The Distinction Between Advocates and Legal Advisors
The division adwokat / radca prawny was created by a 1959 law which forbade advocates from advising socialised economy units (primarily state enterprises, and cooperatives, which were the dominant form of economic activity in the People's Republic of Poland), and introduced the new profession of radca prawny for that purpose.
1. Advocates and legal advisors have their own independent bar associations (both are members of CCBE - The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe); membership is obligatory in order to practice the respective profession:
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- Advocates: The Polish Bar Council (ca 7,600 members);
- Legal advisors: National Chamber of Legal Advisors (ca 20,200 members).
Currently, admission to the Polish Bar Council is completely open to the members of the National Chamber of Legal Advisors, and vice versa. Lawyers can be members of both bar associations at the same time, however they cannot practice both professions concurrently.
2. Legal regulations regarding the two professions slightly differ:
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- Legal advisors are not authorised to defend persons charged in criminal trials; they can however represent other parties in a criminal trial, including corporate entities liable for the damage resulting from a criminal offense, as well as defend persons charged with misdemeanors;
- Advocates cannot enter into any employment contract while practicing their profession (this includes being hired as an in-house lawyer or as an associate attorney or salaried partner at a law firm, although it is commonly evaded through self-employment);
3. The two bar associations have their own deontology and ethical codes according to which:
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- legal advisors are allowed to inform about their services (advertisement being forbidden); advocates' rules in this matter are much more harsh;
- advocates are very limited as to business activities they perform; the following actions are forbidden by the Advocates' Code of Ethics as colliding with the advocate's profession, while being fully allowed to be performed by legal advisors:
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- - holding the manager's position in another person's business entity;
- - holding the position of a member of the management board or proxy in commercial partnerships and companies, with the exception of law firms;
- - acting as a regular commercial agent;
- - running the same office with a person rendering other services, it they collide with advocates' ethical rules.
Read more about this topic: Lawyers In Poland
Famous quotes containing the words distinction, advocates, legal and/or advisors:
“Only where there is pecuniary equality can the distinction of merit stand out.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“It is not when it is dangerous to tell the truth that its advocates are hardest to find, but when it is boring.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In the course of the actual attainment of selfish ends—an attainment conditioned in this way by universality—there is formed a system of complete interdependence, wherein the livelihood, happiness, and legal status of one man is interwoven with the livelihood, happiness, and rights of all. On this system, individual happiness, etc. depend, and only in this connected system are they actualized and secured.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Whoever gives advice to the sick gains a sense of superiority over them, no matter whether his advice is accepted or rejected. That is why sick people who are sensitive and proud hate their advisors even more than their illnesses.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)