RULING: Law Society to debate fee-sharing with non-solicitors

The highest court in Belgium last week declared regulations banning multidisciplinary partnerships as null and void.

The Court of Cassation - the country's supreme court - threw out regulations that had been adopted by the Order of Flemish Bar Councils.

The regulations, adopted in January this year, prevented lawyers from sharing or holding capital with non-lawyers, prevented non-lawyers from working within a group containing lawyers under the same name, and any control within such a group of non-lawyers.

The Brussels court ruled that the regulations were in breach of EU competition law because they implied a contravention of article 81 of the Treaty of Rome, which outlaws restriction of competition and between EU member states.

Andrew Holroyd, the Law Society's council member for Merseyside and chairman of the Society's standards board, said: 'I believe that this is the first time that an individual jurisdiction has said to a bar "look, if you are trying to be too protective you are going to come a cropper".'

Mr Holroyd added: 'This case strengthens the hand of those who do think of change as important if we are going to see the development of a legal market in tune with the needs of consumers.'

The Law Society Council will this week debate whether to allow fee sharing with non-solicitors who introduce capital or services into firms.

Jeremy Fleming