01 August 2013
Growing the Legal Services Sector Important to Economy
In the photo from left to right Richard Palmer, Junior Vice President of the Law Society, Glynis Aiken from DETI, Minister Arlene Foster, Alan Hunter, Chief Executive of the Law Society and Norville Connolly, Past President of the Law Society.
The contribution which local solicitors make to the economy and the importance of exporting solicitors services to other jurisdictions were just some of the items discussed during a meeting between the Minister for Development, Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Arlene Foster MLA and the Law Society of Northern Ireland.
The Minister visited Law Society House at the invitation of the Society’s Presidential and Chief Executive Team at the start of August..
Commenting on the Ministers visit the Society’s Chief Executive, Alan Hunter said:
“We are delighted to welcome Minister Foster to Law Society House and to have had the opportunity to provide her with an overview of the significant contribution which local solicitors make to our community and the local economy annually with almost 6,000 people employed and £14 million pounds worth of goods and services purchased.
Over the last number of months the Society has been working with the Minister and Invest Northern Ireland with a view to develop the potential for exporting specialist solicitor services from Northern Ireland.
To date discussions with the Minister and Invest NI have been very positive and we can report progress is being made.
The Society remains committed to growing solicitor services both within Northern Ireland and to exporting Northern Ireland solicitor services to other jurisdictions.
The Minister for DETI, Arlene Foster said:
“As a former Solicitor I am very proud of Northern Ireland’s legal services sector which continues to go from strength to strength, with Invest NI successfully attracting firms including Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith Freehills and Axiom Law in recent years.
In addition, Invest NI continues to engage with the Law Society and the wider sector in order to seek out and develop business opportunities for our law firms in international markets which are crucial to economic growth.”