The UK-EU transition period ended on 31 December 2020.
The UK has left the single market and the EU lawyers’ directives and EU laws no longer apply to England and Wales qualified solicitors.
We’re holding a series of webinars and regularly publishing guidance to support you and your firm in adapting to the end of the transition period.
On 24 December 2020, the UK and the EU reached a new Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This agreement affects how our members can provide services and how establishments work in the EU area. It will have consequences for areas such as intellectual property (IP) law, anti-money laundering (AML) and value added tax (VAT).
We're analysing the text and will provide you with further information as soon as possible.
The agreement does not cover civil or commercial judicial cooperation or family law. In these areas the guides that we prepared earlier are still relevant.
Read our initial analysis of legal services in the agreement
Solicitors can send their specific queries to brexit@lawsociety.org.uk.
What you can do now
- Use the government's transition checker tool, which helps businesses quickly identify the specific steps they need to take to be ready
- Implement our 10 step checklist for law firms
- Read our country guides on practice rights:
- Review our guidance on:
- legal services in the Brexit free trade agreement
- the impact of the end of free movement of people and steps firms can take to prepare
- EU legal professional privilege following the end of the transition period
- registered European lawyers and how England and Wales remains open after the end of the transition period
- EU data flows
- civil judicial cooperation (taking of evidence, service of documents, rules on jurisdiction, alternative dispute resolution, enforcement of foreign judgments and choice of court agreements)
- practice rights of EU/EFTA lawyers in the UK and UK lawyers in the EEA and Switzerland
- family law (private family law and public children law)
- intellectual property
- anti-money laundering
- law enforcement and judicial cooperation in criminal matters
- Attend upcoming Law Society events and listen to our podcast on data flows and the end of transition
- Sign up to the government's business readiness bulletin, which shares new guidance for your business and for your clients, and read the letter to the professional services sector from business secretary Alok Sharma MP
Webinars and events
Recordings of the following end of transition webinars are available for free online:
- registered European lawyers (9 September)
- family law (1 October)
- cross-border civil and commercial judgments (9 October)
- intellectual property (12 November)
We're holding a series of free webinars to help you and your firm continue to adapt from the end of the transition period:
- children law in cross-border cases (13 January 2021)
- data protection and flows (14 January 2021)
- divorce rules in cross-border cases (19 January 2021)
- immigration rules for bringing in talent (20 January 2021)
- choice of court agreements and commercial cross-border cases (26 January 2021)
- competition law in a changing landscape (27 January 2021)
To register for the webinars that do not yet have links, email brexit@lawsociety.org.uk.
Resources from government and other bodies
Read the Information Commissioner's guidance on data protection from the transition period, including a specific guide for small businesses, and read the government guidance on data.
Read the government guidance on actions regarding data protection and data flows.
Read the government guidance on changes to intellectual property law after the end of transition.
Listen to the Home Office's podcast on the changes to the immigration system.
Further questions?
Send your feedback or specific queries to brexit@lawsociety.org.uk.
