When going to the administration of justice, whether as a plaintiff or defendant, the citizen is forced, in most cases, to hire the services of a solicitor and a lawyer. If you are not used to the day-to-day life of the courts, you may not be clear about the difference between these two professions.
The Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Legal Spanish, produced by the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), offers the following definition of a lawyer: “Legal professional whose activity, subject to academic and legal requirements, may consist of providing legal advice, shaping the will of his client so that he can produce legal effects (drafting, for example, agreements and agreements) or defend his interests by representing him in negotiations with third parties, in administrative procedures and in trials before the courts.
In short, a lawyer is responsible for defending his client in court. He is the one who draws up the legal strategy to follow in a dispute, preparing the necessary documentation to ensure that the balance, the judge’s decision, tips in favor of the client. Likewise, he can offer other services such as legal advice, drafting contracts and other documents or arbitration in conflicts, among others.
The profession of attorney is much more unknown. Broadly speaking, he is a legal figure whose role lies in promoting the processing of a process. He is in charge of following the procedure from the lawsuit and is responsible for all the procedures, receiving and signing summonses, summonses and notifications. He also attends all proceedings and events on behalf of his client and informs the lawyer of everything so that he can focus on the defense. Furthermore, since the reform of the Civil Procedure Law, they are considered a judicial authority in carrying out acts of communication.
Returning to the legal dictionary of the RAE we can define the attorney as the “legal professional who, being in possession of the university degree qualifying for its practice and, in general, of the mandatory membership, is in charge of the procedural representation of the parties in litigation before the courts and tribunals and, singularly, through whom the acts of procedural communication are carried out with the parties in person.”
However, some peculiarities should be noted. “The attorney profession as it exists in Spain is a unique and unprecedented phenomenon in developed societies and economies,” highlighted Lorenzo Bernaldo de Quirós, president of Freemarket Corporate Intelligence, in this article in EL MUNDO.
“In the European countries in which a similar figure existed, there has been a tendency to eliminate it. States as non-neoliberal or symbols of corporatism as Italy and France abolished the institution of procurement in 1997 and the second in 2011. For their part, For years, the European Commission has asked the Spanish governments two basic questions: why is the simultaneous exercise of the professions of lawyer and solicitor prohibited? and why is there a tariff instead of freedom of prices for charging of that last activity?”, argued the economist, who added that the separation between representation and defense in trials in force in Spain lacks justification.
Law 15/2021 of October 23, 2021 modified the Law on Access to the professions of Lawyer and Court Attorney, establishing a single access for these professions. That is, those who have a bachelor’s degree or degree in law and obtain the master’s degree and the evaluation of professional aptitude, can practice law or law enforcement without distinction; opting for the profession that the person wants to practice after becoming a member of the Bar Association or the College of Attorneys. Now, although access is unique for both professions, it is still prohibited to simultaneously use both professions.
