Global law firms have won the backing of a key figure in the Bermudan government as the country’s legal market awaits a ruling by the U.K. Privy Council’s in a long-running controversy over the terms on which global law firms can do business in Bermuda.

In a Dec. 14 address to Bermuda’s House of Assembly, Minister of Finance Curtis Dickinson spoke out strongly in favor of the global law firms. Dickinson also set forth an official process by which non-Bermudan firms that may have been stymied or frustrated by local ownership requirements can get around those rules, potentially rendering the Privy Council’s decision moot.