On the second day of the Global Law Summit in London, the lord chancellor has made an unashamedly mercantile case for a thriving legal sector – promising to do ‘everything I can to help foster the right environment’ for it to thrive. 

In an article for the London business newspaper City AM, Chris Grayling thanks firms for helping the UK’s economic recovery. ‘The legal sector is making a vital contribution to our long-term economic plan of getting the country back on a sustainable financial footing, and I want to do everything I can to promote it.’

Grayling says the fact he is not a lawyer myself, ‘doesn’t mean I won’t do everything I can to help foster the right environment for our legal sector to continue to thrive. Showcasing it at the Global Law Summit is just part of that’.

His article makes a direct link between the values of Magna Carta and economic prosperity. ‘Magna Carta itself might be centuries old, but its values are no less relevant in the modern world than they were hundreds of years ago. They give families, entrepreneurs and businessmen confidence that the rewards of their hard work are safe. They secure property rights, fair trade, and free and open markets.’

And, in a conclusion likely to prompt tart responses from legal professionals, he says: ‘I am incredibly proud of our legal heritage.’