Brexit: Britain's £26bn legal sector could be at 'risk' if Government fails to secure guarantees

Britain's legal sector employs more than 370,000 people across the UK and contributed £25.7bn to the UK economy last year

Zlata Rodionova

Tuesday 20 December 2016 10:37

The UK's 200 foreign law firm rely on London's position as global financial centre, a report says

(Rex)

Britain’s legal services sector has warned the industry could be at risk if the government fails to secure guarantees for it after the UK leaves the EU.

A report, produced by lobby group TheCityUK, said Britain’s legal sector, which contributed roughly £26bn to the economy in 2015 and employs around 370,000 people across the country, will suffer if it loses mutual enforcement rules - which requires EU member states to recognise and enforce UK law and vice versa.

The loss of these rights would make Britain a “less attractive” for international businesses to resolve legal dispute and draw up commercial contracts, the group argued.

TheCityUK also called for the principle of free movement of people to continue to make sure the legal sector would not only retain access to overseas talent after Brexit but also provide clarity on how laws and judgments can continue to operate cross-border in EU member states.

More than 200 foreign law firms operate in the UK and employ in excess of 10,000 people.

UK sector turnover is two-and-a-half times that of Germany and four times more than France, which are Britain's two largest competitors in Europe.

Miles Celic, chief executive at TheCityUK, said: “The UK-based legal services sector is the leading global centre for the provision of international legal services and dispute resolution”

“It is vital that the key challenges and opportunities for the sector are addressed in the Brexit negotiations and that its competitiveness is maintained and enhanced.”

Brexit Concerns

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1/26Brexit Concerns

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One of Germany’s top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as “gateway to Europe” for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the Bundesbank—Germany’s central bank—told a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were “equivalent” between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still “miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market”, the BBC reports.

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Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all".

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Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court

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Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit

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SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit

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Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp

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Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain

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Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote

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The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging

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Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum

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NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit

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A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain

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The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market

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"The sector is working on these issues and providing that insight into Government, allowing Ministers to draw on the UK's unique reserve of world-leading legal expertise”

"The best Brexit deal will be one which is mutually beneficial to the UK, the EU and globally and which allows for a clear and predictable shift from current business conditions to whatever new arrangement is agreed."

Additional reporting by PA

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