Two bodies representing 1.4m lawyers across Europe and the US have formally warned the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that reforms imposed as part of economic rescue measures could undermine the independence of the legal profession.

The move follows the Gazette’s exclusive exposure on 1 December 2011 of the threat posed by the so-called ‘troika’ of the IMF, Central European Bank and European Commission, which has been making structural reform of the profession a condition of financial bailouts for countries such as Ireland, Greece and Portugal.

A joint letter from the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and the American Bar Association (ABA) to Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director (pictured), says that the economic crisis and the intervention of the troika have led governments to propose radical reforms of the legal profession. This is of ‘great concern’ because ‘an independent legal profession is a critical component of a well-functioning judiciary and is the keystone of a democratic society based on the rule of law,’ the letter says.

The authors highlight developments in Ireland, where in October 2011 the government approved publication of a new Legal Services Regulation Bill which they say ‘provides for far-reaching changes and reforms which are unprecedented in Europe and the United States’.

These changes include the establishment of new regulator consisting of 11 members - all appointed by the minister for justice, equality and defence, who can remove any member at any time. The new regulator will have ‘all powers of regulation, including conduct, discipline and complaints handling’.

The letter also refers to reforms in Greece and Portugal. These reforms, the letter says, appear to have been ‘developed within a few weeks without taking account of the purpose/justification of professional regulation and without analysing the impact of such proposals on the administration of justice’.

The letter closes with an appeal to Lagarde’s personal experiences as a law firm partner which, the authors say, ‘no doubt carried important lessons regarding the need for protection of the lawyer-client relationship against intrusion by the state’. The authors, Georges-Albert Dal, CCBE president, and Bill Robinson, ABA president, urge Lagarde to pass their concerns to the other troika parties and request a face-to-face meeting.