International Law

Another Step Toward Legal Market Opening

The Foreign Legal Consulants’ Act cleared a cabinet meeting today, reports the Korea Times. Next stop is submission to the National Assembly for an up-or-down vote. According to the proposed timetable, initial market opening will take place “from 2009”—which often means Jan. 1, 2009, but could also mean some later date during that year depending on the date of passage in the National Assembly.

But before the parades of cheering foreign lawyers can start, it’s important to note that the law, as drafted, makes market opening dependent on the existence of a free trade agreement or some other treaty between Korea and the state from which the foreign lawyer or law firms might come:

The legal market opening comes in line with a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States…

“It’s the first stage of the agreement on legal market opening as agreed with the U.S. We may have different details in pacts with other nations. So, we need to see whether the system under the first stage works well or if we need to modify the law afterward,” a [Ministry of Justice] official said.

Therefore, if the KORUS FTA doesn’t pass the National Assembly or the United States Congress, American lawyers and law firms will not be able to take benefit of the Foreign Legal Consultants Act regardless of whether the Act passes. I’m not sure of the content of the Korea-Singapore and Korea-Chile FTAs currently in effect, or what the provisions of the Korea-European Union and Korea-Canada FTAs now under discussion might be.

Full post as published by Korea Law Blog on February 05, 2008 (boomark / email).