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GAZETTE
MAY 197b
EUROPEAN SECTION
The Paris Convention between the Paris Bar
and the English Law Society
L'Ordre des Avocats á la Cour de Paris, represented
by Me Francis Mollet-Vieville, Batonnier of the Ordre,
and The Law Society of England and Wales, repre-
sented by Mr. Edmund Naylor Liggins, its President,
in the presence of the Commission Consultative des
Barreaux de la Communauté Européenne, represented
by the Batonnier Albert Brunois, its President.
Recognising :
(a) The desirability of regulating the activities of
lawyers who practise abroad.
(b) The need for lawyers to participate actively in
European development and, in the interests of their
clients and third parties concerned, to improve the
conditions of work on an economic and social plane by
international co-operation between the legal professions.
Have adopted this Convention.
ART I CLE 1
In this Convention :
"avocat" means an avocat inscribed at the Paris Bar;
"avocat stagiaire" means an avocat stagiaire inscribed
at the Paris Bar;
"activities reserved to the French legal professions"
means those activities which are reserved by French
law to members of one or other of the legal or judicial
professions defined and regulated by such law;
"activities of an avocat" means all activities which an
avocat is not prohibited by French law or the profes-
sional rules of the Paris Bar from carrying on within
or outside an avocat's professional practice;
"solicitor" means a solicitor of the Supreme Court of
England and Wales;
"activities reserved to the English legal profession"
means those activities which are reserved by English
law to members of either of the branches of the legal
profession or to the judiciary as defined and regulated
by such law;
"activities of a solicitor" means all activities which
a solicitor is not prohibited by English law or the rules
of professional conduct of The Law Society from carry-
ing on within or outside a solicitor's professional prac-
tice;
"establish" and "establishment" relate to the right to
carry on in France all the activities of an avocat or, as
the case may be, to carry on in England and Wales all
the activities of a solicitor;
"instal" and "installation" relate to the carrying on
by an avocat of the activities of an avocat in an office
in England and Wales or by a solicitor of the activities
of a solicitor in an office i/n Paris but without the right
to carry on the activities reserved to a solicitor in the
former case or to an avocat in the latter;
"International Code of Ethics" means the ethical
code adopted on 25 July, 1956 by the International Bar
Association (as amended)
Unless otherwise required by the context "solicitor"
includes "solicitors" and where the solicitor is a mem-
ber of a partnership those of its partners who are
solicitors and likewise "avocat" includes "avocats" and
where an avocat is a member of an "association" or
"société civile professionnelle" also includes all the
avocats who are his partners;
"lawyer" means avocat, solicitor or barrister;
"Paris" means the area falling within the jurisdiction
of the Ordre;
"barrister" means a member of the Bar of England
and Wales;
"practising certificate" means the certificate issued by
The Law Society which entitles a solicitor to practise
as a solicitor.
ART I CLE 2
Having regard to the Treaty of Rome and to the
decisions of the European Court in / .
Reyners
v.
L'Etat Beige
(hereinafter referred to as "Reyners") and
J. H. M. Van Binsbergen v. Bestuur Van De Bedrijfs-
vereniging Voor De Metaalnijverheid
(hereinafter re-
ferred to as
"Binsbergen'),
and to the proposed direc-
tive on the Provision of Services by lawyers (XI I / 4 5 4/
75-E) and noting the laws of France and of England
respectively and the professional rules which apply
respectively to avocats and solicitors, it is acknowledged
by the Ordre and The Law Society t h a t:
(1) The functions which an avocat of the Paris Bar
in his practice, and a solicitor in his, may perform, and
the activities which they may respectively undertake
outside their practices, are not coextensive and that
avocats and solicitors are members not of the same pro-
fession but of parallel professions.
(2) If it be true that a right of "establishment" in
terms of the Treaty is already in effect in the sense of
the decision in
Reyners
so as to permit an avocat to
Carry on the activities of an avocat, other than activi-
ties reserved to the English legal profession, in an office
in England and to permit a solicitor to carry on the
activities of a solicitor, other than activities reserved to
the French legal professions, in an office in Paris,
nevertheless a right of "establishment" in the sense of
(1) the right of an avocat to exercise the activities
reserved to the English legal profession or (2) that of
a solicitor to exercise the activities reserved to the
French legal professions must await
inter alia
a bilateral
agreement upon rules of coordination and recognition
of diplomas. To avoid confusion, i)n this Convention
the word "installation" is used in lieu of the word
"establishment" to describe the first of these rights.
(3) The law which reformed certain legal and judi-
cial professions in France defined the basis for the exer-
cise of the professions of avocat and of conseiJ juridique
and laid down the conditions on which a foreign lawver
may instal himself and may carry on his activities in
France.
(4) A solicitor may instal himself in France and may
carry on the activities of a solicitor whether alone or
in partnership with other lawyers, and whether practis-
ing in his own name or in the name of his firm, subject
only to compliance with French law.
(5) Certain solicitors have the right to register as
Conseils Juridiques and those who have exercised this
right are subject to the provisions of French law applic-
able to that profession.
(6) An avocat may instal himself and carry on the
activities of an avocat in England (1) either alone or
in such association with other avocats or other persons
as the Ordre may permit and (2) either practising in
his own name or in the name of a firm subject only to
compliance with English law.
(7) French law does not prohibit arrangements by
which in France :
(a) an avocat shares premises and services and the
consequent expenses with a solicitor;
(b) an avocat enters into partnership with a solicitor;
(c) an avocat acts as " c o l l a bo r a t e s" of a solicitor or
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