The following 10 tips outline the actions you should avoid to succeed in the legal world

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10 tips for lawyers around the world

Lawyers, those who practice as independent professionals, are generally people with great capacity for analysis and reflection, and if they do not have it "ab initio", the exercise ends up attributing these qualities to them. Being analytical and reflective, before making decisions, the effects of those decisions are evaluated from different points of view and this means that before giving radical answers in one direction or another, a yes or no, lawyers think long and hard and often the answer is associated with a series of comments that qualify their conclusion. For this reason, when a professional lawyer gives a strong answer in one direction only, it is usually solidly grounded. In this last sense, the following is a description of situations and conduct that a lawyer should never consent to or carry out as an independent lawyer. Obviously, this article does not deal with clearly criminal conduct applicable to any person, but aims to identify harmful conduct that is often not perceived as such at first glance.

The following numbered headings indicate actions that should not be taken:

1. LOSE INDEPENDENCE

The lawyer loses his independence when his economic subsistence depends on a single client. This situation may cause or make it difficult for the lawyer to give his professional opinion and advice strictly according to technical legal criteria.

2. MANAGING MONEY

The lawyer as such should always avoid administering material goods of his clients. He can and should advise, but never be the owner of those assets with the capacity to dispose of them.

3. MANIPULATE LEGAL DIAGNOSES

Sometimes the lawyer is tempted to lower the difficulty of achieving a goal in front of the client in order to make him happy or worry him less: at other times, he hypertrophies the difficulty of the matter to prepare him for a possible negative result and, if necessary, increase the value of his work if a less bad result is achieved. Without losing the human touch, the lawyer must be sincere with the client in his professional diagnosis, any other conduct causes the loss of confidence.

4. SERVE JUSTICE BEFORE SERVING THE CLIENT

A lawyer should never forget that his function within a State of Law is to defend the interests of his clients above all else and with respect to the legal system in force. Only in this way can he contribute to a country's justice. 

  5. FAILURE TO REPORT THE VARIOUS EFFECTS OF UNLAWFUL ACTS

A complex example will serve to explain the latter meaning of this statement beyond the obvious. Let us imagine that a lawyer receives reliable information that the judge prosecuting one of his clients is a corrupt person who requests hidden payments to the investigated under the threat of prison sentences. The lawyer in this case must first inform his client. Inform him of the unlawfulness of such conduct and its existence and effects so that the client has all the information. This, if the law requires it imperatively, does not exempt the lawyer from failing to comply with the obligations to denounce such conduct to the competent authority in your case.

6. ACCEPTING MATTERS FROM DIRECT COMPETITORS OF CLIENTS

It is common that when a lawyer is successful in defending the interests of clients in a certain sector, other actors in the same sector have a tendency to contact that same lawyer. In order to accept such a new client, it is advisable for the lawyer to request authorization from the old client. This conduct will reinforce the confidence of the old client and whether or not the new client is accepted, the latter will be convinced that he/she has contacted a professional with a rigorously ethical profile.   

7. COLLABORATING WITH OTHER COLLEAGUES WITHOUT THE CLIENT'S PERMISSION

A lawyer should not transfer information on a matter to third party lawyers without the client's permission, even if they can collaborate in the defense of the client's interests. Before turning to such third party lawyers, the lawyer must obtain the express authorization of the client.

8. CRITICIZING JUDGES PERSONALLY

A lawyer may only counter-argue judicial decisions and conduct within the channels established in the procedural law applicable in each case. He must always do so in the client's interest and never in his own. A lawyer, out of respect for the interests of his clients, cannot afford to have bad relations with the judiciary while practicing law.

9. GIVING INFORMATION TO A CLIENT ABOUT OTHER CLIENTS

Sometimes lawyers are tempted to explain to a potential client of a certain productive sector, that they have several clients of that same sector to accredit their experience and knowledge of it. It is a bad decision, it generates distrust for the new client. This information can only be given with the permission of the old client and informing the new client that we have the permission of the old client.

10. SHARING AGENDA PROBLEMS WITH THE CLIENT

It is a bad tactic but frequent, to justify the breach of schedules agreed with the client on the basis of work or commitments arising from the cause of other clients of the lawyer. The client should never have the feeling that the care of his interests depends on the vigilance of other interests outside his own.