The Profession of a Lawyer

1. One of the most popular professions among the young people of our country is the profession of a lawyer. In their opinion the legal profession is very interesting, diverse and quite necessary for regulation of social relations in the state. A graduate from the law faculty or law institute may choose his place of work and occupation from a number of possible ones.

2. He can be either a barrister (attorney, counsel for the defence, counsel for the prosecution) at the Bar and defend the accused – prove his innocence by evidence or a judge at the Law Court and administer justice – conduct the trial, sum up evidence, pass the just sentence. He can work as a prosecutor or a prosecutor’s assistant at the Procurator’s Office and supervise the correct application and observance of the law. He can be a state arbitrator at the state arbitration or sometimes an investigator in the organs of the militia and solve the crimes.

3. Lawyer may act as the defence counsel in the court, he may represent the interests of the plaintiff, the defendant or of third parties in civil or criminal cases. In national economy lawyers are entrusted with the control on the legality of orders and instructions issued by governing body: they participate in making up different agreements and contracts, which are concluded with other enterprises. Lawyers also inform workers on the current legislation and give help on legal matters, conduct their cases in courts. In almost all civil-law countries there are notaries, who have exclusive rights to deal with such office work as marriage settlements and making wills.

4. Lawyers in private practice in Russia work mostly within colleges of advocates – self-managed cooperative type organisations^*. There are about nineteen thousand advocates in more than one hundred colleges. The highest body of advocates’ self-management is the general meeting of a college. The presidium headed by chairperson is the executive board of each college. The presidium is elected by the general meeting for a term of three years.

5. Colleges of advocates are formed in accordance with territorial subdivisions – in the cities, regions or republics. In its territory any college is represented by law firms or legal aid offices, which render all regular legal assistance to citizens.

6. There are now more and more American-type law firms in Russia functioning separately from colleges of advocates and especially involved in representing private businesses. Many lawyers are employed by the law offices of enterprises, ministries and agencies as in-house counsel (jurisconsult). These lawyers have all powers of an attorney, but they represent their single and permanent "client" – their respective organisation. There are about twenty thousands of them in Russia, and in view of the economic reform this body is growing.

7. A lawyer should be a perfect expert in laws and their proper usage. Since the job of a lawyer may involve any kind of human activity, he may deal with different types of people. Therefore, last but not least^* a lawyer is competent in human psychology and human understanding.

8. So it is clear that the profession of a lawyer may give a specialist a lot of opportunities to use his professional and personal competence and therefore he must administer justice only for the sake of^* "truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth".

9. Of course, many people in the legal profession teach or do academic recearch work. In Russia there are forty institutions of higher education in law, separate research centers in law, the most prominent of which is the Institute of State and Law under the Academy of Sciences of Russia.

Notes:

Reading for General Understanding

Ex. 34. Look through Text A and do the following tasks.

Task 1. Decide which titles also fit the text.

1. Career of a lawyer. 2. My future profession. 3. Legal profession. 4. Judicial independence. 5. Classes of lawyers. 6. The advantages of the legal profession. 7. Training of lawyers. 8. Types of legal professions in Russia. 9. The task of legal education. 10. Judicial institutions.