DOHA: Qatari lawyers want the dual licensing system for foreign law firms to end, saying the firms are misusing the privilege and harming local legal practitioners.
Under the current law regulating the legal profession, foreign law firms can be licensed by the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) to represent clients in the QFC’s internal court.
They can simultaneously be licensed by the Minister of Justice to carry out some exceptional legal work outside of the QFC.
However, according to lawyer Yusuf Al Zaman, the firms are misusing the licence and actually practising law outside the QFC, which is illegal.
“We, therefore, want this dual licensing system for rival foreign law firms to end,” he said.
The Qatari Lawyers’ Association, at its extraordinary general assembly on Sunday, unanimously opposed the draft law that seeks to replace the existing law (of the year 2006) that regulates the legal profession.
The draft maintains the dual licensing system for foreign law firms and seeks to allow employees of companies who are law graduates to represent their employers in the court in legal matters.
Companies enjoyed the privilege prior to 2006. But in that year a new law was passed that removed the privilege at the insistence of Qatari lawyers.
Qatari lawyers opposed the privilege arguing that companies only wanted to save money and had no right to depute their employees to represent them in court in legal matters since they were paid employees and could jeopardise the judicial system to serve their masters. They should instead hire law offices to represent them in court in legal matters as is the practice currently.
However, Al Zaman said companies lobbied to get the privilege back. “So we are opposing the draft,” he told this newspaper.
Another clause in the draft the association is opposed to is the one that bars lawyers from demanding over 10 percent of a claims amount (decided by a court in an inheritance or damages lawsuit) as commission.
The commission is to be paid based on mutual consent which should be expressed in writing in a formal agreement between a lawyer and his client. The association has set up a nine-member panel to propose changes it wants in the draft law and coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in the matter.
Al Zaman said it is likely the ministry would accept the demands of the lawyers and include the changes the association wants in the draft law. He said the panel that prepared the draft law had two members from the association, nevertheless some clauses were included which the association had opposed.
The Peninsula
