City law firms are sizing up the Malaysian legal sector as a potential area for development, after the government there signalled its intention to lift curbs on foreign firms operating in the country.

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, Malaysia’s law minister, told reporters at a press conference last week that liberalising the legal market would boost investment from abroad.

He said: ‘If we want big foreign multinationals and big banks to come to our country, they normally would want to use the lawyers that would suit their needs... these are the realities that we have to accept.’

Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, president of the Malaysian Bar Council, described opening the country’s legal market to foreign competition as ‘inevitable’, adding: ‘We accept that we must be global.’

The news comes as the Law Society prepares to bring a delegation of City lawyers to the LawAsia conference – normally attended by around 1,500 legal professions from the Asia-Pacific region – in Kuala Lumpur in October this year.

Alison Hook, head of international at the Law Society, said that she, incoming Law Society Vice-President Bob Heslett and a contingent of City firms would create a ‘big presence’ at the conference, with the aim of ‘re-engaging the market-opening process’.

Martin Amison, partner and head of international at City firm Trowers & Hamlins, who is attending the conference, said: ‘We are aiming to hob-nob with a lot of lawyers from Asia. It is also very useful to make contact with potential clients out there.’

Amison added that his firm would consider opening an office in Malaysia as a ‘long-term’ goal.

Crispin Rapinet, regional managing partner for Asia and the Middle East at City firm Lovells, said his firm would consider setting up in Malaysia if restrictions were lifted.

He said Lovells, like other non-­resident firms, tended to operate in the Malaysian market via its office in Singapore, and had also advised Malaysian banks on sukuk (Islamic bond) issues through its Dubai office.

‘There is a lot of investment flowing from Malaysia to the Middle East’, he said, ‘the [Malaysian] banks want advice on how to raise finance in a sharia-compliant way.’

Clint Evans, chief executive of City firm Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, said the law minister’s comments were ‘good news’ and that his firm was interested in developing its presence in the country. ‘Malaysia is well developed in terms of its infrastructure,’ he added.

A spokesperson from City firm Norton Rose said: ‘We are seriously considering our position in Malaysia, but at present we are not looking to open an office.’