City leads South Korea mission

BLANKET BAN: lobbying efforts are under way to open up lucrative Asian legal market

City lawyers and the Law Society have spearheaded recent lobbying efforts to overcome the blanket prohibition on foreign lawyers practising in South Korea.Earlier this month, a meeting between the British ambassador Charles Humfrey and the Law Society's Korean task force discussed strategic opportunities to press the issue of access by foreign lawyers to the Korean legal services market.Representatives from Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Denton Wide Sapte, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Richards Butler - all City firms keen to establish a presence on the ground in Korea - attended the meeting.It came in the wake of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw discussing legal practice in the south-east Asian republic with his Korean counterpart, Dr Han Seung-Soo.

Mr Straw told Mr Seung-Soo that Korean firms have a high demand for English legal services.On the same day, the first secretary of the British Embassy in South Korea, Guy Harrison, asked the Korean trade minister Hwang Doo-Yun a question about legal services in a televised question-and-answer session relating to the EU chamber of commerce's 2001 trade issues report.The report's section relating to legal services was drafted by Clifford Chance.

Mr Doo-Yun said foreign legal services would be discussed by Korea in the context of the GATS world trade discussions.Robert Finch, a partner at Linklaters who attended the task force meeting - and who accompanied the Lord Mayor of London on a visit to South Korea last year, when he was Sheriff of the City of London - said if Korea was to open up, a suitable mechanism might be copied from Singapore, Hong Kong or Japan.

Clifford Chance is preparing a briefing for the British ambassador on these different systems.Mr Finch said that Korea and India were the 'last nuts to crack', in terms of high-value economies that prohibit foreign lawyers from practising.Clifford Chance partner Roger Best predicted that it would take at least another year before Korea would open to foreign firms.Other City firms that are members of the task force include Simmons & Simmons, Baker & McKenzie, CMS Cameron McKenna, Ince & Co and Holman Fenwick & Willan.Many firms are reported to be laying the groundwork for future relationships with Korean firms.

Simmons & Simmons has a two-way secondment scheme and referral relationship with South Korean firm Shin & Kim.Jeremy Fleming