The government’s eight-week consultation on an enhanced FTA with South Korea, 'Trade with South Korea: call for input', closed last week. It aimed to gather views from business, industry and other interested parties to help inform its approach for starting negotiations.
Law Society President Lubna Shuja said South Korea has already liberalised its legal services market through trade agreements with the EU, US, Australia and UK (the 2011 EU agreement was rolled over into the UK continuity agreement in 2021), but ‘has implemented its commitments narrowly and has not satisfactorily addressed the issue of joint practice between Korean and foreign lawyers.
‘The review of the UK agreement in 2023 provides a unique opportunity to address these issues and push for further liberalisation. We believe the UK government should push for greater rights for UK lawyers operating in Korea to partner with, employ or be employed by Korean lawyers—in line with the rights afforded to Korean lawyers operating in the UK.
‘Here, Korean lawyers can provide legal advice permanently or temporarily and they can employ, be employed and partner with solicitors – both in UK law firms and in branch offices of Korean law firms. Removing burdensome requirements for UK lawyers in Korea, providing greater fly-in fly-out rights and more rights to provide services digitally would help generate more opportunities for the Korean as well as the UK legal sector.’
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