Minister's visit gives hope for City firms in Poland

City lawyers based in Poland were given renewed hope last week that remaining restrictions on practice would be removed following a visit by Lord Chancellor's Department minister Baroness Scotland.It is the second visit to eastern Europe by Baroness Scotland, the minister responsible for international law policy, as part of a strategy to promote liberalisation of legal services throughout Europe.

She was in Slovakia shortly before Christmas.Baroness Scotland spent three days in Warsaw meeting with the Polish minister of justice and head of the Polish Bar Association, among others, to discuss the opening of the country's practice rules prior to joining the European Union in 2003.The battle to open Poland to foreign lawyers was won in 1997, after pressure from the European Commission led to the government liberalising most practice restrictions.'While there can be no comparison between practice rules in Poland and the restrictions put on foreign lawyers in some other European countries, slight discriminations do exist,' said Christian Wisskirchen, the Law Society's policy executive for Europe.

'There are requirements that a foreign firm must have a Polish partner and that foreign lawyers can only practise in limited partnerships.' Nicholas Fletcher, managing partner of Clifford Chance's Warsaw office, said the partnership issue meant the office had to adopt 'a different structure than we do in the rest of the world, that doesn't reflect the firm as a whole'.He said: 'I am aware that the rules here aren't as difficult to comply with as some other countries, but two wrongs don't make a right.

The level playing field we desire does not yet exist.'Baroness Scotland said: 'We discussed ways in which the UK and Poland can work together, in particular through practical assistance and know-how in areas such as courts administration, ADR, human rights and EU law training.

I was encouraged by Polish commitment in this area, and from reports from UK lawyers working in Poland'.Andrew Towler