By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An outspoken QC yesterday argued that Bahamian attorneys would again be “the dog wagging the tail” if the Government demanded that foreign law firms partner with their local counterparts as a condition for ‘opening up’ the legal services market.

Fred Smith QC, the Callenders & Co, told Tribune Business that mandating such partnerships or affiliations would eliminate a vicious ‘race to the bottom’, where Bahamian attorneys were constantly “undercutting” each other to win “crumbs” from foreign developers.

“The reality is that these foreign developers bring in foreign attorneys, and rely on them almost to the exclusion of Bahamians,” Mr Smith told Tribune Business.

“If the Government would allow foreign lawyers and law firms to work alongside their Bahamian affiliates, then the Bahamian lawyers might not be cut out of a part of the development profit pie.”

“That’s what’s happening now,” he added, backing calls by Hope Strachan, minister of financial services, for the liberalisation of the Bahamian legal profession.

“Many of these foreign law firms have an attorney experienced in Bahamian law, and most Bahamian attorneys and law firms only get the crumbs of international development.

“The large foreign law firms, who have clients wanting to do business in the Bahamas and are not affiliated with Bahamian law firms, they shop around for a Bahamian law firm front and offer a miniscule portion of the fee,” Mr Smith continued.

“This causes the Bahamian law firms to compete against each other at a cheapened rate. That inures to the detriment of a quality legal product, and cheapens the profit. We’re constantly undercutting each other to try and get a piece of the action.”

Mr Smith argued that tying legal services liberalisation to foreign law firms and specialist attorneys partnering with their Bahamian counterparts would prevent this from happening, and create an environment of greater transparency and openness.

“The Bahamian lawyers would then be the dog wagging the tail, as opposed to the foreign law firm wagging the Bahamian dog,” he told Tribune Business.

“We would stop being the lawyers sitting with our hands held out, and be the major stakeholders of the Bahamian legal industry.”

Mr Smith added that Bahamian law firms would then be able to hire foreign attorneys to work for them in providing advice in areas such as arbitration, building contracts, real estate development, admiralty and merchant shipping law, and trusts and other specialist financial services areas.

And he argued that were the Government to follow his suggested model, it would create a “mini-boom market” for legal services in the Bahamas with firms expanding their staff, offices, practice areas and marketing budgets.

“I think the interests of the local lawyers can easily be protected by ensuring any firms from abroad or any barristers coming into the country do so through partnerships, affiliations and associations with law firms and attorneys in the Bahamas,” Mr Smith told Tribune Business.

“This can only inure to the growth, development and sophistication of the legal industry and services that can be made available. In every way, opening up the Immigration doors to greater liberalisation with foreign lawyers will help to make the product in the Bahamas more sophisticated.”

Mrs Strachan and her predecessor as financial services minister, Ryan Pinder, have split the legal profession with their calls for it to be liberalised so that foreign law firms and attorneys can practice from the Bahamas.

Elsworth Johnson, the Bahamas Bar Association’s president, has opposed this, while Mr Smith and DNA leader, Branville McCartney, have backed the respective ministers.

Turning to the benefits, Mr Smith told Tribune Business: “It exposes Bahamian lawyers to the world stage, just as it provides an opportunity for foreign lawyers to work with international clients from the Bahamas.

“The Bahamas prides itself as a player on the world stage, and this could create quite an industry for expansion of Bahamian legal services internationally, as it has done in the Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos and Bermuda, where these jurisdictions have a thriving 24/7 provision of legal services for their clients.”

Mr Smith added that admitting foreign attorneys on the terms he outlined would boost efficiency in the provision of legal services in the Bahamas, with the greater competition lowering prices and improving the product quality offered to local and international clients.