The most important news item in the Cayman Islands affecting the legal profession is the imminent submission to the Legislative Assembly of the Legal Services Bill, 2020 (the Bill).
The purpose of the Bill is to modernize the legal profession because the current Law is obsolete. However, the Bill has been the subject of much controversy.
It has been described as the previously failed 2016 Legal Practitioners Bill (2016 Bill) which failed in part because it benefitted the large law firms and did not sufficiently protect Caymanian Practitioners. The 2016 Bill would have permitted persons to practice Cayman Islands law overseas which would have had a damaging effect on Practitioners in the Cayman Islands.
The counter-argument is that the current regulatory statute, the Legal Practitioners Law [2015 Revision] was passed in 1969 and needs modernization. The current framework does not adequately regulate the 21st-century legal profession in the Cayman Islands, which inhibits Cayman’s reputation and position as an international centre for business. The Bill is currently being circulated for public comment.
The salient matters addressed in the Legal Services Bill are as follows:
- the establishment of the Cayman Islands Legal Service Board as the regulatory authority and to be assigned as the Supervisory Authority for the purposes of the Proceeds of Crime Law (2020 Revision);
- the regulation of the practice of Cayman Islands law;
- the requirement of 5 years post qualification for a person, other than a Caymanian or the holder of a Residency and Employment Rights Certificate, to be admitted as an attorney-at-law by virtue of a foreign qualification;
- the practice of Cayman Islands law in other jurisdictions; and
- access to the legal profession and training and development of Caymanian attorneys-at-law.
Comments on the Bill should be submitted to Ms. Tesia Scott at in the Government Administration Building, Portfolio of Legal Affairs.