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- Title
TRENDS IN CROSS-BORDER LAWYERING: THE GATS IDEAL OR THE INDIAN REALITY FOR U.S. LAWYERS?
- Authors
UDOBONG, EDNA
- Abstract
This article analyzes the impact of the challenges posed by recent developments in cross-border legal services. It examines the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), its provisions on trade in legal services, and its implications for cross-border lawyering for U.S. lawyers. Recognizing the growing global context of the practice of law, the question is what responsibilities belong to those who regulate lawyers and the practice of law to provide individuals and businesses with access to justice? Although progress has been made to liberalize global trade in the provision of cross-border legal services, lawyers still face a non-uniform patchwork of rules regulating their practices both domestically and abroad. U.S. lawyers are familiar with the patchwork approach because the practice of law in the U.S. is regulated by the highest court of each state and the District of Columbia, wherein independent regulators in each state maintain their own eligibility, residency, and jurisdictional requirements. The state regulatory bodies are strung together by Model Rules, whose adoption is not the same from one state to the next. The article discusses the two most recent Indian High Court decisions that demonstrate the barriers U.S. lawyers face notwithstanding the goals of the GATS. It provides an analysis of the consequences of the decisions and the impact of economic protectionism in cross-border lawyering. It discusses ongoing dialogue between the U.S. and Indian governments to remove barriers to trade in legal services. Finally, the article makes recommendations on how bilateral negotiations and reciprocity could foster mutual understanding on trade in legal services between the U.S. and India.
- Subjects
UNITED States; WASHINGTON (D.C.); GENERAL Agreement on Trade in Services (Organization); LEGAL services; INTERNATIONAL trade; PRACTICE of law; LAWYERS
- Publication
California Western International Law Journal, 2013, Vol 43, Issue 2, p343
- ISSN
0886-3210
- Publication type
Article