Prime Highlights-
- UK legal services exports reach nearly £11 billion in 2025, growing over 60 percent in five years.
- English law governs 40 percent of global cross-border business and financial transactions.
Key Facts-
- London Commercial Court outpaces Dubai and New York in judgment volume.
- London Maritime Arbitrators Association logs 2,015 new cases, up 16 percent in 2025.
Background-
UK legal services brought in close to £11 billion in export revenue during 2025, as demand from abroad kept building, according to a new International Data Insights report from the Law Society. The numbers show how far English law reaches globally and confirm London’s spot as a top international legal hub.
Export revenue from the sector jumped more than 60 percent over five years, landing at £10.97 billion, with the EU and US together making up nearly two-thirds of that figure. Roughly 40 percent of cross-border business and financial deals worldwide now run on English law.
Over the course of 2025, English law governed £250 trillion in outstanding global derivatives, half of the world’s seaborne trade at £13 trillion, 28 percent of global agricultural trade and £73 to £83 billion of the insurance market. Another £22.5 billion in global assets has moved through UK court-approved schemes of arrangement since 2006.
Judgment volume told a similar story. The London Commercial Court handed down nearly double what closest rival Dubai managed and more than twice New York’s count.
Case numbers at the London Maritime Arbitrators Association climbed too, reaching 2,015 new filings in 2025, a 16 percent jump from the prior year. At the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration, businesses picked English law for 13 percent of new cases, edging out New York, Brazil and Switzerland.
Mark Evans, president of the Law Society, called UK legal services a standout global success, pointing to more than half a million jobs backed by the sector and its billions in contribution to the economy. He pressed the government to keep investing in the legal profession and justice system as other jurisdictions build up their own legal infrastructure, so the sector can keep driving growth nationwide.
