While we’re proud to work on behalf of and with the Scottish legal profession at home, much of what we do involves engaging with other organisations and groups across the globe. It helps us ensure that wherever in the world you happen to be – whether it’s in the EU or further afield - the Scottish legal profession is known and respected.
While the UK remains a member of the European Union, we participate in the EU Commission’s ‘Find a Lawyer’ and ‘Find a Notary’ projects which mean our members can be found by solicitors and consumers across Europe. It also allows our members to search for other legal professionals across the continent.
Our international engagement gives us a number of ways to build on our strategic aim to lead legal excellence.
For further information on any aspect of our international work, please contact Katie Hay at [email protected] or 0131 476 8351.
As well as build a network of contacts from other law societies, we have close links with a number of international organisations which represent lawyers at EU and international level, including the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the International Bar Association (IBA) and the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association (CLA).
We also work with partner organisations such as SDI (Scottish Development International), SCDI (Scottish Council for Trade and Industry) and DIT (Department for International Trade) to leverage their resources for the benefit of our members.
All of our international engagement is directed at achieving one or more of the following objectives:
- Supporting the core business of the Law Society of Scotland, in particular by learning from other law societies and jurisdictions and markets to help improve the operations and business opportunities of the Society and the profession
- Enhancing the reputation and profile of the legal profession and the Society both within Scotland and internationally
- Learning from other law societies to improve our own performance for the benefit of members, and to share our own expertise with others
- Supporting and contributing to the achievement of shared goals with the Scottish Government and others to strengthen the Scottish economy.
Another aspect of our international work is monitoring international and European legislation and legal policy to keep our members informed of important developments and, where necessary, to lobby in the interests of Scots law and the profession’s practice rights.
To assist us with this, we rely on the knowledge and expertise of our Brussels office, which we share with the other UK law societies. The office provides a number of free services for Scottish solicitors and firms, including the Brussels Agenda newsletter, the ECJ Update and the EU Legislative Update series. View further information on the Brussels Office.
