Role or Lawyers
Arguably, lawyers have and continue to play various roles in the modern word that is marred with conflicts. The primary role of a lawyer it to litigate conflicts involving various parties. On another note, it is of the essence to note that law is closely intertwined with various aspects of the society. This calls for professional help at times when interpretation of such laws has become challenging. In fact, there are various complexities regarding the law, which call for professional assistance. It is also at such times, when lawyers become overly important in that they offer such professional help. While it is true that the law as a profession has various branches including barristers and solicitors, there is a need to note that lawyers in these two branches perform relatively similar roles.
Evidently, solicitors offer legal assistance and advice on matters regarding the law. Precisely, solicitors are the first persons contacted by individuals and companies seeking legal representation and advice. Solicitors work across various contexts including local and central government, legal departments across various organizations, and in law firms. In these varying contexts, solicitors make contact with clients, establish their legal needs, and how to offer them assistance. Thereafter, they carry our appropriate research on areas of law and develop a course of action aimed at addressing the client’s legal needs. Apart from the aforementioned, solicitors develop legal documents, letters, and contracts on behalf of their clients. In a nutshell, the contemporary world has been marred with various complexities in the legal landscape (Robert et al. 9). For this purpose, persons facing legal cases seek the help of solicitors who play an important role in representing clients in tribunals and courts.
Similar to solicitors, barristers offer court representation of clients, however, barristers only advise clients on certain legal concerns. In most cases, barristers receive instructions and information from solicitors, whereby they help in preparing court arguments and cases from such instructions and information. Despite the variations that exist between solicitors and barristers, they perform relatively similar roles. One of the most pertinent roles played by a barrister includes giving law related advice to clients on the manner in which they can strengthen their cases. This often requires the barrister to hold conferences with clients, where they can discuss cases facing them. Another role played by solicitors entails negotiating for settlement with a given side in cases where individuals decide to settle cases out of court. Overall, barristers are junior lawyers with varying roles.
In a nutshell, lawyers play different roles dictated by the contexts where they work in. Notably, lawyers can work in different contexts. More importantly, lawyers can work in law firms, whereby they perform roles aligned with being hired by various clients to perform legal work on their behalf. Lawyers can also work in private business entities whereby they play a role of offering legal counsel, negotiating business dealings, helping the business avert risks, and managing relationship between the business and its investors. In the various levels of government, lawyers can become prosecutors, legislative staff, attorney, an administrator, and a public defender. Lawyers can also work in the judiciary whereby they can occupy the position of a judge or a clerk. Finally, lawyers can work in the academic realm whereby they can serve as administrator. In this realm, lawyers can also render counsel, and teaching/lecturing services (Michael 13).
Regulation of Lawyers
Regulations in any given profession are essential in assuring that the valuable standards are set and adhered to. A close analysis of law profession in the context of the United States shows that it is regulated through different means. To begin with, lawyers in the United States conform to regulations set by the judiciary. Precisely, the judiciary has established difference codes of ethics, which regulate the lawyers. One of this codes of ethics is the American Bar Associations (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Through this code, lawyers are held responsible for any form of misconduct. One of the regulations contained in this code postulates that lawyer should always respect the authority of the court. In addition, regulation of lawyers by the judiciary is demonstrated in that judges are accorded powers to warn, fine, and remove lawyers from any given proceedings in case whereby the lawyers fail to respect court orders (Robert et al. 102).
Regulation of lawyers in the United States is allows demonstrated by the fact that lawyers self-regulate themselves through private, and organized bar malpractice regulations. This is evident by the fact that lawyers regulate themselves using regulations set by the American Bar Associations. There exists significant evidence that justify the fact that lawyers are regulated in the United States. The most pertinent evidence aligns with the fact that the recent past has experience a significant rise in malpractice suits filed against U.S. lawyers. This suits have culminated in the reprimanding of some lawyers Deductively, the American Bar Associations as a lawyers regulatory body regulates legal matters activities including; client –lawyer confidentiality, prohibition of conflicts of interest, prohibition of client advertising, and solicitation, prohibition of conflict of interest, and the duty to charge reasonable fees. Regulation of lawyers in the United States is also evident by the stringent bar requirements, which assures that only the qualified personnel are admitted to the bar.
Reason for Regulating Lawyers
The topic on lawyer regulation has often generated a controversial debate across various legal contexts. This can be attributed to the arguments devised by those opposed to such regulations. Nevertheless, there exists different reasons for lawyer regulation. First, lawyer regulation curbs the problem of practitioner incompetency. Lawyer regulations ranging from stringent educational requirements to bar examinations plays an important role in protecting the public against incompetent law practitioners (Richard 64). The use of entry and conduct regulations ensures that incompetent law practitioners are removed from the market; hence, reduce cases where the populations are subjected to incompetent legal advice and assistance. In fact, regulation of lawyers ensures licenses are issues inly to competent personnel. This reduces grave harms posed by unlicensed lawyers.
In addition, lawyers are regulated in order to ensure that there is professionalism in the field of law. It is undebatable that professionalism amongst lawyers is important in that it ensures that the rule of law is sustained. Professionalism amongst lawyers exists in cases where lawyers foster certain desired behaviour (s). Such behaviours include integrity, and competence, which bring sanity in the law profession. Worth noting is the fact that lawyers occur some of the high-level public servants positions ranging from judges to presidents. Such positions require a high sense of professionalism. The presence of regulations guarantees that lawyers act in a professional manner at all times. This analysis shows that regulation of lawyers is of much essence. As such, there is a need to streamline these regulation to guarantee protection of the interest of lawyers, as well as the public.
Work Cited
Michael Ross Fowler. With Justice for All? Prentice-Hall. 1998.
Richard Abel. The Law and Society Reader. New York University, 1995.
Robert A. Carp, Ronald Stidham, and Kenneth L. Manning. Judicial Process in America, 9th ed. Sage - CQ Press. 2014.
