Markets: Law Society backs bid to remove restrictions

The Services Directive adopted by the European Parliament last week has left the position regarding legal services 'confusing' and 'ambiguous', solicitors have complained.


Despite the successful adoption of a Law Society amendment to the directive - designed to ensure that lawyers are included in its provisions - a statement from the parliament itself listed legal services as an excluded sector last week.


If legal services are covered, it will make it easier for solicitors to enter European markets by removing restrictions relating to publicity, insurance and multi-disciplinary partnerships.


The Law Society amendment provided that legal services should only be excluded from the directive 'to the extent that they are already covered by the existing lawyers' directive'. A second Law Society amendment that safeguarded the Solicitors Compensation Fund was also accepted.


The directive will now go to the European Commission for more precise drafting.


The Law Society's head of EU affairs, June O'Keeffe, said: 'The situation is ambiguous and unclear. The commission will now come forward with an amended proposal at the end of April, based on the parliament's text. The commission in its original text was in favour of including lawyers.'


She added: 'The inclusion of legal services fits in with the Law Society's overall philosophy with regard to creating new markets for solicitors, and doing away with barriers, provided that the burdens imposed on solicitors and regulatory bodies are not disproportionate.'


Jonathan Goldsmith, secretary-general of European lawyers' organisation the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), said: 'At present, there is ambiguity and it is pretty confusing for lawyers. The French and Spanish versions [of the directive] mean lawyers are totally excluded, whereas the English version means they are partly in, and partly out.'


He predicted that the commission will accept the parliamentary text in relation to lawyers, and read it as lawyers being partly in and partly out. The CCBE is against the inclusion of lawyers, in part because there are existing lawyer-specific directives.