Profession
There are various branches of the legal profession in the European Union such as judges, advocates, notaries, academics, bailiffs, etc. Moreover, there are several national variants throughout the Member States. Most of these professions have the following common characteristics:
- They are very ancient and as such, are organised as monopolistic bodies which govern access to the profession, regulate use of the title ascribed to members of the profession, define the ethical rules which apply to members and also exercise disciplinary powers over them.
- In Europe, these bodies are frequently private organisations although charged with the duty of providing a public service. This latter feature entails certain particularities such as the use of robes, wigs or other attributes of authority, as well as the possibility of the State becoming involved in the management of the body or council concerned in order to establish rules to safeguard the public interest. Therefore they are not governed by the common law applying to private associations.
- The members of these professions generally practice in an individual capacity and thus acquire some degree of personal reputation on this basis. The corporate forms in which members of some professions are permitted to organise themselves (notably as a result of recent developments) enable the individuals concerned to enjoy the economic and commercial advantages of being part of a firm while maintaining their individual identities.
These traditional professions have a high degree of stability in that members tend to practice throughout an entire career within the same profession and, indeed, frequently do so within the same geographical area.
The profound industrial and economic changes of the post-World War II era, characterised on the one hand by the globalisation of trade with its accompanying deregulation and, on the other, by the complexity of new sets of regulations protecting citizens and consumers, have progressively lead corporations,' starting with the larger ones and followed by smaller sized companies, to recruit lawyers to work full time for them inhouse.
These are the company lawyers, also called corporate counsel or legal advisers; their profile has gradually taken shape in the 20th century, particularly during recent decades.
