Law chiefs in London and Italy have signed a post-Brexit pledge to “continue championing the practising rights” of English and Welsh solicitors in Italy and Italian lawyers in England and Wales.
All very jolly and we trust that representatives of the Law Society and the Rome Bar got stuck into a nice bottle of chianti to seal the deal. But determining whether it has any practical effect is complicated. The practising rights of non-EU lawyers in Europe is decided by individual states, which means that UK-qualified lawyers now face 27 different jurisdictions.
Under Brussels’ rules, individual state Bars cannot offer preferential treatment for UK lawyers over other non-EU lawyers. However, a Law Society official says that “still leaves scope for dialogue and co-operation between professional
