Courts and Legal Services Act 1990

Part IE+W Registration

GeneralE+W

1In this Schedule—

• “the Act of 1974” means the Solicitors Act 1974;

• “controlled trust” means, in relation to a registered foreign lawyer who is a member of a multi-national partnership, a trust of which he is a sole trustee or co-trustee only with one or more of the employees or other partners of that partnership and of which he is a trustee by virtue of his being a member of that partnership;

• “the Council” means the Council of the Law Society;

• “the register” means the register maintained by the Society under section 89;

• “registration” means registration in that register;

• “the Society” means the Law Society; and

• “the Tribunal” means the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

Application for registrationE+W

2(1)An application for registration or for renewal of registration—

(a)shall be made to the Society in such form as the Council may prescribe; and

(b)shall be accompanied by such fee as the Council may, with the concurrence of the Master of the Rolls, prescribe.

(2)Where such an application is duly made by a foreign lawyer, the Law Society may register the applicant if it is satisfied that the legal profession of which the applicant is a member is one which is so regulated as to make it appropriate—

(a)for solicitors to enter into multi-national partnerships with members of that profession; and

(b)for members of that profession to be officers of recognised bodies.

(3)Any registration may be made subject to such conditions as the Society sees fit to impose.

(4)The Council may make regulations, with the concurrence of the Master of the Rolls, with respect to—

(a)the keeping of the register (including the manner in which entries are to be made, altered or removed); and

(b)applications for registration or renewal of registration.

(5)The register may be kept by means of a computer.

Duration of registrationE+W

3(1)Every registration shall have effect from the beginning of the day on which it is entered in the register.

(2)The Council may make regulations—

(a)prescribing the date (“the renewal date") by which each registered foreign lawyer must apply for his registration to be renewed; and

(b)requiring every entry in the register to specify the renewal date applicable to that registration.

(3)Any such regulations may—

(a)provide different renewal dates for different categories of registered foreign lawyer or different circumstances;

(b)provide for the Society to specify, in the case of individual registered foreign lawyers, different renewal dates to those prescribed by the regulations;

(c)make such transitional, incidental and supplemental provision in connection with any provision for different renewal dates as the Council considers expedient.

(4)Where a foreign lawyer is registered, the Society may cancel his registration if—

(a)the renewal date for his registration has passed but he has not applied for it to be renewed; or

(b)he has applied to the Society for it to be cancelled.

Evidence as to registrationE+W

4E+WAny certificate purporting to be signed by an officer of the Society and stating that a particular foreign lawyer—

(a)is, or is not, registered; or

(b)was registered during a period specified in the certificate,

shall, unless the contrary is proved, be evidence of that fact and be taken to have been so signed.