A consultation document has just been issued by the Law Society regarding steps which it proposes to take to implement the EU Lawyers Establishment Directive (98/5/EC).

This Directive has had a gestation period of about two decades, and was finally passed by the Council of Ministers at the end of 1997, and published in the official journal at the beginning of 1998.

It has to be implemented by all member states by March 2000.The Lord Chancellor's Department is taking the lead in respect of legislative measures necessary within the UK - although it is believed that the Scottish Parliament, once it is established, will have a role in Scottish implementation.

The Directive has far-reaching consequences for the practice of EU lawyers in this country, and for the practice by solicitors from England and Wales in other EU member states.There are two principal legs to the Directive.

The first is that it entitles lawyers from one member state to practise under their home title permanently in another member state.The practice permitted includes home law, European Community and international law, and, most significantly, host law.

In other words, an English solicitor practising in Paris or Milan will be able to practise French or Italian law respectively in those cities.Registering with host BarsA condition of the practice is that the solicitor must register with the host bar within the jurisdiction where the lawyer is established, and the solicitor will be regulated by that bar.

Registration with a host bar is a common enough experience for solicitors practising abroad, although regulation - which will mean that solicitors will be bound by the same rules as host state lawyers - may be a new concept for many.

It will mean, in effect, that solicitors will be regulated twice - or in Euro-speak, will be subject to 'double deontology': they will be regulated by the Law Society of England and Wales and also by the host bar where they are established.In some cases this may lead to a conflict of rules, which will have to be settled between the bars and the lawyers concerned.

It will also almost certainly lead to double discipline in certain cases.The steps taken by the Law Society for implementation do not so much relate to the position of solicitors from England and Wales practising in other member states, as to the position of lawyers from other member states practising in England and Wales.At present, the Law Society has a liberal regime for all foreign lawyers - whether from the EU or elsewhere - wishing to practise in this country.

There is no requirement for such lawyers to register with the Law Society, nor to be regulated by us.

This will change after implementation of the Directive in respect of EU lawyers, and there will effectively be a double regime.Status of non-EU lawyersFor non-EU lawyers, such as Americans, the position will continue as now, and there will be no registration or regulation by the Law Society.

However, for lawyers who are qualified in EU member states - and who are also EU nationals, since the Directive only applies to people who satisfy both conditions - there will be new requirements.Such lawyers will need to register with a professional body in the UK, and then be regulated by that professional body.

The Directive makes clear that they must choose between registering with a Bar or a law society, and presumably the kind of practice which they wish to undertake will govern their choice.It is anticipated that most lawyers will register with the Law Society, since most are present in London and doing work equivalent to that of solicitors.

The Law Society has been undertaking a huge task in recent months, reviewing all its rules - which currently apply almost always only to solicitors - to ensure that they can be extended to cover EU lawyers as well.The consultation document which has just been published covers this review of rules.There are some difficult decisions to be made along the way.

For instance, for continuing professional development purposes, should an EU lawyer who has been working for ten years in another member state be treated as a brand new solicitor or as a solicitor with ten years experience?The Council of Bars and Law Societies of the European Union (CCBE) is recommending that previous experience in other member states should be counted in the host state, and the Law Society is likely to implement that recommendation.The reason can be found in one of the key principles underlying the Directive, which is that migrant EU lawyers should be treated in the host country in - so far as that is possible - exactly the same way as host lawyers themselves.

The second leg of the directive is that it permits EU lawyers to acquire another EU lawyer's title much more easily than has been possible so far.At present, if a lawyer from one member state wishes to acquire a lawyer's title in another member state (say, a solicitor wishes to become a French avocat), then the candidate lawyer has almost always to take an aptitude test.In the case of EU lawyers wishing to acquire the title of solicitor of England and Wales, that EU lawyer has to take the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test.

However, the position is changed under the Directive for those EU lawyers who are established in another member state for at least three years and who have been practising the law of that member state.

For such lawyers, the host state title will be able to be acquired more or less automatically - subject only to confirmatory interviews in certain cases - without the necessity to take a test.Will floodgates open?This is a big change in the route to becoming a solicitor, and is part of the overall compromise within the Directive which was agreed to by the Council of Ministers.

It is not anticipated that this will lead to a rush of thousands of EU lawyers wishing to become solicitors.It is not known exactly how many foreign lawyers there are in England and Wales - because at present there is no system of registration - but it is thought to be less than a thousand.

Of those, some will already have become solicitors through the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test, and others will not be interested in becoming solicitors.

The other significant part of the directive is that it requires the Law Society - along with all other EU host bars - to permit participation in its affairs by those EU lawyers who will register with it on their establishment in our jurisdiction.It is proposed that this will be dealt with by permitting them to vote in Law Society elections, and generally to allow them to participate in our affairs in just the same way as any qualified solicitor.

- To respond to the consultation on the directive, contact Chris Bramall, the Law Society's head of professional ethics tel: 0171 320 5917.