Global market: England and Wales continues to lead the way
The UK’s legal market remains “an economic powerhouse”, with exports of legal services reaching £7.25bn in 2022, an increase of nearly £1.2bn in four years, a Law Society report has found.
Researchers singled out the London Commercial Court (LCC) and the London Maritime Arbitrators Association as world leaders in their fields.
They said the LCC issued 212 written judgments between October 2022 and September 2023, well ahead of the New York Commercial Division (130), the Dubai International Financial Centre’s civil and commercial division (87), the Qatar International Court (73) and the Singapore International Commercial Court (33).
Researchers quoted from Portland’s 2024 Commercial Courts report, which found that 64% of litigants who appeared before the LCC between April 2023 and March 2024 came from a total of 84 different foreign jurisdictions, with falls in the number of Russian litigants more than compensated for by a rise in cases involving litigants from other countries, such as Ireland, the US and Switzerland.
The Law Society’s International Data Insights Report 2024 said the LCC received 1,352 new claims across all subdivisions between October 2022 and September 2023, compared to 1,172 the previous year.
The court managed to complete almost half (46%) of contested trials between October 2022 and September 2023 in less than a week.
“This data highlights that the LCC remains the leading international court for complex commercial litigation.”
The society described international arbitration as a “fiercely, and increasingly, competitive field”, with most arbitrations seated in London were not handled by arbitral institutions but, “in a large number of cases parties choose to have their dispute handled by arbitrators affiliated with specialist trade bodies” such as the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA).
“The LMAA’s members and affiliated arbitrators saw an estimated 1,845 new cases in 2023 compared to 1,807 in 2022, consolidating London’s position as the leading global centre for maritime arbitration.”
Parties made over 3,200 appointments of arbitrators in LMAA cases in 2023. This compared with over 1,300 at the International Chamber of Commerce, based in Paris, 359 at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, 284 at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre and 250 at the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.
Meanwhile, the value of UK legal services exports had increased by £1.18bn over the course of five years, rising from £6.07bn in 2018 to £7.25bn in 2022.
The combined revenue of the top 10 UK law firms grew from £15.6bn in 2020/21 to £17.1bn and £18.3bn in the following two years.
It was “evident from the findings of this report that the UK’s legal market “remains an economic powerhouse”.
Law Society president Nick Emmerson added: “England and Wales continue to extend their global reach, attracting even more individuals and businesses with no direct ties to the UK to use our courts, while English law is chosen for contracts in international transactions worth trillions of pounds.
““It is critical we recognise the work of the legal profession in powering the UK economy and bolstering our international reputation.”
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