Sénat International des Barreaux
International Bars Leader's Senate, Florence (Italy)
By Huguette Andre-Coret
Should Lawyers be Entitled to a Monopoly on Legal Services ?
Firstly, the liberalisation of legal services is an inevitable trend, both in common law jurisdictions and in Europe.
The most visible demonstration are:
Ø The work of the CCBE’s International Legal Services Committee on the creation of the status of Foreign Legal Practitioner;
Ø The authorisation that has just been given by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in the United Kingdom for the Direct Line insurance group to provide legal services, under certain conditions.
Secondly, this liberalisation generates heightened a growing competition, with consequences that are difficult to control and that negatively impact the quality and risk-sensitive basis of legal services provided to consumers.
In this respect,
Ø Although publishers of legal opinions design document-based websites that have genuine scientific value, the spectacular development of new technologies has made it possible for the number of websites run by unlicensed service providers to increase exponentially. These service providers, some of whom operate illegally, provide unguaranteed, scarcely reliable legal services to users who are looking for law-related information.
Ø Our profession needs to innovate and, in order to remain competitive, it needs to adapt to a different attorney-client relationship? Does it need to create customised, professional websites? Have an international specialised network? Develop a more focussed and aggressive advertising? Invest in new business areas?
Without abandoning our values and while supporting this liberalisation of legal services, can we adopt the same stance as Professor Christophe Jamin and ask: how we can stand up to "the mass amateurization of legal services"? Or, is it rather to change the manner of practising?
Thursday, October 30, 2014
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Palazzo dei Congressi di Firenze, Opiazza Adua, 1 – Auditorium
PROGRAMME
Welcome
Word of welcome
Mr. Stephen L. DREYFUSS, President of the UIA, United States
Mr. Sergio PAPARO, President of the Ordine degli Avvocati di Firenze, Italy
General Presentation
Ms. Huguette ANDRE-CORET, Vice President of the International Bar Leaders Senate, France
The liberalisation of legal services and the recent work of the CCBE: The status of Foreign Legal Aid
The Transatlantic Treaty – Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP)
Mr. Aldo BULGARELLI, President of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, Italy
The position of the SRA in the United Kingdom and the authorisation granted to the insurance company Direct Line to supply legal services
Ms. Lucy WINSKELL, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Former member of the SRA, United Kingdom
Should legal services remain the exclusive domain of lawyers in the 21st century?
Mr. Andrew CAPLEN, President of the Law Society of England and Wales, United Kingdom
and
Speaker from South America (to be confirmed)
The usage of new technologies will transform the manner in which legal services are offered and disseminated by all.
Could online legal information become an illegal exercise of the law?
Will it be necessary to move towards new structures of practice?
Mr. William C. HUBBARD, President of the American Bar Association (as from August 2014), United States
and
Ms. Winnie TAM, Member of the Bar Council of the Hong Kong Bar Association, Hong Kong
How should the legal profession adapt to competition?
Creation and development of online international professional networks?
Consultation sites and regulation of litigation online?
Creation of legal databases online?
More targeted advertising, etc.?
Mr. Pierre-Olivier SUR, Bâtonnier de l’Ordre des Avocats à la Cour de Paris, France
Debate with the audience
Partnership of the Milan Bar with Expo 2015. Exploration of new areas of activities open to legal services linked to Expo 2015’s theme.
Mr. Paulo GIUGGIOLI, President of the Ordine degli Avvocati di Milano, Italy