Potential changes to the rules regarding how foreign solicitors can qualify in England and Wales if there’s a no-deal Brexit have been put out for consultation. Currently, EU lawyers can apply for exemptions from the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS), which all foreign-qualified lawyers must sit to qualify here. Under World Trade Organisation rules, however, such preferential treatment would not be possible. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Consultation on Exemptions for Qualified Lawyers asks for views on offering the right to apply the exemption to all foreign-qualified lawyers. Arrangements for solicitors from Scotland and Northern Ireland will remain unchanged. The consultation ends on 10 January 2019 and will then be put to the Legal Services Board for approval. Paul Philip, SRA Chief Executive, said: ‘It is important that we are prepared.’
11 December 2018
Foreign solicitors rule change?
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Hugh James—Jonathan Askin
London corporate and commercial team announces partner appointment
Michelman Robinson—Daniel Burbeary
Firm names partner as London office managing partner
Kingsley Napley—Jonathan Grimes
Firm appoints new head of criminal litigation team
NEWS
Hugh James has secured 500 places on King’s College London’s new AI Literacy for Law course as part of a major firm-wide push to strengthen its responsible use of generative artificial intelligence
The criminal courts will sit to their maximum capacity next year, after the Lord Chancellor David Lammy lifted the cap on Crown Court sitting days
The Lord Chancellor David Lammy has set out his plans for ‘Blitz courts’, a national listing framework and other elements of the Leveson reforms
A former Commerzbank analyst has been sentenced to eight months in prison for lying during an employment tribunal hearing
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has joined with 60 data protection authorities from around the world to call for ‘urgent regulatory attention’ to the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI)
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