The State Duma adopted amendments to the law on the legal profession – Kommersant
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Today, April 10, the State Duma adopted in the third reading amendments to the federal law “On advocacy and the legal profession in the Russian Federation.” Let us recall that the initiative was developed by the Ministry of Justice in dialogue with the Federal Chamber of Lawyers (FBA) of the Russian Federation and submitted to the lower chamber in February 2023. Among the main changes proposed by the department was the tightening of requirements for candidates for lawyers – the mandatory presence of a higher legal education with a master’s degree in jurisprudence. Among other things, the Ministry of Justice included in the bill provisions on the creation of a unified state register of defense attorneys and on the regulation of the status of the general lawyer information system.
In April, deputies adopted the amendments in the first reading, and in October, a government commission proposed supplementing the law with an important provision: “The status of a lawyer is terminated by the council of the bar chamber in the presence of the conclusion of the qualification commission if it is revealed that the lawyer has left for permanent residence or for a period of more than one year outside RF”. As Kommersant previously reported, the proposal caused a mixed reaction in the legal community. The defenders interviewed by Kommersant said that such a basis for deprivation of status contradicts Part 2 of Art. 27 of the Constitution, according to which everyone can freely travel outside the Russian Federation. However, FPA vice-president Oleg Baulin hastened to reassure his colleagues and told Kommersant that deprivation of status certainly does not threaten lawyers who defend the interests of Russian citizens and companies abroad.
In addition, during the preparation of the bill for the second reading, another proposal was included in it – to transfer the authority to approve the “Regulations on the procedure for passing the qualification exam and assessing the knowledge of applicants for the status of lawyer” to the Ministry of Justice. The Moscow Chamber of Lawyers then stated that they were against “any kind of ‘coordination’ of the internal affairs of the legal profession with the justice authorities” as violating the principle of independence and self-government. However, Mr. Baulin told Kommersant that taking into account the “established” approaches of the Ministry of Justice and the Chamber “and the general understanding of the conditions for acquiring the status of a lawyer and changing membership, the named procedures are unlikely to lead to disputes and conflicts.”
Despite the mixed reaction from the legal profession, on April 9 the State Duma adopted the bill in the second reading. The next day, the bill was unanimously adopted in the third reading.
What lawyers expect from law enforcement officers – read in the Kommersant publication “Get on defense”.
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