Government Drive to Promote Legal Services Abroad

The Government has unveiled the Legal Services Action plan to promote London as a global legal hub to foreign businesses.

The legal sector in the UK is a national success story. Businesses understand that a judgment from an English court has a certain cachet. The legal services sector generated £23.1 billion or nearly 2% of the UK’s GDP in 2009 and some £3.2 billion in exports. These are excellent figures that the Government wants to build upon to help the UK economy recover from the ravages of the last few years.

The Legal Services Action plan includes the marketing of legal services into emerging markets such as Brazil, India, South East Asia and Turkey. This, aided by Alternative Business Structures (ABSs), will enable law firms to expand as external investors will be able to invest in legal businesses. The Government hopes that ABSs will revolutionise the legal profession in the same way as the Big Bang of the 1980s for financial services.

The latest figures support the Government’s plan to encourage foreign enterprise to use UK legal services.  International dispute resolution is increasing. Figures show the total number of disputes resolved through arbitration and mediation in the UK was 34,541 in 2009, up from 19,384 in 2007.

For more information about international dispute resolution, contact Quentin Bargate or Andrew Denny at Bargate Murray