ANNEX I:

POSITION PAPER FOR LEGAL SERVICES

SUMMARY

The bilateral agreement on legal services should ensure that individual lawyers and law firms are

permitted to create and maintain their professional establishments in host countries to supply

legal services under the name used in a home country. Lawyers or law firms should be permitted

to establish a presence in the host country in any form available to suppliers of legal services in

the host country, including as a branch.

A host country should require lawyers or law firms from other countries to register with a host

country's competent authority. The competent authority should make administrative criteria and

procedures, including procedures for applying for registration, publicly, available in writing, and

ensure that they are administered in an objective and impartial manner, within a reasonable

period of time. As a condition to registration of an establishment, the competent authority should

require a registration by one or more lawyers who are responsible for the establishment, and the

giving of an undertaking by the law firm.

The competent authority should require lawyers to abide by the host country's rules in regards to

the legal profession, and to subject them to the disciplinary rules of the host country.

Disciplinary actions should be administered in a reasonable, objective and impartial manner.

The establishment should be permitted to supply legal services which the lawyers or law firms

are authorized to render in their home country. Authorized lawyers should be allowed to supply

services relating to the law of the host country even if they are not members of the professional

staff. Lawyers should be given a reasonable opportunity to qualify as legal professionals in the

host country. Rules applicable to lawyers from other countries should be no more restrictive than

rules for the host member's lawyers.

An establishment should be permitted to include members of the host country's legal profession

on its professional staff, either as employees, or as partners or shareholders or the equivalent. A

lawyer should be allowed to use a professional title authorized by the host country or the home

country with an appropriate reference.

Lawyers should be permitted to participate in any capacity in arbitration proceedings in the host

country without subjecting the lawyers to any registration or other requirements applicable to

establishments.

The attached position paper by the Legal Services Committee of the CSI expands on these

provisions.

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