Transnational Legal Practice [2014]

Abstract

This article focuses on Transnational Legal Practice (TLP) activities that took place in 2014, along with 2013 activities that were not addressed in the previous year’s TLP article. In the authors’ view, meeting points and connective relationships are where the action is in TLP. This article highlights some of the meeting points and relationships that affect border-crossing for a variety of actors involved in TLP policy-making and practice. It refers to “TLP-Nets,” using the term “Nets” to suggest the notion of a network. Networks are “boundary-spanning and boundary-creating structures that affect the roles of organizational actors, including business corporations, voluntary associations, advocacy groups, foundations, think tanks, and state entities.” This article uses TLP-Nets as a way to frame the discussion and better understand recent TLP developments.

The TLP-Nets described in the article represent the authors’ preliminary assessment based on their involvement in TLP-related matters. The term “TLP-Nets” focuses attention on the actors and facilitators as well as the activities that comprise what is significant about TLP. This article describes two categories of TLP-Nets: one nationally-based, and the other inherently international. Within each category the article suggests examples of TLP-Nets and describes their recent activities. These categories provide a mechanism for cataloguing the activities relevant to TLP in a way that provides insight into the structure and interaction of activities and actors. This scope of this article is limited, but it should provide a basis for future work that will further explore the networks of relationships that comprise TLP-Nets.

The 2014 TLP developments documented in this article include the following: governmental legal services trade negotiations (including TISA, TTP, and TTIP negotiations); the “summits” between the ABA and various bar associations related to these trade negotiations; the International Legal Ethics Conference VI and the International Conference of Legal Regulators, both of which were held in London in 2014; recent studies documenting the growth of TLP; the Conference of Chief Justices’ (CCJ) program on transnational legal practice and its regulation; the CCJ’s adoption of two resolutions on this topic; the TLP educational sessions sponsored by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and by the Georgia State Bar; the development of a TLP “Toolkit” for lawyer regulators; the growing interest of the National Organization of Bar counsel in TLP issues; the issuance of the International Bar Association’s groundbreaking Global Regulation and Trade in Legal Services Report 2014; state implementation of the ABA’s 2013 “inbound foreign lawyer” policies which were adopted upon the recommendation of the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20; ABA webinars about TLP; developments related to the FATF Recommendations; and increased interest in potential market disruption. The 2013 activities covered in this article include the ABA’s adoption of a resolution on international regulatory cooperation and the second meeting of the International Conference of Legal Regulators, which was held in San Francisco in 2013. The article concludes that TLP-Nets provide a useful way to consider the 2014 TLP developments.

Keywords: legal services, transnational legal practice, networks, TLP-Nets, International Conference of Legal Regulators, TTIP, TISA, legal profession, lawyer regulation, IBA Report, CCJ

JEL Classification: F19, K29, K33, L10, L20, L84