IBA tones down confrontational stance on multi-disciplinary partnerships

PRACTICE : 'material threat' resolution is amended ahead of Amsterdam conference

The International Bar Association (IBA) this week pulled back from adopting a more confrontational position on multi-disciplinary partnerships (MDPs).

The IBA's ruling council, meeting ahead of the association's biennial conference in Amsterdam this week, toned down a resolution which would have depicted MDPs as 'representing a material threat' to lawyer independence, conflicts of interest and loss of client privilege (see [2000] Gazette, 14 September, 6).

The original resolution, which was an addendum to the IBA's agreed position on the issue, also called for MDPs to be prohibited or suspended until effective protection for clients and the public was put in place.

Like 'material threat', this wording was dropped.The IBA has no formal position on MDPs, but says lawyers working within them must be regulated.

The amendments were proposed by the Law Council of Australia, where MDPs are allowed in some states.

The resolution now advises regulatory authorities to scrutinise and, where appropriate, challenge MDP activity where it does not accord with the principles of protecting clients and the public.

'Where such challenge is found necessary,' the amended resolution goes on, 'it should involve regulatory action unless and until effective measures to protect both the client and public are in place.'

Ward Bower, chairman of the IBA's MDP working party, said the new wording is a 'further articulation of what regulatory authorities need to do'.

He said there was evidence in countries that ban MDPs, such as the US, that they were sprouting up anyway in a different form.

'If you're going to ban them, you need to enforce the rules,' he said.The Law Society was the only council member to abstain.

Its representative Robin Healey, a partner at City firm Ince & Co, said it seemed wrong to vote in favour at a time when the Society is working towards allowing MDPs of some sort.

He also said that 'the IBA is beginning to go beyond the level of its own power and competence' in telling national Bars and law societies how to regulate themselves.

Another resolution calling on lawyers to avoid 'an excessive and inappropriate emphasis on profit' and discarding professionalism in the pursuit of commercialism was passed after minimal debate.

However, insiders said not much importance was attached to it.

Neil Rose