Lord Clement Jones opened up discussions by talking about the potential of exports for the legal sector as well the role of London as a global hub.
Andrew Caplen, president of the
Law Society of England and Wales, talked broadly about the role of legal services in the UK’s economic growth, reminding the audience of the broad range of sectors that lawyers worked in.
It was key for London to remain competitive with areas like Singapore, he said and called for the government to work to remove trade barriers for lawyers. He also said it was important to have certainty on the role of the UK within Europe, whilst the impact of legal aid changes should also be noted.
Lord Razzall felt that it was a bit of a myth about ‘rebalancing the economy’ towards manufacturing as he felt other sectors such as legal services offered a significant contribution to the economy.
He then spoke about his experience of setting up international law offices and he felt the future of the big law firms in London was to build up international practices.
Sara Caplan, partner at PwC, spoke about her role on the professional services skills taskforce and work being done on capitalising on skills and exports within the industry. On graduates, she spoke about the need for international students as well as the routes being developed for higher level apprenticeships. Delegates heard about the trailblazer’s routes being created and Caplan also talked about the importance of industry collaborating with government to help consolidate the position within the UK.
Menzies Campbell MP noted a few things that he felt needed to be addressed. Firstly, the cost of law was raised, as the MP noted increasing numbers of case coming to his constituency arising from legal aid reforms. He also talked about access and speed – on the latter, he talked about the role of the legislature and also called for more resources for Law Commissions.
He also talked about the importance of legal services across the regions, to avoid the perception of a London-centric environment. The importance of legal integrity was also discussed by Campbell.
Lord Clement Jones noted the areas of excellence around the UK for legal services including areas like Edinburgh and Manchester, though he spoke about the challenge of retaining young lawyers in those cities. There was also a cost difference between the regions, the panel noted.
When asked to conclude what things the panel would most ask of the government, Lord Razzall reiterated the need to continue pressure on places like India to reduce trade barriers, something Caplen echoed.
Caplan talked about creating routes into the professions including engagement with a range of sectors though told Clement-Jones that the take up among law firms was patchy in regard to exploring different ways of going about it. She concluded though that an improvement in skills was in the benefit of all involved. Campbell repeated his call for law reform as he felt this was needed to help the UK attract business from abroad.