In Poland, any person holding a Magister's degree in law (Polish: magister prawa) is called a "jurist" or "lawyer" (Polish : prawnik). [1] [2] According to Polish legal doctrine, a lawyer should be understood as a person who graduated from law school with the aforementioned degree, even if such a person does not practice law after graduation. [3]
Polish lawyers may work in licensed legal professions, public administration, law enforcement, tax services and governmental agencies. Since a legal entity can be represented in a court of law by its employees, companies do not employ advocates or attorneys-at-law but instead rely on in-house lawyers, counsellors or associates not admitted to the bar. [4] [5]
Because an agent can act for any person under Polish law, some lawyers do what in the UK is done by solicitors. Thus, specialized persons write legal agreements, conduct negotiations, or execute debts. Polish law expressly permits persons with Magister's degree in law to provide legal counselling.
In the reasons for judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 26 November 2003 (ref. no. SK 22/02), the view was expressed for the first time that the provisions in force in Poland allow persons holding a Magister's degree in law to carry out legal counselling on their own account. [6] A consequence of the judgment was the legal sanctioning of legal counselling offices run by persons who graduated from law schools but do not belong to bar associations. The person with qualifying legal education can work as:
The licensed legal professions are as follows: [11]
Some legal professions may also be performed by graduates in other specific disciplines, such as economics or engineering. They require an appropriate admission examination to be passed; as such, lawyers are authorised to represent persons before courts in matters related to their profession. Such professions include:
In modern Polish language, mecenas is an honorific title addressed to a person working in a legal profession and authorised to appear in a court of law on behalf of a client – advocates and attorneys at law.
In the 16th-century, lawyers of that time were called procuratores mercenarii , i.e. paid substitutes in litigation. In this way, they were distinguished from non-professional substitutes called procuratores. From the phrase procuratores mercenarii, the term mecenas was created by gradually eliminating the first segment and the "r" in the second word. It appeared as early as the 18th century in its modern form and became popular in the 19th century.
The title of mecenas is purely a matter of courtesy and is not protected by the law. It is most commonly used to address advocates and attorneys at law [17] and can be loosely compared to the English counsel.
In 2014, the Press Office of the National Bar Council of Advocates called for the title of mecenas to be reserved only for advocates and attorneys-at-law, but this remained without impact on the practice of the media and legal community. [18]
The division between adwokat and radca prawny was created by a 1959 law that 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.
Advocates and attorneys at law have their independent bar associations (both are members of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe); membership is obligatory for those willing to practice the respective profession:
Currently, admission to the National Bar Council of Advocates is open to the National Bar Council of Attorneys-at-Law members and vice versa. Lawyers can be members of both bar associations simultaneously; however, they cannot practice both professions concurrently.
Since 2015, the position and rights of advocates and attorneys at law are identical in almost all matters, leading to public discussion on the unification of the two professions. [19] Legal regulations regarding the two professions slightly differ: [20]
The two bar associations have their own rules and ethical codes according to which: [21] [22]
While the Polish term radca prawny was usually literally translated to a legal advisor, in 2018, the bar adopted attorney at law as the official translation to avoid a misconception that its members only provide legal consultation and advice, rather than the full range of legal services, including representing their clients in courts. [14] [23]
There are no bar associations for judges and public prosecutors. The Ministry of Justice is in charge of the administration of the professions, while the President of the Republic of Poland appoints judges. Advocates, attorneys at law, notaries, bailiffs, patent attorneys, and tax advisors have their bar associations.
There are several ways of admission to the bar. As to advocates and attorneys at law, the following options are available: [24] [25]
An examination for admission to bar apprenticeship for advocates and attorneys at law is a written test. A hundred out of a hundred and fifty points guarantee admission. The examination covers: 1) criminal law and criminal procedure; 2) infraction law and infraction court proceedings; 3) financial criminal law and financial criminal proceedings; 4) civil law and civil procedure; 5) family law; 6) public economic law; 7) commercial companies and partnerships law; 8) labour law and social security regulations; 9) administrative law and administrative procedure; 10) administrative court proceedings; 11) European Union law; 12) constitutional law; 13) organization of justice in Poland. [24] [25]
Bar training for advocates and attorneys at law lasts for three years and consists of theoretical and practical courses. Each trainee (Polish: aplikant) has a patron, who must be a practitioner from the respective bar. The bar examination is a written exam that lasts four days and consists of preparing various documents and briefs in the following areas: criminal law, civil or family law, commercial law, administrative law, ethics.
Bar training for notaries is slightly shorter (two and a half years) and covers different areas of law.
The body in charge of training for future judges and public prosecutors is the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution in Kraków. After one year of general training, the candidates proceed to specialised training for another thirty months. Then, trainee judges serve apprenticeships as law clerks (twelve months) and as referendaries (Polish: referendarz). A similar apprenticeship is required for future public prosecutors. [26]
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the law and giving legal opinions.
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly, across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, solicitor, legal executive, and public servant. — with each role having different functions and privileges. Working as a lawyer generally involves the practical application of abstract legal theories and knowledge to solve specific problems. Some lawyers also work primarily in advancing the interests of the law and legal profession.
A notary public of the common law is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with general financial transactions, estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business. A notary's main functions are to validate the signature of a person ; administer oaths and affirmations; take affidavits and statutory declarations, including from witnesses; authenticate the execution of certain classes of documents; take acknowledgments ; provide notice of foreign drafts; provide exemplifications and notarial copies; and, to perform certain other official acts depending on the jurisdiction. Such transactions are known as notarial acts, or more commonly, notarizations. The term notary public only refers to common-law notaries and should not be confused with civil-law notaries.
An "advocate" is a professional in the field of law. Different countries and legal systems uses the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based on jurisdictions could be a barrister or a solicitor. However, in Scottish, Manx, South African, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Scandinavian, Polish, Israeli, South Asian and South American jurisdictions, "advocate" indicates a lawyer of superior classification.
In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister, solicitor, or civil law notary. However, there is a substantial amount of overlap between the practice of law and various other professions where clients are represented by agents. These professions include real estate, banking, accounting, and insurance. Moreover, a growing number of legal document assistants (LDAs) are offering services which have traditionally been offered only by lawyers and their employee paralegals. Many documents may now be created by computer-assisted drafting libraries, where the clients are asked a series of questions that are posed by the software in order to construct the legal documents. In addition, regulatory consulting firms also provide advisory services on regulatory compliance that were traditionally provided exclusively by law firms.
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to practise there as such. For example, in England and Wales a solicitor is admitted to practise under the provisions of the Solicitors Act 1974. With some exceptions, practising solicitors must possess a practising certificate. There are many more solicitors than barristers in England; they undertake the general aspects of giving legal advice and conducting legal proceedings.
An attorney at law in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in court on the retainer of clients. As of January 1, 2023, there were 1,331,290 active lawyers in the United States. In terms of absolute numbers, the American legal profession was the largest in the world as of 2015, and it is thought to be the largest in the world in proportion to domestic population. A 2012 survey conducted by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell determined 58 million consumers in the U.S. sought an attorney in the last year and that 76 percent of consumers used the Internet to search for an attorney.
A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence. The word bar is derived from the old English/European custom of using a physical railing to separate the area in which court business is done from the viewing area for the general public.
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to the bar". "The bar" is now used as a collective noun for barristers, but literally referred to the wooden barrier in old courtrooms, which separated the often crowded public area at the rear from the space near the judges reserved for those having business with the court. Barristers would sit or stand immediately behind it, facing the judge, and could use it as a table for their briefs.
In law, the bar is the legal profession as an institution. The term is a metonym for the line that separates the parts of a courtroom reserved for spectators and those reserved for participants in a trial such as lawyers.
A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction.
Legum Doctor (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law and civil law, with the double “L” itself indicating the plural, although Cambridge now gives the degree the name Doctor of Law in English. This contrasts with the practice of the University of Oxford, where the degree that survived from the Middle Ages is the DCL or Doctor of Civil Law (only).
A law school is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a judge, lawyer, or other legal professional within a given jurisdiction. Depending on the country, legal system, or desired qualifications, the coursework is undertaken at undergraduate, graduate, or both levels.
Myra Colby Bradwell was an American publisher and political activist. She attempted in 1869 to become the first woman to be admitted to the Illinois bar to practice law, but was denied admission by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1870 and the United States Supreme Court in 1873, in rulings upholding a separate women's sphere. Bradwell had founded and published Chicago Legal News from 1868, reporting on the law and continued that work. Meanwhile, influenced by her case, in 1872 the Illinois legislature passed a state law prohibiting gender discrimination in admission to any occupation or profession.
An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are distinct practising certificates.
An Attorney at law in Sri Lanka is the only legal practitioners authorised to represent others in all court of law in the island and are also authorised to give advice regarding any matter of law. Alternative terms include lawyer.
A Doctor of Law is a doctorate in legal studies.
The judiciary of Poland are the authorities exercising the judicial power of the Polish state on the basis of Chapter 8 of the Constitution of Poland. As in almost all countries of continental Europe, the Polish judiciary operates within the framework of civil law.
The New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA) is a bar association located in New York City.
Legal advisor is a legal profession recognized in the Polish legal system. Legal advisors are lawyers providing legal services, not affiliated with any law society or bar association. Practising legal advisors do not have to possess a practising certificate and their activity is based on the principle of economic freedom guaranteed in Polish entrepreneurial law.
