Support the Legal Advisers!

Dear Sir,


This letter has the goal of introducing you to an aspect concerning the legal system in Romania, a country which is about to become a member-state of the EU. No one can deny that, through the efforts of adhering to the EU, Romania has achieved great improvements in matters such as: fighting against corruption, the independence of justice, etc.
However, a very important aspect, that has been neglected so far, is the structure of the legal professions in Romania.We are talking about persons performing a very important part in the process of the legal reform. They are the professionals performing legal activities: judges, prosecutors, lawyers, legal advisers, etc. While the judges and the prosecutors have already been the subject of some legal changes, concerning their activities, we cannot say the same about the other categories of legal professionals.
After the year 1990, the profession of "lawyer" was settled by Law no. 51/1995. Nowadays, therefore, this activity has its own blueprint act, which, of course, can be improved, but which is still observed. The situation is very different in the case of legal advisers.
What is a legal adviser, after all, according to the Romanian law? This legal profession was settled during the communist period, by Decree-law no 143/1955. This deed introduced the term of "jurisconsult" in our legal system for the first time. A "jurisconsult' was a law specialist (he/she would have a law studies bachelor). He/She was the employee of state institutions and state companies (there was no private property back then). His/her duties were to give legal advice to the institution or to the company where he/she was employed, to represent the institution or the company in trials, in different law courts, etc. In other words, the legal adviser was "the lawyer" of an institution or of a state company. So, a new legal activity was established- the profession of "jurisconsult", in parallel with the profession of lawyer ( lawyers developed their activity by their own legal rules).
The year 1990 did not bring any changes to the profession of "jurisconsult". However, in 2003 the legal frame of the profession of legal adviser changed. Law no.514/2003 has been in force since 2003. It settles the rules of practising as a legal adviser. Having been published in the Official Journal, this blueprint act was followed by the appearance of "The Statute of the Legal Adviser Profession". For the first time, we had the impression that the profession of legal adviser, fairly considered to be a "relic" of the communist system, was to get a totally new legal frame and new competences.
As a consequence of the enforcement of Law no.514/2003, local unions of legal advisers appeared (local legal advisers' boards), and, of course, we also had a National Union of the Legal Advisers' Boards. The local unions could be compared to the local bars and the National Union-to The National Association of the Romanian Bars. The idea was that every district of our country should have a board of legal advisers. However, even today, 3 years after the enforcement of Law no 514/2003, this thing has not been achieved.There are still some districts where there is no local legal advisers' board.
Another improvement that was brought by Law no.514/2003 and by "The Statute of the Legal Adviser Profession" was the fact that for the first time it was possible for the legal advisers to establish law firms (legal consultancy firms). So, since 2003 many law firms have been established by the legal advisers. This has been done according to Law no.514/2003, "The Statute of the Legal Adviser Profession" and to all other Romanian laws.
It was a great step for this profession, meaning that the legal advisers were regarded as belonging to a powerful professional corp, and that their professional frame rules were about to become similar to the ones in other European states.
However, the ascent of the legal adviser as a law professional (a professional who could be either employed by an organization or work as a free-lancer in his own firm) was not enjoyed by the bars, and by "The National Association of the Romanian Bars" and still isn't. The legal adviser is perceived as the competition who comes with the same amount of knowledge and capacity of work, but better prices than the lawyers.
That is why, the establishment of law firms by the legal advisers (law specialists having the same legal studies as the lawyers) is contested by some local bars. Ultimately, it has come to the following situation: some bars have decided to initiate law trials against some law firms belonging to legal advisers, claming that these law firms should be declared illegal and that they should be closed. It did not matter that these firms had been established by legal sentences (which were not contested within the legal term); it did not matter that these organizations had been functioning according to the Romanian law. There is no Romanian or international deed or legal act that forbids the establishment of such a firm.
As a result of an appeal introduced by the ex-attorney general Mr. Ilie Botos, The High Court of Cassation and Justice pronounced a ruling, forbidding the establishment of law firms by legal advisers. This is a huge legal abuse. Practically, the justice exceeded its competences entering the domain of the legislative authority, since The High Court of Cassation and Justice did not consider either Law no 514/2003 ( belonging to the primary legislation and being published in the Official Journal-part I), ) or "The Statute of the Legal Adviser Profession"
( also being published in the Official Journal-part I, with the agreement of the Parliament).
So, these are the problems that we are confronting these days, when we are about to become a part of the European Union. Some dissensions between the lawyers and the legal advisers would bring advantage to no one. They would create difficulties in reaching a high performance standard for both lawyers and legal advisers and ultimately, clients, individuals or organizations ( as they represent the target of the legal services) will be those affected.
We think that the competent authorities should interfere in order to solve this problem.But they seem to ignore the situation of legal advisers. For instance, we know that once we adhere to the EU, the profession of legal adviser should be settled by Directive 98/5/EC. The competent authorities should publish the professional titles, according to Art 1 of this directive. Otherwise, the profession of legal adviser will not be recognized in the EU states. Although this subscription has already been done for the profession of lawyer, for some reason, the legal advisers have not been registered yet in the professional titles list. Will they disappear after Romania's adhering to EU?
These are the reasons that made us write this message to you. We wanted you to be aware of the legal abuses legal advisers are subjected to. The problem tends to become a national issue, since there are many districts where these professionals confront difficulties such as those presented above.
Since the Romanian authorities seem to ignore us, we have decided to present this aspect to you, as you are the Commissioner Responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security. We would like to ask you and the other European authorities to kindly help us change and reform the profession of legal adviser according to the European laws.