The United States exported $3.38 billion in legal advice in 2003, almost four times the $879 million it imported, according to the most recently available statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce. These numbers suggest the United States should be an aggressive proponent of free trade at the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in which members will commence a new round of talks on the General Agreement on Trade Services (GATS). The goal of the GATS treaty is to liberalize the exchange of services in the public sector, including legal services.
“More and more companies are running into cross-border situations that may be ordinary in terms of their operations, but are complicated by the legalities of implementing these operations in a foreign legal system,” says Steven Nelson, the Hong Kong-based co-chair of Dorsey & Whitney’s Asia practice group. Nelson also is a member of the International Bar Association’s (IBA) WTO working group, which favors the liberalization of trade in legal services. “I suspect that this round of GATS will give U.S. attorneys more of the mobility they need to properly advise clients in these situations.”
