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What does a good lawyer need to know and be able to do?
Hello, friends and colleagues!
What a lawyer needs to know and be able to do? I will try to answer this complex philosophical question.
Knowledge of the rules of the Russian language
It’s terrible when a lawyer expresses his thoughts illiterately in writing. A disregard for the rules of the Russian language can distort the text of any document. In my memory, there was a case when two large factories entered into an additional agreement to the contract, but they formulated the text of the document so incorrectly that they then went to court for two years. To speak Russian, read books!
Logical thinking
A lawyer needs logical thinking, I would even say – mathematical and schematic thinking. Often lawyers do not possess the basic rules of logic. Never argue with such lawyers, it is useless and hopeless. In court, such collective farmers usually look rather weak.
Often future lawyers the question arises, Does a lawyer need mathematics? The popular answer to this question is: no, it is not necessary. But personally, I believe that any lawyer should have mathematical, analytical thinking.
Anyone lawyer you need to have a broad outlook. I believe that disciplines such as social science And story should contribute to the development of knowledge of the future lawyer in the humanitarian direction.
By the way, when applying to the Faculty of Law, as a rule, it is necessary to take social studies, history and Russian language.
Legal education
Of course, legal education is at the top of the list What does it take to become a good lawyer?. But if you do not have a logical understanding and do not know the rules of the language, then it will be difficult to cover such shortcomings by studying in a good educational institution, although I do not exclude anything.
Don't flatter yourself with the thought that you can become a good lawyer, studying at a low-quality university. If you want to become a good lawyer, you urgently need to get an education in a good institution, where competent specialists will teach you, and where there will be young and promising lawyers with whom you will develop yourself. The more challenging the competitive environment, the more you will learn.
Be able to work with legislation
There are a lot of laws, and even more by-laws. Lawyer can not know all laws. This is impossible and wrong. But any lawyer must have an understanding of the general structure of legislative acts, their position and hierarchy, the structure of government bodies, competencies, and the role of the courts. Lawyer must know how to find the necessary rule of law, have an idea of the general principles of law.
Of course, with experience, a lawyer will know some key laws almost by heart, but this comes with time.
When working with legislation, a lawyer needs perseverance. Now remember the need to speak Russian and the rules of logic. If you do not have this “tool”, then you will not effectively navigate the legislation. Knowledge of the Russian language and logic will be your compass in the sea of legislation. I would advise not to neglect philosophy to improve work compass. A love of wisdom will broaden and deepen your understanding of society.
For example, I am well versed in the general provisions of civil law; in procedural law, since you often have to participate in trials; in electoral legislation, since I provide legal support to election companies, and in other issues that I have encountered. Some specialize in criminal law, consumer protection legislation, and others generally write complaints to European human rights court.
When preparing any document, I look at the regulatory materials I need, I know what and where I need to look. This is the lawyer’s ability to work with the law.
I once read an article that a good lawyer should know the laws by heart. This is complete nonsense. There are always two approaches to learning: learn by heart or understand and formulate. I prefer the second option.
Critical thinking
A lawyer must be able to question any action, event, circumstance and be able to obtain confirmation of the action, event, circumstance in the established procedural manner.
Decency and responsibility
I believe that a lawyer, as a representative of the professional community of lawyers, must be a decent person and comply with certain corporate rules in relation to the client, his case and his colleagues.
In addition, it is necessary to understand the high degree of responsibility of your business and the possibility of adverse consequences of an irresponsible attitude towards your profession.
I hope my article answered the question, What does a novice lawyer need to know and be able to do?, to become a good lawyer.
Video about “free” lawyers:
Almost every organization has a lawyer who ensures the normal operation of the enterprise in compliance with the requirements of current legislation. The main responsibilities of a corporate lawyer and a legal adviser in both cases are aimed at this. But specialization corporate lawyer is a little different.
Corporate lawyer is a specialist who has additional knowledge about methodological and regulatory materials that allow regulating the economic and production activities of an enterprise. Distinctive Features corporate lawyer from a legal consultant are as follows:
- Corporate lawyer must develop constituent documents;
- Coordinate the work on introducing shareholder registers;
- Determine the legal basis of enterprise bodies, etc.
Corporate lawyer must also have knowledge of specialized laws, for example, the law on LLCs and JSCs, which regulates the procedure for creating the economic activities of enterprises.
Thus, the activities carried out corporate lawyer , for a legal entity is necessary and justified. She is more responsible because making professional decisions can transfer the company not to a new stage of development, but deprive it of control over the activities of a joint-stock company or LLC, with the further transfer of companies under the control of other persons, along with all property rights, i.e. You could completely lose your entire business. In such cases, our professional lawyer in the field of corporate law will provide legal support for certain corporate procedures or business in general, which will definitely allow you to avoid unwanted negative consequences and raider takeovers of your business.
head of the legal department
Publishing and consulting center "Delo and Service"
Scope of work
Increasingly recently, heads of organizations, when deciding to hire lawyer, strive to designate the position of this specialist as “ corporate lawyer" The very name of the position is borrowed from foreign legal terminology, where a “corporation” is understood as an association of persons (shareholders), registered in accordance with the procedure established by law and recognized as a legal entity. It must be said that although the name " corporate lawyer" is mentioned both in Russian legislation and in business literature; the use of this term is not entirely legal. The fact is that the concept of “corporation” in Russian law is best met only by a joint-stock company. Therefore, when using a foreign job title, you should understand the fundamental difference between “ corporate lawyer” and “lawyer of the organization” - it lies in the scope of the functions performed. Corporate lawyer, in addition to solving general legal issues of the organization, must have a perfect knowledge of joint stock law: requirements for the creation of joint-stock companies; types of shares, procedure for their registration; rules for forming blocks of shares and making transactions with shares; stock accounting; the essence of dividend policy, etc. If in Western countries work corporate lawyer limited only to serving corporate interests, then Russian organizations strive to have universal lawyers who will perform all other legal work in the organization. This article is dedicated to such a “universal”.
Job responsibilities
Corporate lawyer:
- Carries out the development of constituent documents; ensures registration of legal entities, issues of valuable shares, amendments to constituent documents; coordinates the work on maintaining shareholder registers (by third-party organizations); determines the legal basis of the organization’s management bodies (develops regulations on the powers of the general meeting, on the board of directors, on the management board, on the audit commission, etc.); develops regulations on transactions related to the acquisition or alienation of property; coordinates transactions with shares of the organization; determines the legal basis for the dividend policy in the organization and coordinates it.
- Organizes work to provide the organization with laws, regulatory legal documents necessary for the organization’s activities; on accounting and maintenance of databases of regulatory legal acts.
- Provides departments of the organization and individual specialists with the regulatory legal acts necessary for them to carry out their functions and responsibilities.
- Checks compliance with the law of draft orders, instructions, regulations and other legal documents submitted to the head of the organization for signature; checking compliance with the stages of approval of draft documents with responsible employees; approval of draft documents; issuing orders to responsible employees of the organization to amend or repeal acts caused by changes in federal legislation.
- Conducts contractual work in the organization: determines the forms of contractual relations; develops draft agreements; checks compliance with the legislation of draft contracts submitted by counterparties; takes measures to resolve disagreements on draft agreements; provides notarization and (or) state registration of certain types of contracts.
- Analyzes contractual work in the organization, develops programs for its revision and change, checks the status of contractual work in the structural divisions of the organization.
- Conducts claims work in the organization: ensures registration of claims received from counterparties and their consideration; prepares responses to received claims and makes draft decisions on satisfaction or refusal to satisfy received claims; prepares claims to counterparties, sends them to counterparties and monitors the satisfaction of claims sent to counterparties.
- Conducts claims work: takes measures to comply with the pre-arbitration procedure for resolving contractual disputes; prepares statements of claim and materials and submits them to arbitration courts; studies copies of statements of claim regarding claims against the organization; ensures maintenance of a data bank on claim work; represents the interests of the organization in arbitration courts.
- Prepares applications, statements and other documents to obtain licenses and permits necessary for the organization’s activities.
- Takes part in the development of documents related to issues of ensuring the safety of the organization’s property (agreements on liability; internal instructions establishing the procedure for the receipt and acceptance of material assets, accounting for their movement; instructions for accounting for the release and release of finished products, etc.); checks and endorses employee liability agreements.
- Verifies the legality of the dismissal and transfer of employees, and the imposition of disciplinary sanctions on them.
- Represents the interests of the organization during inspections of the organization conducted by state control and supervisory authorities for the purpose of legal control over compliance with procedural actions by inspectors, the validity and correctness of the conclusions of inspectors, registration of inspection results and the preparation of procedural documents.
- Represents the interests of the organization in government bodies authorized to consider cases of administrative offenses identified in the activities of the organization; prepares and sends complaints against the actions of officials of control and supervisory authorities, against administrative penalties unlawfully imposed on the organization.
- Provides written and oral consultation to employees of the organization on various legal issues, provides legal assistance in the preparation of legal documents.
- Prepares progress reports in a timely manner.
- Performs other legal work in accordance with the specifics of the organization's activities.
Requirements
Knowledge: normative and methodological materials regulating the production and economic activities of the organization; profile, specialization and structural features of the organization; civil, entrepreneurial, commercial, administrative, labor, financial, tax, and other branches of legislation in accordance with the profile of the organization; arbitration procedural, civil procedural law, fundamentals of criminal procedural law; standards of record keeping for legal documents; structures of state bodies, local governments, judicial bodies; the procedure for systematizing, recording and maintaining legal documentation using modern information technologies; basics of administration; ethics of business communication; economics and organization of production, labor and management; rules and regulations of labor protection.
Tenure and work experience: a candidate for the position of corporate lawyer must have at least 4 years of experience as a legal adviser.
Personal characteristics: age - from 35 years; erudition, analytical mind, punctuality, stress resistance.
Other: A corporate lawyer may also be required to be an attorney.
Education
Higher legal education.
Legal and social guarantees
A corporate lawyer is subject to only the general guarantees provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. An employment contract can be concluded for either an indefinite or a definite period (in cases provided for in Article 59 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). The job description is drawn up in accordance with the local regulations of the organization.
Basic legal document
The legal relationship between an organization and a corporate lawyer is based on an employment contract and job description. An employment contract* is drawn up according to the rules provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. If the organization has approved a regulation on the legal department, then this document also defines the functions, responsibilities and rights of the lawyer.
*A sample employment contract with a lawyer was published in KP No. 11, 2002.
Wage
Desired from 19,200 to 64,000 rubles (from $600 to 2,000).
Proposed from 9600 to 38400 (from $300 to 1200).
Depends on the size and specifics of the activity, the level of organization, and the volume of work performed.
A corporate lawyer ensures the legality of the organization’s activities, ensures the security of transactions and work with counterparties, and defends the interests of the organization. He must help develop the business, make sure that it is within the law, is effective, and makes a profit.
A corporate lawyer has to provide legal support for a wide variety of company activities in several areas.
Corporate law - a wide range of problems related to securities, statutory documents, and holding meetings of shareholders.
Labor legislation - labor contracts, orders, instructions, analysis of all documents in the field of labor relations.
And a huge block of issues related to the conclusion of contracts.
In addition, if a company is represented by a lawyer when initiating a criminal case, then in civil cases a corporate lawyer is responsible for representing the interests of the company in court.
A corporate lawyer is involved in negotiations, especially with foreign partners. By the way, for this reason, lawyers who speak English well, or better yet, some European language, are now highly valued.
Finally, the corporate lawyer bears a large share of responsibility for relations with government authorities, tax police, antimonopoly service, and customs.
The following areas of specialization for lawyers working specifically with business can be distinguished.
Firstly, these are lawyers. They are members of the Bar Association. Legal status allows them to participate in criminal trials - this is its main advantage.
Secondly, corporate lawyers. They provide legal support for all activities of a commercial company or government agency.
Thirdly, there are lawyers working in the field of legal consulting. If corporate lawyers work for a company and are engaged exclusively in serving its interests, then lawyers engaged in consulting are on the staff of specialized firms that are invited by the company to resolve certain specialized or simply complex issues. Those who work in legal consulting usually deal with a narrower area: customs legislation, construction, and certain tax issues.
There are also so-called free, or freely practicing lawyers. They are not members of the Bar Association and are not on the staff of organizations, but provide legal services as individuals.
