The Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has relaxed its rules governing foreign lawyers, making it easier for UK lawyers who want to work at major Sydney firms.
Under the previous regulations UK candidates looking to practice local law – especially those with non-law degrees – were often forced to sit up to 15 examinations.
But now the NSW Legal Practitioners Admission Board has decided to operate a less strict policy and take into consideration the experience of individuals, regardless of whether they have a law degree.
Melinda Wellman, a committee member of the Anglo-Australasian Lawyers Society (AALS), which has been lobbying for change along with the major Sydney firms and the Law Society of England and Wales, said the Board had already told some lawyers they would only have to sit three exams.
Wellman, a legal recruitment consultant with Garfield Robbins International in Sydney, said while Australian lawyers had always found it relatively easy to work in London, UK lawyers without law degrees had been "discriminated against" in NSW.
AALS secretary Louise Muldoon, a UK lawyer at Baker & McKenzie in Sydney, said the changes would help solve the shortage of three- to five-year qualified solicitors in Australia, caused by the aggressive recruiting of young Australian lawyers by big London firms.
She said there had been a increase during the past year in the number of UK lawyers seeking work in Australia.
The Law Society of England and Wales is lobbying the State Bar of New York to relax its rules governing UK lawyers, which also penalise UK lawyers with non-law degrees.