Bulgaria courts West

Bulgaria has become a focus of legal interest among Western lawyers with signs that the regime is planning to liberalise the terms under which foreign lawyers may practise.Two US practitioners have been assisting working groups of the Supreme Bar Council of Bulgaria on a blueprint for intensive change of the country's Attorneys Act.

Reform of the Act could pave the way for a liberal regime for foreign lawyers in the country, as Bulgaria seeks accession to the EU.

The US advisers are assisting the Bulgarians under the auspices of the Central and Eastern European Initiative of the American Bar Association (CEELI), which has also been advising from the perspective of the European Union, as the Bulgarian Bar is keen to gain observer status at the council of the bars and law societies of Europe (CCBE).

CEELI is in the process of appointing two European legal expert advisers.Neil McGregor, head of Sinclair Roche & Temperley's Bucharest-based Romanian office said: 'It's somewhere we would never rule out as a legal market.

But it's early days.' See feature

Jeremy Fleming