that the government is now promising in its new strategy for the professional and business services sector, including:

• using LawTech to address the IT gap between larger firms and the rest of the sector;

• boosting staff training and reskilling, in partnership with business, particularly in specialist skills in digital, net zero transition, and cybersecurity;

• establishing hubs in Liverpool, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and the West Midlands, to work closely with local mayoral strategic authorities, for instance to connect firms to potential investors.

Once more, this response does not come out of nowhere. On top of the contribution by firms and lawyers themselves, the Law Society responded last year to a government consultation on its industrial strategy. It has put forward its views repeatedly to parliament and the civil service, gathering statistics and testing out responses. It regularly draws public attention to issues which affect growth, like the need to invest in lawtech and ensure that firms are protected against cybersecurity and climate risks.

In many countries around the world, lawyers refuse to be considered as businesses, because they see themselves as essential pillars in the justice system, not affected by commercial considerations. But I think we should be proud to have been nominated as a frontier industry, and to receive government support to continue to grow.

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