Charter conflicts with UK regulations on privilege issues

Common law jurisdictions are set to clash with their European counterparts over the question of professional privilege and the obligation to report criminal activity by clients.A draft charter being prepared by the Union Internationale des Avocats - the francophone-dominated equivalent of the International Bar Association - calls for professional privilege to be supreme in all instances.According to the draft, which was prepared at the UIA annual conference in Turin last week: 'When a lawyer discovers a criminal or illegal transaction, the lawyer must refuse to participate in it.

Even in such a case, the lawyer cannot be subject to any obligation to report such a discovery.'This would conflict with money laundering regulations in the UK and other common law jurisdictions.After representations by UK national vice-president Lucy Winskell, partner at the Newcastle office of Eversheds, it was agreed that the issue would be considered at a later meeting.

Ms Winskell said: 'The charter as presented to us was not workable - not only for UK solicitors but for others within European jurisdictions.'Also in Turin, the UIA's sub-committee on international legal practice fired a thinly veiled broadside at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over its plans to eliminate barriers to free trade in services.

According to the UIA: 'Many politicians, bureaucrats and administrators within the WTO...

do not yet fully understand the many complex and important roles that lawyers play in societies worldwide.'The sub-committee went on to say that 'if fully informed, these groups will not mistakenly or foolishly adopt regulation which will degrade the quality of legal services available in our respective societies.'In contrast, Law Society President David McIntosh warned the conference against protectionist tendencies.

He said: 'If lawyers merely sit on their hands and fail to meet demands for greater innovation in our legal market places, others - not bound by our levels of professionalism, objectivity and ethics - will take over much of the business we conduct.'

Jonathan Ames