Mandatory legal status for lawyers who wish to participate in litigation will improve the quality of the legal profession in Russia. This opinion was expressed by Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuichenko in an interview with Interfax on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.
“It could improve, I think. Because the bar is a corporation, where there are filters, standards, including ethical ones, that help prevent incompetent lawyers,” the minister believes.
Earlier, he essed the professional level of modern lawyers as rather low. The Ministry of Justice, according to Chuichenko, concluded that if non-lawyers wanted to represent themselves in court, they should join the bar. An exception may be corporate lawyers.
Interfax writes that 76,000 lawyers are currently working in Russia.
On May 11, Chuichenko suggested that only lawyers with the status of an advocate be allowed to participate in the trial. As the minister noted, such a requirement will improve the quality of legal services. According to him, the bar is an adequate filter for mediocre lawyers.