The Profession of a Lawyer / Attorney At Law

Like any profession, the practice of law has its own specifics, essential skills, working style, etc. However, this article will discuss the profession of a lawyer (attorney) through the prism of the law: what rights a lawyer has and what standards the law sets for a person if they wish to engage in legal practice;

Article 1.2 of the Law of Georgia "On Lawyers" states that "A lawyer is a person of a liberal profession who obeys only the law and the norms of professional ethics and is a member of the Georgian Bar Association." While the lawyer's subordination to the law is perfectly clear, the Code of Professional Ethics "determines the norms of professional ethics and rules of conduct for lawyers." Moreover, the purpose of this code of ethics is to "establish the lawyer's obligation to maintain professional dignity, respect their activities, and strive to gain high trust for the legal profession." As for the liberal profession, the law, of course, does not provide us with a complete and/or exact definition/interpretation of a liberal profession. It can be formulated as follows: "A liberal profession is a person engaged in intellectual labor (writer, doctor, lawyer) who is not constantly employed in the same place and does not have a fixed salary, but whose remuneration is determined by the fee for the services rendered." In modern Georgia, the liberal profession of a lawyer can simply be defined as: "A person of a liberal profession is a person who offers services, assistance, and/or representation to other persons, acting independently, based on the law and professional knowledge, and is protected in their activities from the interference of any third party. A relationship based on special trust is established between the person of a liberal profession/lawyer and their client.";

The practice of law has a total of 11 principles. The principles on which the practice of law stands are:
a) Legality;
b) The rule of law and the fair administration of justice;
c) Professional competence;
d) The lawyer's integrity, good reputation, and respect for the legal profession;
e) Freedom and independence of the legal practice;
f) Equality of lawyers and the inadmissibility of their discrimination;
g) Non-interference in the legal practice;
h) Respect for and protection of the client's rights and freedoms by the lawyer;
i) The inadmissibility of the lawyer's refusal to exercise the right to defense, except in cases provided for by this Law;
j) Protection of professional secrecy by the lawyer;
k) Observance of the norms of professional ethics by the lawyer;

Operating within the framework of fairness also ensures the protection of the client, i.e., the person who hires the lawyer. Because, for example, "the protection of professional secrecy by the lawyer" means that the preservation of secrecy has no time limit; it is a kind of indefinite obligation for the lawyer. A lawyer is obliged not to disclose to any other person the information that became known to them from the client (not to disclose the information received from them in the process of carrying out legal activities and/or related to their case — confidential information). The lawyer has the right not to disclose this received information to any third parties, including law enforcement agencies, and legally they cannot be "held" liable for this in any way. Part 1 of Article 50 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia defines the persons who are not obliged to be witnesses: a) "a lawyer – regarding circumstances that became known to them in connection with the performance of a lawyer's duties in this case," and b) "a lawyer who provided legal assistance to a person prior to accepting the defense – regarding circumstances that became known to them in connection with the provision of legal assistance.";

The practice of law is also protected by the Constitution, specifically by Part 2, Sub-article 3 of Article 31 of the Constitution of Georgia, which establishes that "The unhindered exercise of the rights of a lawyer and the right of lawyers to self-organization are guaranteed by law." The preamble of the Charter of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) explains the role of a lawyer in a very general way as follows: a lawyer must serve the interests of justice and those whose rights and freedoms they are entrusted to assert and defend. In addition, the lawyer's duty is not only to defend the client's position, but they are also obliged to be the client's advisor. Consequently, the function of a lawyer imposes a whole range of legal and moral obligations on them: towards the client; towards the courts and other authorities before which the lawyer defends the position of their client or represents them;

Part 3 of Article 8 of the Code of Professional Ethics of Lawyers of Georgia determines that "A lawyer has no right to give the client guarantees regarding the results of the case taken from them." This provision, on the one hand, protects the lawyer so that they do not issue any kind of guarantee to their client, and on the other hand, it also protects the client. Because if a client receives a guarantee from a lawyer under any circumstances, it means the lawyer is violating the law, and therefore, one should not have a business relationship with them. Besides the obligation not to give a guarantee, this obligation is also interesting because it is a kind of call that the relationship between a lawyer and a client should be based on special trust—trust that relies on the lawyer's reputation, professionalism, and integrity.;

The Constitutional Court has delivered a number of interesting decisions regarding the legal profession, including: "The protection of human rights by a lawyer is a much greater value in the process of building a state governed by the rule of law than the material results of taxing the income derived from their activities" (Decision of the Constitutional Court of Georgia of January 25, 2000, in case N 1/1/207). In one of its decisions, it pointed out that "The profession of a lawyer is not an entrepreneurial or economic activity." This is an important concept because the law imposes a higher standard than usual on a lawyer in society, just like, for example, on a doctor. While, on the one hand, the trust/relationship between a doctor and a patient yields the ultimate result for the patient's health, on the other hand, the trusting relationship between a lawyer and a client should yield the result of maximal protection of the client's rights;

Is the practice of law an entrepreneurial activity? The answer to this is unequivocally negative (in its classical sense), because obligations such as the obligation of independence, observing loyalty to the client, protecting confidentiality, and avoiding conflicts of interest, among others, do not apply to any entrepreneurial activity under free market economy conditions. Such statutory requirements regulating the profession are unique. It can be said that the practice of law differs sharply from entrepreneurial activity; at the same time, this activity is subject to the rules of a market economy, but with one condition: with numerous obligations to the client and society. The explanation of the Constitutional Court in one of its cases is also noteworthy, where it emphasized the necessary interpretation of this profession: "According to the assessment of the Constitutional Court, although a lawyer is a person of a liberal profession who receives a fee based on the legal services rendered, this does not mean absolute freedom of legal practice. On the contrary, legal practice is a regulated profession." Furthermore: "A lawyer acts as an entity defending the established public legal order in the country. The predominantly public nature of a lawyer's activity also emerges from their obligation to promote the society's realization of the principle of the rule of law and the formation of trust toward the justice system while carrying out legal activities. A lawyer, first and foremost, serves the interests of justice and fairness, giving the person interested in justice the opportunity to make a substantial contribution to the judicial process. In this way, they are involved in the unified process of administering justice and serve its goals.";

In some cases, the role of a lawyer in society is not perceived correctly. This is also due to the fact that, for example, a liberal profession allows a person to be both a lawyer and a politician, and/or engage in political activities, but this unequivocally precludes diminishing the role of a lawyer in the modern justice system. In most cases, the primary question for a lawyer while getting acquainted with the case is: "Will they win the case?!" I have already referred to the prohibition of guarantees above. At the same time, the primary purpose of a lawyer can be translated as follows: "The purpose of a lawyer is to ensure that a person is not sentenced/fined more than what is provided by law, to ensure maximal protection of the client's interests, and if the case permits, the person should be acquitted / the lawsuit against them should not be satisfied." This is exactly where advocacy begins, and not from Hollywood movies, where at the last moment the lawyer finds the most important piece of evidence in the case;

True, the fee for legal practice is individual and is not subject to any kind of limit (except for the obligation to impose the payment of no more than 4% of the value of the subject of the dispute on the opposing party in a civil case). However, in this regard, the CCBE Model Code of Conduct, which is a guide for lawyers in the European Union and the European Economic Area, is also interesting. It regulates the issue of fees; specifically, paragraph 3.4 establishes that: 3.4.1. A fee charged by a lawyer shall be fully disclosed to the client, shall be fair and reasonable. 3.4.2. Subject to any proper agreement to the contrary between a lawyer and the client, a fee charged by a lawyer shall be subject to regulation in accordance with the rules of the Bar or Law Society to which the lawyer belongs;

With this article, I tried to minimally explain the role of a lawyer in the legislative space. Toward the end, I will point out that: "The state is obliged, on the one hand, not to unjustifiably interfere in the lawyer's activities itself, and on the other hand, to create for them, as a qualified legal advisor to a person seeking justice, the necessary guarantees for independent activity, based on which the lawyer will be able to conduct their activities free from any external pressure and interference." Because justice, as well as fairness and legality, are unimaginable and even impossible without a lawyer.;