While looking for the legal support, before the decision who to entrust with a usually crucial personal, financial or family case, the competences and professional qualifications of the lawyer that we are about to choose should be a subject of careful consideration, since not all lawyers practice the profession of public trust. However, a legal adviser is precisely the profession of public trust. Legal adviser is rather a traditional literal translation but our profession is in fact a counterpart of ATTORNEY AT LAW. Subject to certain exceptions stated by the provisions of law, a legal adviser besides law studies has also completed a special Bar legal training lasting three years (aplikacja radcowska), consisting additionally of many trainings in Courts, and a continuous practice under supervision of a patron appointed by the Bar (Regional Chamber of Legal Advisers), and finally the qualifications of a legal adviser are confirmed by the state examination. Such a vocational training assures professional, reliable and responsible legal services.
Legal adviser can among others:
- provide legal assistance both to individuals and to legal entities,
- represent Clients before Courts in all civil and criminal proceedings, before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights, as well as before public bodies,
- provide legal advice and consultations,
- prepare legal opinions, statements of claims, and other pleadings, drafts of contracts and resolutions,
What is also of great importance, legal adviser is a member of the self-government (the Bar), subject to mandatory civil liability insurance, and is obliged to keep the affairs of the Clients confidential, and to respect the rules of professional conduct established in the Code of Ethics (Resolution No 3/2014 of Extraordinary National Assembly of Legal Advisers of 22 November 2014, available on the website of the National Chamber of Legal Advisers at: kirp.pl).