New law will stop UK lawyers providing legal advice to Russian companies outside the UK
The UK government has proposed an amendment to its sanctions laws which would ‘further restrict wealthy individuals and major businesses associated with the Russian government from accessing UK legal expertise, vowing to ‘no longer allow Russia to benefit from our knowledge and expertise.’
‘Russia is highly dependent on Western countries for legal expertise, with the UK previously exporting £56 million in legal services to Russian businesses every year,’ said the Ministry of Justice, 29 June.
It said that the new law ‘will prevent UK lawyers from advising Russian companies in certain business deals – thwarting the nation from benefiting economically from the UK’s world-leading legal expertise. This could include trade deals between global corporations, or international money lending.’
An explanatory memorandum from the government explained that the new instrument (‘Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2023’) is made under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 to make amendments to the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.
‘The new rules will extend existing regulations on Russia using UK legal professionals to facilitate certain commercial activity which benefits the country – and may block legal professionals from advising international companies on lending decisions to Russian businesses, for example,’ the government said.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/713/pdfs/uksiem_20230713_en_001.pdf
