The Gazette 1973

avocat, or did not know that this was the right thing to do, since the conseils juridiques became ingrained in the community's life. Companies, in the absence of a qualified, practical legal profession with appropriate standards, were com- pelled to set up their own legal departments, manned by salaried university trained staff—not by avocats. The French Bar, promoted this tendency by forbidding the acceptance of any salaried legal appointment by avocats Thus, by default, . much lucrative non-contentious work went to notaries and much of it came to rest, for the same reason, with the conseils juridiques. In the end, public and professional opinion began to press for reform of an archaic profession. For reasons beyond the scope of this article, notaries were not to be in- cluded in the reform, nor were the avocats to the "Conseil d'Etat" (the supreme administrative court, having jurisdiction in public, administrative and fiscal law), and before the "Cour de Cassation", the highest court of appeal—a class by themselves, small in num- bers. The reform During the debate of the reform, it was intended to bring the conseils juridiques also i nto the new re- formed, fused legal profession, but the difficulties appeared to be insuperable. To appreciate these, it is sufficient to realise the great number of conseils juridi- ques practising (estimates only are available; they range from 5,000 to 15,000), the great diversity of their train- ing and education—if any—the extremes in their stand- ing and the necessity to respect acquired rights. The avoués, on the other hand, could be more easily assimil- ated to the Bar and also more easily compensated in respect of their acquired rights. No "major" reform was therefore attempted and the small reform, introduced by the law of 31 December 1971, created with effect from 16 September 1972 a new profession, conferring the title avocat on all who practised the new, fused profession. Included in it, within the existing Bar associations and with the right to practise the whole litigious and non-litigious professional activities (except those reserved for notaries and the higher ranking barristers) mentioned, were avocats. avoués and agrees, who, as will be recalled, practised before the special commercial courts. Avoues attached to appeal courts are, for the time being, to continue without being fused. The avoués, brought into the new profession and who, by their inclusion, have lost valuable property rights, their monopoly "charge", are being indemnified from a levy, collected from litigants. Compensation is distributed through a fund specially set-up. Conseils juridiques now restricted But what happens to the conseil juridique in the reform? Henceforth, they must be registered on a Roll kept by the Procureur de la Republique, who is to exercise some disciplinary powers over them. Conseils juridiques having practised for at least 5 years are admitted to the Roll without legal training or educa- tion, merely on account of having so practised. Those with only 3 years practice qualify for admission if they have a prescribed, minimal legal degree. Conseils juridiques having less than 3 years practice require a degree of law (bachelor's or doctorate), or an equiva- lent foreign diploma as a condition to be allowed to practise. 218 and disbarred offenders. The pre sure for reform

of avoués or others. In fact, having been consulted in a litigious matter the avocat in Paris or larger cities, chose or recommended an avoué (in smaller provincial towns this was less the case). The direct connection of the avocat with the lay client became an even greater potential advantage with the advent of industrialisation and a great upsurge in the country's economic life to- wards the end of the 19th century, since non-conten- tious business increased, the avoués became reduced to the role of mere proceduralists. Eventually, there opened therefore a wide field of remunerative activity for the avocat. But he trea c ured his independence from the client and wished to remain the pure legal adviser, the orator, secluded in his chambers and not wishing to §toop into the humdrum legal problems of industry, trade and finance, or family matters. The Bar main- tained a strict code of professional conduct, based on this restricted concept of the lawyer's role and it was not permitted for an avocat to attend outside chambers, to accept directorships or salaried posts in company legal departments. Avocats' chambers in most cases were run with a minimum of clerical staff and facilities, more or less like those of English barristers. All these factors led to an absence of close contacts and relation- ship with day-to-day problems of the clientele and with the economic world, for which the young avocat was, anyway, not trained. A university degree in law followed by short practice in chambers, qualified for call to the Bar; it was not until the 1940s—under the Vichy rule—that a higher diploma was introduced, a certificate of "profe r sional capacity", to be obtained before call. At the same time, courses enabling students to understand some practical aspects of their future activities, in addition to their academic and pro- fessional training, were introduced. The conseil juridique The complex needs of modern life and business demanded training and a practical education, adapted to these, to the needs of the whole fabric of a modern country. Had the avocat satisfied these needs he could have become the lawyer, with a general and lucrative practice. But his lack of contact with life and business left a gap which was filled by all sorts of willing candi- dates, opportunists, men of business experience, retired civil servants, even gendarmes, agents or, lately, men with an academic degree in law but no other legal training, who came to be called conseil juridique or, colloquially, hommes d'affaires. Anyone, without any knowledge of or training in law whatsoever, could so practise and many self-appointed advisers with the most varied backgrounds came through this wide-open door, to dispense "legal" advice and perform services some- times with common sense but often without competence. No professional regulations nor association policed the activities of these conseils juridiques; they could canvass and advertise for clients and serve them according to their own self-set standards and rates. Visitors to French cities will recall having seen large name plates or signs at door entrances or affixed to buildings in prominent positions advertising the con c eil juridique operating on the premises and often his special aptitudes. Readers may have observed their advertisements in the French press. Large such offices, often incorporated with limited liability mushroomed and appropriated highly profit- able legal work either from the qualified lawyers or self-generated in the absence of qualified practioners. They were consulted even on complex legal and tax matters by people who either could not go to an