Grand Place in Brussels (Photo: S-F/Shutterstock.com)

British lawyers in the Brussels office of U.S. firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan are in the process of taking up Belgian citizenship, amid fears the U.K. will leave the European Union without a deal.

The fate of British lawyers practising in the EU once the U.K. withdraws from the EU has been the subject of speculation since the 2016 referendum, but has come keenly into focus since Boris Johnson took office last month, with the prospect of a no-deal Brexit looking increasingly likely.

Quinn's Brussels managing partner Trevor Soames received a Belgian passport on Monday, having successfully gained dual citizenship this month, he told Law.com's Legal Week. Meanwhile, Soames' fellow Brits and competition law and antitrust lawyers – partner Stephen Mavroghenis and a senior associate – are in the process of applying for Belgian citizenship.

The former Shearman & Sterling trio are at the centre of Quinn's Brussels office, which anchors the firm's European competition law and antitrust interests. 

According to Soames, the overriding concern is that owing to an "obscure" Belgian law, once the U.K. withdraws from the EU, Belgian-qualified British lawyers will lose their right to an audience and also certain legal professional privilege rights in competition cases, absent an agreement.

Most British lawyers currently practising in Brussels are registered on the local bar's 'E-List' – the bar's list of European lawyers eligible to practise law in Brussels – according to a letter seen by Legal Week, written by the president of the local bar association and addressed to "lawyers concerned by Brexit".

"Post-Brexit, unless there is an agreement, British lawyers based in Brussels cannot remain on the European E-list and will be moved to the 'B-List', just like American or Japanese lawyers," Soames told Legal Week. "They will lose their rights of audience before the European Court in Luxembourg, and also lose the protection of legal professional privilege when advising clients on competition cases.

"The Court of Justice has held that that legal professional privilege is only conferred upon independent members of EU/EEA bars, which the U.K will cease to benefit, from absent a suitable withdrawal agreement."

The rush of lawyers becoming Belgian citizens mirrors a concurrent trend of U.K.-based lawyers seeking to practise law in Ireland in a bid to offset possible ill effects of Brexit. However, that route is under threat, as The Law Society of England and Wales and The Law Society of Ireland are at loggerheads over who actually has the right to practise law both within and outside the jurisdiction.