Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has pledged to champion the UK's £23bn legal services industry including lobbying key foreign jurisdictions to open their markets.

In a speech delivered in London today (14 September) Clarke (pictured) said he would "go in to bat" for the UK's legal services market, arguing that he was part of a "Government supporting the business of law".

He commented: "Law as an industry has in the past sometimes felt itself to be something of an overlooked Cinderella in its treatment by Government – certainly relative to financial services.

"I want to make it clear that, for this Government, the City of London is a legal centre – not just a financial one. All that is why I have been working closely with the [UK Trade & Investment, the Government-backed agency that supports UK business abroad] and the legal profession to develop a range of measures."

Clarke also pledged that the Government's 'legal services action plan' would include lobbying for access to emerging legal markets like Southeast Asia, Brazil and Turkey.

He added: "My fellow ministers and I are keen to ensure that you always have a place at the table with wider trade missions, wherever they happen within Government."

According to Clarke, this pressure from the UK Government has already paid dividends in cases such as the recently-agreed European Union/South Korea free trade agreement.

He comments were delivered at an event hosted by TheCityUK, a body promoting the UK's finance and professional services sectors.

The justice secretary then went on to describe the ways in which his Government was attempting to overhaul the UK regulatory framework, citing the Legal Services Act and the introduction of alternative business structures as an example.

In order to modernise the justice system, Clarke stressed the importance of using technology to increase efficiency, making a sustained push on mediation as an alternative to litigation and implementing the Jackson reforms to civil litigation. Clarke also hailed the support for legal infrastructure, citing the new Rolls Building.

The speech was welcomed by Bar Council chairman Peter Lodder QC, who commented: "The Bar Council welcomes the Government's commitment to promoting the legal services sector internationally. We look forward to working with Government by participating in overseas trade missions and working to remove protectionist legal regulations in the face of intensifying global competition for legal services."