PROFESSOR EMERITA LAUREL TERRY CO-AUTHORS NEW IBA INTERNATIONAL TRADE GUIDE
July 2023 — As the International Bar Association recently announced in a press release, the IBA has published an updated edition of the IBA Guide to International Trade Agreements for IBA Member Bars (IBA GATS Handbook). Professor Emerita Laurel Terry coauthored this IBA Guide with Alison Hook and Jonathan Goldsmith. The 2023 Guide replaces the 2003 GATS Handbook and 2013 Revised GATS Handbook, both of which Prof. Terry had written for the IBA.
According to Mickaël Laurans, who serves as Chair of the IBA’s BIC ITILS [international trade in legal services] Committee and is the head of International for the Law Society of England and Wales:
The IBA GATS Handbook has been the go-to resource for Bars and law societies having to consider the challenges of cross-border trade in legal services. Our three authors, Alison Hook, Laurel Terry and Jonathan Goldsmith, have done us an immense service in updating the guide to reflect the realities of today’s international trade.
The IBA ITILS Guide is an important document because in 2022, the global value of the legal services sector was estimated to be close to one trillion dollars. Between 2021 to 2022 alone, there were 24 new notifications of agreements across the world. The newest generation of such agreements cover issues of particular interest to lawyers and Bars — from trade in legal services, international arbitration, and other forms of dispute resolution, through to international human rights and digital trade. As the IBA’s press release explained, if legal regulators and bars are not aware of developments in trade agreements, they could miss out on helping their members access new opportunities, be ill-prepared to lobby governments on issues of fundamental importance to lawyers, and perhaps find their ability to regulate the legal profession undermined. The 2023 IBA Guide addresses issues not included in the 2003 GATS Handbook or 2013 Revised GATS Handbook, including the potential impact of the World Trade Organization’s work on e-commerce.
Professor Terry has deep expertise in the field of international trade in legal services and the GATS’ potential impact on legal services. She was an inaugural member of the ABA GATS Task Force and remains active in its current iteration, which is the ABA Standing Committee on International Trade in Legal Services [ITILS]. Professor Terry has written and spoken about the GATS and ITILS to a variety of audiences, including domestic and foreign academics, lawyers, bar associations, and regulators, including the [US] Conference of Chief Justices, National Conference of Bar Examiners, and the National Organization of Bar Council. Professor Terry has also spoken about trade topics to intergovernmental organizations including the World Trade Organization and a UN Committee. One of Professor Terry’s most recent ITILS speaking engagements was at the October 2022 International Bar Association meeting in Miami; her most recent ITILS-related law review article is her 2023 law review article entitled “The Role of the ABA’s ‘Summits’ in Facilitating Global Networks and International Cross-Border Legal Practice.” The 2023 IBA ITILS guide is an important resource and reflects Professor Terry’s commitment to global knowledge-sharing and network building.
Professor Emerita Laurel S. Terry, who held the inaugural H. Laddie Montague, Jr. Chair in Law and was Dickinson Law’s inaugural Associate Dean for Research and New Faculty Development, is a three-time Fulbright recipient who writes and speaks about the impact of globalization on the legal profession, especially with respect to regulatory issues. Her scholarship has identified emerging issues for the legal profession and urged stakeholder engagement, new initiatives, and regulatory reform. In addition to speaking at academic and professional conferences, she has been invited to speak about her scholarship to organizations that include the Conference of Chief Justices, the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the National Organization of Bar Counsel, the National Conference of Bar Presidents, the CCBE, which represents EU’s legal profession and legal regulators, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, the International Institute of Law Association Chief Executives, the International Bar Association, and the International Conference of Legal Regulators.