International Committee, 7 December 2006
Item 5: Detailed International Business Plan 2007
1. At its last meeting, the International committee discussed the extracts from the Law
Society high level plan for 2007 which covered international work. This paper provides
more detail on the activities that the international department will undertake to implement
this plan and how success will be measured.
2. The International committee will be involved in the implementation of this plan in the
following ways:
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The committee as a whole will be expected to provide scrutiny of the
implementation of the plan
Members of the committee who have expertise or contacts in particular
geographical areas of the world are encouraged to provide additional
intelligence to the International department;
Members of the committee will be invited to participate in complementary
activity to support market opening where appropriate (e.g. training seminars
etc);
Members of the committee are invited to assist the department in developing
its improved communications activities;
Members of the committee will continue with their designated roles in
representing the Law Society at international conferences and in international
organisations.
Members of the committee will be invited to participate in meeting inward
delegations.
3. The plan has been submitted to the corporate governance board for consideration but the
committee is invited to suggest ways in which this plan could be further developed. In
particular, two other items on the agenda of this meeting ask the committee’s assistance
in developing appropriate criteria or measures for international work.
Alison Hook
Head of International
26 November 2007
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International Committee, 7 December 2006
International Unit Business Plan 2007
Role of the Department
1. The international unit serves the membership’s international business interests by
opening markets and helping solicitors to access them. Firms of every size earn fee
income from abroad and 52% of all firms have international income. This percentage
rises to 73% amongst firms in the 26-80 partner range and to 100% for the largest firms
of 81 partners and above.
2. Nearly 4% of the Law Society’s membership is based abroad in 77 countries and there
are a further 8,700 qualified solicitors in 101 foreign jurisdictions who choose to stay on
the roll without PCs (equating to around 7% of the total Roll). The solicitor’s profession
contributes more than 1.1% to the UK’s total GDP and more than £1.6bn to the UK’s
export earnings. This is increasingly being recognised by key government departments
and potentially gives the Law Society and solicitor’s profession greater domestic influence
as a result. We work to enhance the reputation and influence of the Law Society and the
solicitor’s profession, as well as English law, and promote London as a centre for dispute
resolution. The UK’s colonial heritage coupled with the economic success of the largest
UK law firms also creates an expectation amongst our colleagues in other countries that
the Law Society will play an active role internationally in all of the major legal bodies (the
IBA, the UIA, the CCBE, the CLA etc) as well as by maintaining good bilateral relations
with our counterparts around the world. We also aim to ensure that the Law Society’s
reputation and influence with the European Institutions is maximised through our Brussels
Office.
3. We promote the rule of law, access to justice and professional values around the world.
This activity has the threefold advantage: of being market making activity which can
benefit our members and their clients in the longer run; of being highly valued by
government departments and the EU, thus enhancing our reputation with them; and of
providing an international dimension to the pro bono/public interest work undertaken by
the Society and profession at large. The two main strands of this work have traditionally
been international human rights and international project assistance work in developing
countries.
Objectives
Market opening and extension of practice rights for solicitors
4. We will work to increase and protect the practice rights of solicitors in markets around the
world, focusing on 20 markets of key importance to solicitors. In order to achieve this we
will:
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Focus our market opening activities on seven high priority markets: India, China,
Brazil, Russia, UAE, Romania and Turkey;
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We will also undertake market opening activities in 13 lower priority markets: Bulgaria,
Ukraine, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Vietnam, Libya, US, Singapore, South Africa,
Hong Kong, Japan and Nigeria.
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International Committee, 7 December 2006
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Consult the top 100 law firms to ensure that we have prioritised our activity correctly;
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Visit the majority of these markets in 2007 to lobby for market improvements and build
contacts in order to influence effectively when changes are likely to happen;
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We will analyse and comment on draft legislation affecting foreign practitioners,
drawing on the expertise and experience of the profession in England and Wales.
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Undertake complementary activity designed to build a consensus in key jurisdictions
in favour of market opening. This activity will include conferences, seminars, training
and education initiatives and other forms of co-operation;
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Undertake supporting activity in all of our top priority markets and half of our lower
priority markets with the goal of moving each market concerned one step along the
market opening spectrum;
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Liaise closely with UK government departments and the European Commission to
ensure the inclusion of legal services in all new negotiations on Free Trade
Agreements (FTA) or WTO accessions;
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Advise on all Ministerial and Lord Mayor’s visits to key jurisdictions and participate in
them wherever possible in order to highlight the positive benefits of market opening;
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Build upon the Chancellor’s initiative for the competitiveness of the City to promote
the international interests of our members by developing a strategy for the
international competitiveness of the legal sector, following the request made by UKTI;
5. Success will be measured by:
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Achievement of a 75% approval rating (‘good’ or ‘better’) from the top 100 law firms
for our plans in 2007;
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Achievement of some movement, or at least one step along the market opening
spectrum, in at least ten of the top priority markets and half of the lower priority
markets;
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90% of new FTA negotiations and 75% of all WTO accession negotiations including
legal services;
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Positive feedback either from Mansion House or Government Departments in 80% of
markets we advise upon;
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Strategy for international competitiveness of the legal sector produced and endorsed
by all stakeholders involved. (This will have to follow a timetable to be determined by
Whitehall departments after 18 October.)
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International Committee, 7 December 2006
International project work/consultancy
6. We are currently engaged in two ongoing major multi-annual development projects
funded by the European Union in Nigeria and Pakistan and one European criminal law
project. Other projects in Russia and Libya will end in early 2007 and create legacy
reporting requirements. The decision taken in 2006 to wind down this activity has created
both a risk and an opportunity. The risk is that a pipeline of projects has not been created
for 2007 and beyond which will impact on the 2008 budget, set against this, the hiatus
creates an opportunity to review the Law Society’s approach to these projects and
reinvent them on a more sustainable basis. We will however, continue to be opportunistic
when strategic opportunities arise.
7. In order to achieve this we will:
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Review the business model through which we engage in international projects. We
will not attempt to staff or run individual projects, and project management costs will
be built into project proposal budgets. Instead, we will focus our efforts on building
partnerships and developing best practice in key areas where the Law Society has
specific expertise (for example bar capacity building);.
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Recruit a temporary member of staff on a two-year contract who will be dedicated to
fundraising/liaising with donor organisations. This post will be given a two-year time
frame in which to demonstrate that it can be self-financing;
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Broaden the base of funding for our projects;
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Review our procedures for selecting, designing and evaluating projects in order both
to engage more members of the profession directly in our project work and to change
the basis on which we carry out projects.
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Collaborate with the press office to create a communications programme around
projects work, once the new approach is underway;
8. Success will be measured by:
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The submission of all interim and final reports within deadlines and the delivery of
activities as scheduled (i.e. training of trainers sessions delivered in Pakistan and
Nigeria, targets for representation in detention cases met in Pakistan, adoption of
representation model by programmed number of States in Nigeria, AGIS 2006 task
force created and work programme underway).
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Identification of realistic sources of core funding by end of the first full year, and a plan
elaborated for reaching full funding by end of year two;
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Registration with all of the major multilateral and regional development banks, and
relationships established with a wider range of trusts and foundations;
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At least one successful project application in 2007 with a new funding agency;
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Production of a projects policy handbook by 01/12/07;
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International Committee, 7 December 2006
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Design of two training programmes in needs assessment and evaluation, and running
of two pilot training sessions/workshops involving 20 solicitors in each;
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Communications programme created by 01/11/07 and new contacts with 3 new donor
organisations created as a result.
International diplomacy/influence
9. We will increase our influence in international legal bodies and use this more actively for
our members by:
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Participating in key conferences and events;
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Protect and enhance the Society and the profession’s reputation with our major
foreign partners through a targeted programme of outward bilateral visits and a
managed programme of inward visits;
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Reinstating annual advance planning for officeholders’ travel in order to help us to
fulfil the objectives of a programme of targeted bilateral visits. We will identify an A
and B list of jurisdictions from which we actively invite or would welcome inward visits.
This will be communicated to organisations such as the British Council and British
Embassies who encourage inward visitors.
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We will control inward visits by creating quota arrangements and/or a discretionary
charging policy to cover the costs of organising inward visits for large groups;
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Managing the Society’s relationship with the CCBE during the period of transition and
the unease created by the Legal Services Bill by engaging more of the profession
directly in responding to the CCBE’s position papers, and using the UK’s presidency
of the CCBE in 2007 to promote awareness of this organisation.
10. Success will be measured by:
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Participation by the Law Society and solicitors organised by the IBA, UIA, IPBA, CLA,
ABA and LAWASIA in 2007 increased from 2006 baseline;
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The extent to which objectives are fulfilled for every inward or outward visit;
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Creation of a CCBE UK delegation website for members.
Human Rights
11. Following the human rights review, we will make recommendations on how to reconstruct
an effective international human rights programme which engages with the profession
and raises the reputation of the Law Society as one of the leading professional bodies in
this area.
12. In order to achieve this we will:
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International Committee, 7 December 2006
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Create a new international human rights programme focused on activities that engage
the profession directly rather than on policy development and/or lobbying. The latter
will be left to law reform to take forward;
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Increase overall awareness within the profession of our human rights work by
focusing in particular on solicitors with less than six years postqualification experience
and new entrants to the profession;
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Integrate the international human rights programme more effectively than previously
into the international projects activity to create a more coherent international pro bono
effort by the Law Society which solicitors can engage with.
13. Success will be measured by:
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Improvement from current baseline of around 0.5% of the profession who are
actively aware of our human rights work to 5%.
Brussels office
14. The Brussels Office provides services to both the Society and to the Law Societies of
Scotland, as well as to the European Criminal Bar Association, the Solicitors Regulation
Authority and directly to members of the profession. The office links primarily into the
International department but also undertakes important liaison work with law reform and
will do in future with whatever structures are put in place to deal with regulatory affairs
and thought leadership. The key objective for 2007 is to use the different activities of the
Office to engage more directly with a larger proportion of our membership and to maintain
good relations with our other customers.
15. We will achieve this by:
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Monitoring and lobbying on key European legislative proposals and other initiatives;
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Tracking case law from the European Court of Justice which impacts on professional
practice
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Liaising with the House of Parliament representatives and UKREP in Brussels to
maximise both our influence on legislation passing through and on the subsequent
domestic transposition process, ensuring that this activity is fully integrated into law
reform and the Regulatory Affairs Group;
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Influencing the upstream development of European initiatives through international
projects and thought leadership activity. The Brussels Office will work with our
reinstated projects team to determine how the Society can best respond to the revised
approach to European criminal and civil law projects which the European Commission
is expected to introduce in 2007;
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Running three types of activities designed to engage with more of our members on an
active basis, raise awareness of the services and activities available from the
Brussels Office, and increase the profile of the Office amongst decision-makers in the
European Union;
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International Committee, 7 December 2006
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Running three Critical Update Conferences, designed to inform segments of our
membership on key developments in areas of European law;
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Running two/three policy development seminars to bring together our members who
are expert in particular fields with European Commission and government officials and
MEPs who are developing initiatives in various areas of European law;
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Running two promotional events in Brussels targeted on our stakeholders in the
Institutions;
Providing more services to members focused on their areas of practice and offer
additional services tailored to individual firm requirements:
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Increasing the circulation of the Brussels Agenda and each of our regular updates on
specific areas of European law;
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Incorporating the services of the Brussels Office into our proposed International
Section;
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Meeting all English firms established in Brussels at least once during 2007 to discuss
our activities and services and how they can use them more actively;
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Producing a promotional brochure detailing our activities for circulation to Law Society
members;
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Running a campaign to target professional support lawyers in larger firms who would
be a key audience for our EU activities and intelligence services;
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Improving our communications in order to raise awareness of the Brussels Office
amongst both decision-makers and member firms. This will involve establishing a
baseline level of awareness of our services and in conjunction with the Press Office,
and producing a communications plan in the first quarter of 2007.
16. Success will be measured by:
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Submission of monthly reports to the Boards on the major EU initiatives and
legislation being monitored by the Brussels Office;
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Positive feedback from the Boards on the quality and timeliness of the reports;
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Staff euro-coordination group meeting held four times per year
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Successful implementation of the AGIS 2006 project in conjunction with the European
Criminal Bar Association, the Council of Forensic Practitioners and the bar
associations of four other member states;
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Development and securing of a further European law development project;
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Achievement of targets for delegate numbers at conferences, seminars and events;
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Positive feedback from delegates at conferences, seminars and events;
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International Committee, 7 December 2006
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Circulation of updates on 6-7 specific areas of European law increased by 20%,
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Brussels Agenda circulation increased to 5000 individual subscribers;
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Awareness within the profession of the services provided by the Brussels Office
increased to 10% of those holding practising certificates, within the next two years.
Other work
17. In addition to the above, in 2007 we will also do the following:
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Provide international services to Regulation through a service level agreement.
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Develop and implement the concept of the international section.
18. Delivery of this plan is subject to approval of the bid for additional resources connected to
it.
International Unit
26 November 2006
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