Legal disciplinary partnerships (LDPs) as envisaged by the recently published Clementi report will 'contaminate' other European legal professions, the head of the body representing lawyers in the EU

has warned.

Bernard Vatier, the Paris-based practitioner who recently took over as the chairman of the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union (CCBE), told the Gazette that it would be impossible and foolish for other EU jurisdictions to ignore the implications of the Clementi report for England and Wales.



Mr Vatier said the CCBE was particularly concerned about the impact on the independence of legal professions of potentially non-lawyer-owned LDPs. Adopting a position similar to that of the Bar Council in England and Wales, Mr Vatier said: 'I take the view that legal disciplinary partnerships will contaminate the rest of Europe. Non-lawyer-owned practices are the major concern. It will be extremely difficult to keep those types of practices from crossing borders once created in England.'


The new CCBE president indicated that the council would respond to the Clementi report at the annual meeting of the presidents of European bars early next month in Vienna. 'The Clementi report is unusual to continental eyes,' he said, 'because it appears to create so much bureaucracy &150; whereas our view is that the English are usually so much more pragmatic.'


Mr Vatier &150; who has taken over as CCBE president from German lawyer Hans-Jürgen Hellwig &150; cautioned that 'there is a growing problem in the EU over the self-regulation of lawyers'. He suggested that the 'fate of European lawyers today rests with the European institutions. Lawyers' standards will be defined at the EU level.'


He forecast that the council would attempt to reach agreement over the delicate issue of the forthcoming EU Services Directive and its proposal that codes of conduct be harmonised, at least in relation to general principles. 'It has been difficult to achieve consensus on whether lawyers should or should not be covered by the directive,' he said.


The CCBE has surveyed its delegates for views and the results should be available at the Vienna meeting. 'We had 20 years of debate before getting agreement in the CCBE over the Establishment Directive,' warned Mr Vatier, acknowledging the difficulty of the task. 'Perhaps there will be another 20 years' debate over aspects of the Services Directive.'


Indeed, achieving general agreement between legal professions across the enlarged EU will be the trickiest of balancing acts for Mr Vatier. 'We always try to have consensus at the CCBE, but at times we have to move very slowly to achieve it. It is often difficult for national bars to give power to a supranational body. So it is not possible for the CCBE to move too fast because we need to maintain our legitimacy with those national bars.'