DEARBHAIL McDONALD

Legal eagles brace for ‘Britflux’ of UK lawyers

WHAT’S the opposite of a Brexodus, a Britflux? The Law Society of Ireland, the ruling body for solicitors, is piqued with joy at the prospects of a post-Brexit influx of British lawyers if its reaction to its latest annual survey is anything to go by.

For the first time there is a tie, with A&L Goodbody ranking alongside Arthur Cox for the lofty title of Ireland’s largest law firm. Alas, the Holy Grail of finding out who is the actual great vampire squid of Irish legal circles remains beyond our mortal reach.

This is because the Society’s annual league only assesses a firm’s scale by virtue of the number of solicitors in practice rather than their income or profits which, tragically — and needlessly — remain under lock and key.

The big surprise this year is that London ‘Magic Circle’ law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer almost cracked the Top 10 after 86 of its lawyers applied to join the roll of solicitors in Ireland in the wake of Brexit.

More than 800 British solicitors applied to join the Irish roll last year, mostly antitrust and funds ones.

This is to make sure they have rights of audience to appear before European courts and, critically, to retain their rights of privilege — confidentiality for us lay folk — once the UK leaves the EU.

There’s a big win for Ken Murphy’s Law Society if they do — practising certificates cost €2,035 a year for lawyers who have been qualified for less than three years and €2,335 for those who have been qualified for more than three years — what larks!

Writing in tomorrow’s Law Society Gazette, Murphy said the Freshfields numbers will be “a major talking point”.

But how worried are Ireland’s magic circle law firms about Blighty eating their lunch? It’s too early to say. As with the banks and multinationals mulling a move to Ireland after Brexit, there’s a lot of tyre kicking in the air — although last week’s announcement by uber global law firm DLA Piper that its plans to open a Dublin office are “fairly advanced” had more than a few equity partners choking on their cornflakes.

Hold on to your wigs, kids.