The lawyer profession - Essay Example

?I. Introduction Lawyer, avocet, abogado, ??(Lushi), ?????(Mohamy), s vary from nation to nation, but the goal is one, they all identify one profession. In today's world, no lawyer can deny the fact that global legal market has a solid influence on local legal markets. This influence is always negative if the concerned country does not take these challenges seriously. Thus, countries like the United Kingdom and Australia have taken this issue seriously and have made amendments to lawyer’s regulations. More accurately, they have taken challenges related to new technology seriously in order to stay shoulder to shoulder with these new developments1. The Task Force on the Future of the legal Profession in The United State recommends, "NYSBA’s Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct should study and make recommendations concerning the ethical and risk management considerations associated with new technologies such as social networking, third party hosted solutions, and virtual law firms."2 This recommendation leads us to the same conclusion. It confirms the impact of globalization on the local legal market and private practice. More importantly, it shows the importance of updating the law with these new progresses. However, law practice management is centered around four key elements which are Law Firm Structure and Billing, Educating and Training New Lawyers, Work-life Integration, and Technology.3 On this paper, I will be focusing on one of the key element, which is law firm structure. Saudi Arabia has many problems relating to these four key elements of law practice management stated above. However, I have chosen to talk about the problem of law firm structure where an amendment to the law discussing law firm structure, particularly, partnership between lawyers, will have a significant impact on the other three elements. Additionally, it will be of benefit to the legal market in general. The Saudi Code of Law Practice is only ten years old.4 The legal profession prior to the issuance of the Code of Law practice was known as Agent profession “Mehnat Alwakalah.” The laws used to govern lawyers were grouped into eleven articles, eight of which are mentioned in the Organization of Administrative Functions in the Shari’ah Court System (from Article 59 until 66).5 Three of the articles were referred to in the Law for Centralizing Responsibilities in the Shari’ah Court System. 6 One of the most important rules embodied in those articles was the rule that allows those who do not hold law or Shari’ah degree to become lawyers.7 This continued until the enactment of the Law of Procedure before Shari’ah Courts, under the Royal Decree No. M/21, in 19 August 2000. Article 265 of the Law of Procedure Before Shari’ah Courts statues, “This Law shall supersede the Organization of Administrative Functions in the Shari’ah Court System, sanctioned by Royal Approval No. 109, dated 24 Muharram 1371 [14 October 1952], as well as Articles (52, 66, 82, 83, 85) and (84 regarding civil cases), and 85 of the Law for Centralizing Responsibilities in the Shari’ah Court System, sanctioned by Royal Approval No. 109, dated 24 Muharram 1372 [14 October 1952], and whatever provisions that are inconsistent therewith.” The lawyer profession that exists today in Saudi Arabia existed hundreds of years ago in the Islamic empires Ottoman and Abbasid. More notably, there is evidence to suggest that lawyers existed before that.8 Before 1932, Saudi Arabia was known as the Arab Peninsula. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded by the King Abdul-Aziz bin Saud in 1932.9 Before that time, Islamic law was the main source of law that governed lawyers in the Arab Peninsula. In Islamic law, lawyers used to be called Litigation Agents (Wakel Blkosomah). Many Islamic books discuss the rights and obligations of Litigation Agents and other issues related to their profession.10 The United States is the world’s largest service market and was the worlds’ largest cross border exporter and importer of services in 2009.11 Thus, it is not surprising that I choose the United States as a role model for Saudi Arabia due to its diverse experience. The United States commands 47.6% of the global legal market. 12 I proceed in three sections. Firstly, I discuss partnership between lawyer, and the partnership legal personality in Saudi Arabia. Secondly, I discuss various business forms available for law firms operating in U.S. Thirdly, I discuss globalization, and how it is affecting the Saudi legal market as well as its relationship with partnership between lawyers. Lastly, I will state some facts relating to the Saudi legal market. The paper concludes by an amendment to the present Saudi Law with respect to the section of lawyers’ partnerships, by showing the negative impacts of the code on the Saudi legal market in the era of globalization II. Conclusion and Recommendation. Conclusion United States allows lawyers to form a law firm in various type of business entity that provides lawyers. For instance, in the LLP, United States offers its lawyers a protective shield from other partner’s malpractice. To the contrary, Saudi Arabia does not allow lawyers to establish a partnership except in cases where the partnership takes the very risky from the civil company. The civil company has many disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is that partners are responsible for each other’s malpractice against third party, and partners are personally liable for company debt. Therefore, Saudi lawyers are avoiding entering into a partnership with each other. It is not surprising that mergers and acquisitions in Saudi market are almost non-existent. Altogether, this has made ??it hard to find a large Saudi law firm. As a proven fact, the Saudi government and big corporations have diverse legal issues, which are typically very complex and require great resources. In an age of globalization, international law firms are always looking for a new investment opportunities. At the same time, foreign international law firm are not allowed to practice law in Saudi Arabia alone, but they have to form a civil company with a Saudi local firm. Thus, international law firms find themselves between two choices, either not entering the Saudi market or form a very risky partnership. Thus, they prefer to enter into strategic alliance with Saudi law firms. Many problems arise from these alliances especially considering the fact that international law firms are frequently unstable, and often short-lived. In many cases, foreign firms fail to agree to a workable framework with their Saudi partners leading to the two parties looking in different directions in terms of their goals. Sometimes, the local firms think of only short-term benefits, with the result that some of them change foreign partners every couple of years or so. Thus, those alliances have led to many problems. First, Saudi lawyers prefer to work as an in-house counsel, or with governmental agencies where law firm are small and unstable. Consequently, this makes the average salary of lawyers in law firm low, and cannot compete with the private sector’s higher average pay. The number of Saudi Arabian lawyers is 1124 in a country with population of 27,136,997. This is considerably a very small number. I do not have accurate statistics, but the estimated number of legal consultants in Saudi Arabia is approximately 10,000. In the period 2010-2011, the number of law school graduates was 894 students, not to mention the number of students studying outside Saudi Arabia. However, as I mentioned earlier, legal advisers working in private sector or with the governmental agencies cannot apply for license. Secondly, migration of these funds outside Saudi without paying any taxes influences the development of lawyer’s education and training. Recommendation: I do not want enter into debate whether law is a business or profession. Thus, I recommend, temporarily, a special form of civil companies that gives domestic and international lawyers and law firms a protective shield from other partner’s malpractice. I recommend elimination of those strategic alliances to encourage foreign law firms to enter the market correctly, and to motivate Saudi law firms to enter into mergers and acquisitions. I recommend prevention of international law firms to work alone to discourage domination of Saudi legal market, and to give the opportunity for Saudi law firms to grow and gain experience. I recommend an amendment of Saudi’s Code of Law Practice in the section of lawyers’ partnerships. Lastly, I recommend issuance of practice permits to female practitioners as lawyers within Saudi legal market. Read More