Joseph Craig
According to the Law Council of Australia, foreign legal markets will be easily availed to Australian lawyers, thanks to the recently signed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Last Friday, New Zealand was the place where it all happened and the free trade agreement, which has been waited for a long time, was put into pen and paper. The agreement was between Australia and other leading countries that contribute to the world’s economy with more than 40%. The agreement is expected to help many lawyers in Australia get relevant connections in their fields of practice; hence it will lead to a tremendous growth in the Australian legal industry. As a matter of fact, the Law Council of Australia has already announced that it will support the agreement at all cost since it has good things in store for the Australian lawyers at large.
There are numerous positive updates and measures included in the agreement. For example, the agreement now provides legal professionals with favorable market access measures. “Now, Australian legal professionals and businesses will be able to offer their services overseas and improve on their ties, thanks to the new market access for lawyers,” said LCA president Stuart Clark while speaking with Aussie Lawyer Blog. This is because the newly-signed agreement provides efficient market access measures for Australian lawyers even when they are away from home.
Regardless of whether lawyers have set good ties and built their presence overseas, they can now provide legal services to their overseas clients on a fly-in, fly-out basis even in TPP countries. The LCA president also added that it is impossible for investment and transitional trade to take place in a legal vacuum. Therefore, it is not all about setting good presence overseas but this is good news for law firms operating internationally because the fly-in, fly-out access is very important for the business model of law firms.
Australian lawyers can have something to celebrate about in the meantime, given the fact that more countries are continuing to open their legal markets. Malaysia recently joined the list of countries that have made commitments to open their legal markets for Aussie lawyers. “The TPP is a positive development for our legal industry even though there is no deal that is ever perfect,” said Mr. Clark. He also said that they are continuing to work on new growth measures whereby they will search for countries that offer better market access for Australian legal professionals. Therefore, this makes the TPP a good and healthy living agreement that provides clear framework for further improvements in the legal sector. Nations that are considered members of the TPP include Peru, Chile, Mexico, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, Canada, the US, New Zealand, and Australia.
