There is widespread concern about
the future of will writing solicitors across England and Wales. Is not
uniquely English phenomenon.
In Britain,
Wills Trusts LPA UK will writers, the
Richard Susskind of the decade has written important work
“The End of Solicitors?” (Oxford University Press, 2008), while corresponding considerations are
discussed in the US (but not limited to: Thomas Morgan, The Vanishing Lawyer: The Ongoing Transformation of the US Legal Profession, Oxford University Press, 2009).
The
concerns, despite using a rather depressive titles,
is necessary, because without effort (calm)
understanding and recording the causes of problems and without
forecasting of future environment where we present but finite solicitors, young and future solicitors and – it is assumed constant-law firms we will act, we cannot take today and tomorrow those measures that will properly prepare solicitors to
deal with the challenges of the future.
The changes that have led us to where we are.
What happened and we are where we are-and we all recognize that we are at the
worst point of the last forty years.
- «Guild of will writers».
We thought
the profession as “this-adjustable”.
We wrote our rules were, and of course the writing
in ways that benefit us.
But this
led to a substantial block us from what was happening round us and our in absentia.
The society progressed economically and technologically and
not condoned our lag (technological, organizational, scientific and social).
The society ceased to tolerate
provide low-level services, found other outlets for information and advice (e.g. auditing firms), considered the lawyer criticised the
parasite tolerance to epiorkoys members, dissolved (and welcome, despite the reaction of the industry)
(medieval English inspiration) “kleiston” of our profession with
the prohibition law in other geographic regions or the prohibition of establishment of branches law firms in other regions.
- “Overpopulation of wills”.
We have allowed an increase in the number of solicitors in addition to every need of the konomias and society and without
any reference to their needs.
Our universities are introducing at law schools so anyone can teach
not so those who would have need of the society.
And those added by graduates of foreign universities. Although the
bureaucratic and technologically backward State-Administration-local government and the consequent polynomia, became
important area absorbing legal and they generously offered private economy field action solicitors, these are phenomena of economic backwardness and kachexias.
It is not a question of proportion of solicitors/population ratio solicitors subject
to the needs of society and the economy.
When the State becomes (functionally and technologically) more efficient
and more competitive economy, you don’t need the old
General armies of solicitors but fewer well-trained solicitors, you will grow as the needs of the new society-State-economy. Do not saw, we did something. But we liked the power of our numbers.
- “globalisation” – and especially in the case of Englandthe integration into the EEC/EU – has changed our reality.
What we learned at the University the decades of 1970 and 1980
have vanished with the invasion of European law, while globalization brought us new laws and mainly practical, unknown mechritote.
Indicatively, the
work of El. Levandi, Law of commercial companies, vol.2-Anonymous Companies (ed. Ant. n. Athens: Sakkoulas, 1988), contained standard contract of sale of all the shares of an SA, total size 3.5 pages (pages 649-652 for the precision)!
Today, besides being preceded by due diligence that
examines the company “leaf and feather” (which means that only organized contractors can take something), by economic, fiscal, environmental terms, as well as the
all kinds of contracts, pending the proceedings, labour and insurance topics, compliance with specific laws (competition, industrial and intellectual property, urban planning etc), contracts and agreements span
hundreds of pages and supporting will writing documents.
The polynomia, necessary knowledge of foreign
laws and international conventions and to modernize all branches of law
marked the transition from the generalist lawyer in
qualified lawyer (which again is very more knowledge and information whether an object in comparison of lawyer of 4 Codes).
At the same time, developed and in many cases
took off foreign law firmsopened offices in dozens of cities
around the world and
employ thousands of solicitors and other scientists and that minutes are multinational companies.
We, with our obsession
to the lawyer as an unpaid public servant who cannot work in corporate form as this
supposedly ‘ commercialize ‘ lawyer,once allowed the 1989 law firms and those with
severe personal item.
Of course
– until we ahead- we saw the entrance of foreign, mainly English law firms, initially in shipping and shipping finance, now on general commercial law, banking law, the law of energy, you can
to raise capital, human resources, technology and above all knowledge and experience of organizations they belong to.
We saw, with the
complex tax and stock exchange law, and particularly international auditing firms to provide legal advice and to organize-with-
founded law firms on occasion, potential and illegal but bypassing the law which
prohibits the affiliation with non-lawyer counsel.
Globalization also revealed that the law
cannot operate without cooperation with other sciences.
The “mythical” nature of legal, (to remember the young Marx)
Demystified and was one among many sciences and even with necessary cooperation with other sciences.
Which lawyer can
exercise serious competition law without
knowledge of finance, telecommunications, or iroforikis without technological knowledge, family law without knowledge of DNA (paternity of children) or accounting ( divorces) etc, to mention a few examples. In the context of companies initially but after and generally in society the
lawyer-maitre was a lawyer associateall other professionals.
What characteristic example of
anachronistic perception of solicitors is the reaction to the creation of
patent attorneys.
In Memorandums provided for the
obligation to provide for patent attorneys that is basically science graduates (mechanical, chemical, etc) who are studying
only the patent law – are not solicitors-and can write patents and to espousing inventors on administrative
approval procedures of applications for awarding diplomas.
The institution is indispensable
If we want to talk about innovation and does not exist in Greece such business. The bar associations –
for unknown and incomprehensible reasons– the fought and until now no patent attorneys.
- “technology”.
We did not follow the
developments of technology. We all know the changes in the research of jurisprudence and doctrine in the legal databases and computerization.
But there’s one part delayed and, on the other hand
do not follow even now technological developments.
I won’t mention what I know that already act in the
exterior with the discovery document or the use of artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence) not to be graphic.
Just the computerization of courts, the
electronic tracking of civil and criminal proceedings, the electronic filing of documents even legal databases have left
tragic back.
The
legal data base of DPS «ISOCRATES ‘ has upgraded technology
by 2008 about.
And did not discuss how much more convenient and
complete is the foreign legal databases with advanced word search tools, access to text articles and books etc.
A huge technological chapter is the
protection of the law offices of tampering (hacking).
How many law firms may say that
ensure the privacy of their files? How important is the impact of information technology on the famous ‘ law matter “.
The impact is twofold: on the one hand
a series of legal actions that required due to the red tape inserting the lawyer primarily between Administration and managed are removed with the computerization and the
simplification of procedures and direct citizen access to public services, on the other hand with the automation and standardization of multiple documents and contracts that no longer require legal intervention (statutory companies and lease up documents). This revealed that the lawyer
does not add value to the process.
Instead it was trading cost (cost transactional). But technology/internet official
ς became increasingly disillusioned with the “legal science” as it spread, simplified and made
accessible to the Citizen the legal knowledge. When the expression of Morgan: “a lawyer’s knowledge is no longer a
black box incapable of client penetration”.
- «Substitution of a last will and testament».
One critical change is that in many ways the w
arembasi of the lawyer removed. in order to avoid misunderstanding does not
seem to me to be a necessary evil.
What happened is that where technology has made it
possible for other forms of mediation in resolving problems, disputes and uncertainties at a lower cost than traditional ways that necessarily included the lawyer that resulted in abolition of the lawyer
as a necessary part of the process.
Mainly in the urban sphere of private life and gradually in
s trade. One example is a Si
I pensions.
Old whoever wanted to retire, go to a lawyer
to draw for a fee. Today this and dozens of other processes
have slopped the lawyer from the middle.
At the same time, for other reasons, differences
are resolved by committeeswithout the necessary presence of the lawyer.
Ideally you will move, as many aspects, from the juridical disputes to
alternative dispute resolution (e.g. mediation and private arbitration).
Where a lawyer does not offer any added value, will be removed if the issue is procedural,
standard and automated. And this-in probate terms-is
good for society.
The bad, with the exception of law material loss, is that
Although new legal tasks as the jurisprudence evolving into new areas, however each new task requires a significant investment of time and capital, potentially poses risks and to put it simply, much
more trouble than in the past.
But this is again something different
than happens in other branches. The general rule is that
If today doesn’t offer added value, economy flows, or to doctor, or laborer or lawyer. Again don’t
we saw this coming but, even if we saw we did something rather than to try to maintain achievements.
The British solicitors,
maybe the best in Europe, need to monitor specific hours of seminars per year to maintain their license.
The Professional Association of the care to organise
courses and seminars for its members.
At the same time be connected with Universities for the
provision of specialized post-graduate and executive graduate studies in already solicitors.
- «in-house solicitors for lasting power of attorney” .
A particular parameter is the growing strength of
internal legal consultants. A few years ago, external solicitors in the majority of cases were the
essential legal advisors of companies.
Gradually organizing and
empowering in-house legal counsel, that already is highly trained and proficient legal and regulatory framework in which companies operate, implies
that much of the legal work is now done by their teams and while directed to external legal s only when they can offer
added value.
Many companies in order to assign particular work,
engage in so-called beauty parades and make repeated reviews of bids.
- “crisis wills”.
Add to that the
economic crisis in Greece and have a Molotov cocktail ready to explode. The tax increase, the
increase in social security payments, the contraction in economic activity by 25%, added to the continuous
flow production graduates of law schools, in the administrative reorganization that limit the role of solicitors, the need of increasing specialization and
continuous training, technological progress leading to standardization and virtually eliminate task bar where these are low legal content within a
stable framework, and recurring.
Perhaps the worst is that without substantial development even those
solicitors develop skills will not be able to use them. Attorney
I with amazing studiesthat could offer added value
is either unemployed, in the absence of any object relevant to their studies-so apoependyontai-whether dealing with others representing lost cost opportunity (opportunity cost),
or just not turned on Greece because they are
rocket scientists who otherwise will be invited to work in an environment of anachronistic compared to their studies. Indeed, if the banking economy does not grow, if production doesn’t pick up front that
will work these brilliant minds?
Not only the solicitors lose,
lose and the economy that does not take advantage of the added value that this man can provide.
Has anyone wondered why
privatization Fund or in large projects or in large mergers and acquisitions or in
large finance deal descend foreign law firms with j
unior Greek partners contractors?
Why
we stayed so back that today there is no single international-(I mean really international and no only with typical Office in Brussels or London)-
Greek law firm?
As once had told a German politician of the interwar period “If
we do not produce products for export, will produce people for export”. This is the brain drain.
Community law, in response to the election
of the country’s Bar Association does not discuss these issues seriously. And if the discusses, integrate within the context of
trade union opposition, namely what worse could do.
Necessary structural interventions.
From what I have mentioned, can draw some-clearly there are other many-
key findings for structural interventions
that must be processed by the new administrations of bar associations.
Indicative:
-Limitation
of the admitted students at law schools
-Overhaul
of legal studies, undergraduate and graduate.
-Change
of traineeship (to include courses in legal practice, exercise next to judges, training in the use of databases etc)
-Education
supporting legal professionals (legal secretaries, paralegals) and certification in cooperation with special knowledge of similar bodies, science and skills (accountancy,
finances, art of negotiation, mediation, patent attorneys, etc).
-Use of
immovable property of bar associations for meeting rooms and workspaces new mainly solicitors (solicitors ‘ business clusters)
with decent conditions but also for the conduct of arbitration, mediation on neutral ground etc.
-In
cooperation with the law schools create cycles of expertise for solicitors (executive graduate courses).
-Establishment of pollaplw
n special types of law firms (‘ capital ‘, ‘ limited liability company ‘, ‘ personal ‘) so as in other activities to allow selection according
needs and allow – and to incentives as in other activities-establishing, transforming and merging them to
create competitive units.
-Recognition
of the broader “legal professional” (legal professional), as opposed to the “lawyer”.
-Promoting Function
of ‘ rather than ‘ to ‘ prwtodikais despite this Court “ and” despite Supreme Ice tracking seminars “and not based on a formal criterion like today.
-Training of all solicitors
in the electronic submission of documents and computerization of courts
-Strengthen the
disciplinary role of bar associations and setting up the professional liability of solicitors
-Access of law firms and offices
in Bank financing.
All traders theoretically can raise capital to
finance investments and operations, e.g. have the possibility – known current limitations-in cash facilities
to normalise the financial flows.
The solicitors, that we are
‘ traditional ‘ last in the hierarchy of the necessary payments of our clients do not have any possibility of trade financing.
Writing for all those
I did not write about the problems of Justice but obviously the improvement of administration of passes and through them.
Nor wrote for necessary measures
to alleviate the financial-insurance burden of solicitors.
If you thought that solicitors
have no problems, hope you changed your mind.