The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) has all but dropped work on plans to allow law firms to seek informed consent from clients to act in conflict of interest situations, it emerged in Brussels last week.

Speaking at the CCBE's 100th plenary session, Scottish barrister Colin Tyre QC - who heads its deontology (ethics) committee - said the work 'has been put on the back-burner'.

It emerged a year ago that the committee was set to recommend amending the CCBE code of conduct so lawyers could continue to act in a conflict of interest as long as the client gives informed consent, currently not allowed in England and Wales.

In general, the code - which applies to cross-border situations - has been adopted by all CCBE member countries.

Since then, the European Commission has unveiled plans under the draft EU Framework Services Directive to harmonise codes of conduct (see [2004] Gazette, 22 January, 1).

Mr Tyre, who also heads the UK delegation to the CCBE, explained the work on conflicts had been overshadowed by a project to revise the CCBE code so that it can be the prototype for national codes of conduct.

It is likely only to provide basic principles which national bars and law societies can develop, rather than a detailed code to be adopted uniformly across Europe.

However, it was also proving very difficult to approach any consensus among CCBE delegations on the issue of informed consent.

'We hadn't got very far,' Mr Tyre conceded.

'There is still fiercely divided opinion.'

CCBE president Hans-Jrgen Hellwig, a leading German lawyer, told the Gazette that raising informed consent as part of the review would be a 'project killer' given the difficulties of gaining pan-European agreement.

As there was no prospect of doing so, there was no point in spending the time, he added.

The Law Society Council last week delayed a debate on new conflict rules for England and Wales.

Introducing consent is one of the issues under discussion .

See [2004] Gazette, 20 May, pages 5 & 14

Neil Rose