Internationalisation of the legal marketplace has seen many overseas (notably US) law firms setting up in the UK. This trend has brought with it a growing number of foreign lawyers, who come to practise overseas specialisms, or to qualify or to practise English law or both. Subject to special arrangements, foreign lawyers can enter partnership with English solicitors or take employment or self-employment in the UK.

The legal and regulatory issues for foreign lawyers practising in the UK fall into two separate but related areas: professional regulation by a designated body, such as the Law Society; and immigration control, the focus of this article. The requirements are complex and a failure to apply them correctly can end with the embarrassment and danger of criminal sanction.


Like all workers, lawyers are potentially subject to immigration control - so those who are not British, EEA or Swiss nationals, or otherwise exempt, will need specific permission to work here. Working without required immigration permission is a breach of conditions and employing a person without the correct permission is an offence under section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996.


Visitors' 'work' is narrowly defined. For example, where a foreign lawyer is coming to the UK to pursue ongoing matters instructed from overseas, and does not intend to establish himself in employment or self-employment here, he may be able to enter as a visitor.


Lawyers who are coming to 'establish themselves' and work in the UK are a different case. Overseas law firms may, for example, send their partners to establish or join their UK offices - usually as a partner of both the overseas and UK entity. This is where some confusion can arise. Under a special arrangement (the Foreign Lawyers Arrangement), a concession exists which allows lawyers to apply, effectively, as self-employed business people when they are partners in a law firm. This involves applying for an entry clearance visa, requirements for which will include a certificate of admission and good standing from the lawyer's home bar, an undertaking to the chief executive of the Law Society in the prescribed form not to hold himself out as a UK solicitor (unless qualified as such), and two British referees.


Confusion has arisen in respect of partners in overseas firms who are granted work permits to come to the UK. They are effectively being treated as 'employees' by the Home Office even though they are not employed.


Foreign lawyers who are to be employed by UK-based firms or other commercial organisations will simply require work permits. The employing firm will need to make the case that no 'resident worker' was available for the role - usually based on the requirement for foreign law qualification and experience, likely to have been gained overseas, in that role. The employer must demonstrate that it has tried, via advertising or a recruitment search, to find a suitably qualified person, or argue convincingly that a different recruitment method was justified. This requirement is waived when the employer has six months' or more immediate employment in the linked overseas office of the UK-applicant firm or company.


Detailed guidance notes are published by the Law Society and can be found at: www.lawsociety.org.uk/professional/conduct.law#foreign.


Matthew Davies is a business immigration solicitor in the employment department at Fox Williams