It is incontrovertible to anyone facing questions about the future legal landscape from the business community that a post-Brexit future is filled with uncertainty - at least for several years during the exit negotiations and then subsequently as new trading arrangements are negotiated with other trading nations.
I believe passionately that the UK's deep engagement in the EU has enriched our legal and cultural world.
I recognise that Out campaigners argue for a return of sovereignty to our parliament. Some of this is illusory, since our elected UK government voted in favour of 90.7 per cent of all EU legislation and secured opt-outs for those parts it did not like.
Legislative initiatives at EU level, such as data protection rights and scrapping mobile roaming charges, come from elected parliamentarians or from member states. Currently the UK is instrumental in driving forward the EU's single market legislation: this includes telecoms, energy and financial services.
I am content with the sharing of sovereignty at EU level and the much increased accountability for European legislation through the co-legislative process. Benefits of membership include: the community trademark, financial services "passporting", free healthcare across the EU, 40 per cent cheaper airfares from the EU open skies, and access to the EU's free trade agreements with third countries.
And perhaps more important, if we left the EU, we would lose our influence in Brussels, regardless of the settlement. As UK lawyers, we would no longer be able to advise on EU law and legal privilege would be lost in relation to EU investigations. Even in areas where we wished to be aligned with EU law, we would see a gradual regulatory and legal drift away. In areas where we value continued access to the single market, we should not expect reduced red tape.
This would not be good for business and lawyers should never be an impediment to business - we should be a support for business. Leaving would, in the long term, be bad for lawyers.
But if it comes to it - as I sipped my Italian latte and waited for my re-education therapy session as a non-EU lawyer in a post-Brexit world - I could at least take comfort from the fact that the UK has implanted English as the working language of the EU. But we still drive on the left, even if the road has unwanted potholes and diversions.
First published in The Brief on Friday 4 March.
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