The accession of ten nations to the European Union brings challenges and even greater opportunities.

Lucy Hickman investigates how city firms in the region are responding

On 1 May, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia become full members of the European Union.

Lawyers from the ten civil law countries will suddenly have to cope with the a number of concepts rather alien, not least the endless stream of case law fired out by the European courts.

Then there are the weighty EU competition laws and employment law changes to get to grips with, plus, no doubt, increasingly complex questions from foreign investors eager to establish a presence in these cheap-labour EU states.

City law firms in eastern Europe have been busily training their local lawyers for months to bring them up to speed.

Warsaw-based Allen & Overy partner Michael Davies says: 'We have people from our Brussels office coming in to train our local lawyers on EU matters.

We are also preparing focused documentation for clients and a targeted seminar sometime in March.

Key things are EU competition law implications and procedures, and the interface between domestic laws and EU law and how it all works.'

Ian Batty, who heads CMS Cameron McKenna's EU accession programme, says: 'I don't think there is going to be a big bang on accession - it's a misconception.

National law in the accession territories has been harmonised with European requirements over the last few years.

'Where we are going to see change is in the ability to take things to the European Court of Justice and to challenge things before the European Commission.

This will be new for many of our lawyers.

It's going to be necessary for them to become familiar with case law.'

He says that traditionally a lot of competition work in these states has been to do with straightforward mergers.

'With accession, such work is becoming more sophisticated and we're advising more on such things as abuse of a dominant position.

There's also more demand for advice on public procurement issues because there are more obligations on the states.'

Nick Eastman, Linklaters' managing partner for central and eastern Europe, agrees that there will be no 'big bang' on 1 May, since he says his lawyers have been applying EU law for a long time.

But he adds: 'Many of these countries have introduced laws such as competition law but had no practical guidance as to how to implement them.

We have people who have spent time in Brussels who are now back in the region and know how anti-trust laws work generally.'

Mr Batty predicts that there will be a change in the provision of services across the region, not least by cutting away a swathe of bureaucracy and cost for companies wanting to operate there.

He says: 'For example, if insurers want to operate in Hungary under the current regime, they have to create a locally registered company there.

From 1 May, they won't be subject to local registration or have to establish a company in the country, which will save time and money.'

He continues: 'I think accession will bring us more work.

A lot of companies are looking to central and eastern Europe to invest in or undertaking business here because the countries are entering the EU.

Some international clients as a matter of principle want to be in every European state.'

Mr Davies adds: 'We're going to see a lot more foreign investment.

Poland is going to remain an economical place to do business.

Poland is a big country - it has 50% of the population of the accession states - and it has major financial and infrastructure needs which will be achieved with EU money and money from other financial institutions.'

He predicts that there will be more telecoms and road-related work in the region, as well as an increase in demand for advice on public/private partnerships.

Mr Eastman notes that foreign investment has risen dramatically in the past few months.

'In the automobile sector, for example, nearly all manufacturers are looking to establish in these places.

They are attracted to the cheap labour in countries which are joining the EU,' he says.

Mr Batty says he has seen a recent shift in demand to much wider day-to-day advice on more sophisticated issues, rather than just transactional-based work - and that UK firms are well placed to snap up the benefits of accession.

'We have a clear advantage over local law firms because most of them have very little exposure to western European markets.

They don't understand the regulations and they don't have a Brussels presence - as we do - which is a big help.

'Our workload has increased in the last few months.

There will be a short-term shift towards an increased use of western European firms because local firms don't have the necessary experience.'

Mr Eastman says that international firms are in a strong position.

'In these local markets, which are only 12 or 13 years old, a lot of international firms have been in there from the beginning and so tend to be dominant for local and international work.'

None of the firms questioned is planning any great expansion in the region at present and Mr Eastman says it is unlikely that new law firms will come pouring in on accession.

Mr Eastman says: 'This is not an over-lawyered market - certainly if you compare it to western Europe and the UK - but are people likely to make a long-term investment to get where they want in ten years time? I suspect the landscape won't change that much.'

Besides, on the horizon, interest in the next wave of EU accession states is already becoming visible.

He says: 'One of our busiest offices at the moment is Romania, which is still three years away from accession.'

Lucy Hickman is a freelance journalist