I was interested to read that - even tongue in cheek - there is 'not much legal competition in Finland' (see [2005] Gazette, 14 July, 24).


You are right that the number of attorneys (that is, admitted members of the bar association) totals fewer than 1,700, but the reality is there are thousands of other lawyers in the country, most of whom have a local LLM and are represented by the Lawyers' Association.


In fact, not only does one not need to be an attorney, but one does not need to be a lawyer - it was customary simply to ask the wisest man in the village for advice, and in effect that custom prevails.


Nowadays, competition for law schools is tough, one needs be tri-lingual (to speak Finnish, Swedish, and English probably), and most senior commercial lawyers would be happy to charge 200 euro an hour for their services. And the market is consolidated - the largest five firms probably employ half the attorneys in the country. Accordingly, I wouldn't recommend that you try it - demand for English solicitors in private practice is not that strong.


As for me, I now work in industry - alongside hundreds of other in-house lawyers in companies where the bulk of the legal work is performed in-house. Quite simply, up here, and even with the social costs of employment, it's more effective to bring the expertise in-house than to retain external counsel all the time.


Tim Williams, Solicitor (England & Wales), Corporate Legal Counsel/ Finance, Nokia Corporation, Finland