A lawyer refers to a practitioner who obtains a lawyer's practice certificate according to law, accepts entrustment or assignment, and provides legal services for clients. According to the nature of work, lawyers can be divided into full-time lawyers and part-time lawyers; according to their business scope, lawyers can be divided into civil lawyers, criminal lawyers and administrative lawyers; according to their clients and working status, lawyers can be divided into social lawyers, corporate lawyers and public lawyers. Social lawyers are familiar to everyone. In short, it is a legal worker who practices in a law firm, relies on providing legal services to clients in the whole society, and obtains legal service fees after paying taxes and fees according to law to form personal legal income, so as to make a living. Public lawyers specialize in providing services for the government, "eat the national financial meal", equivalent to quasi-civil servants, whose main role is to provide legal analysis and opinions for the government's macro-decision, and undertake some legal aid obligations. Generally speaking, public lawyers are not allowed to participate in paid social services. Company lawyers provide legal services for the company. Although the number of corporate lawyers in China is small, there are legal advisers in large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises at present. At present, most of our country are social lawyers, with about 300 thousand people.
1, social lawyer
Article 2 of the Lawyers Law of People's Republic of China (PRC), which was revised at the 30th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth NPC on June 28th, 2007 and came into effect on June 28th, 2008, states: "Lawyers as mentioned in this Law refer to practitioners who have obtained lawyer's practice certificates according to law, accepted entrustment or assignment, and provided legal services to clients". It has the following basic characteristics: first, it must pass the national judicial examination and be awarded the legal professional qualification certificate; Second, you must have both a legal professional qualification certificate and a practice certificate; Third, the service target is the whole society, and there is no specific target. Both natural persons and legal persons can entrust lawyers to represent legal affairs; Fourth, lawyers must be entrusted by the parties or designated by the people's court to work within the scope of authorization and must not exceed their powers or abuse their rights; Fifth, it is a legal worker. Lawyers can only protect the legitimate rights and interests of clients within the scope permitted by law, and their work within the scope permitted by law is protected by law, without interference from administrative units, clients and individuals.
Article 25 of China's Lawyers Law clearly stipulates the content and scope of lawyers' legal services to the society: (1) serving as legal advisers; (2) Acting as an agent ad litem; (3) Being a criminal defender; (4) Acting as a non-litigation agent and participating in mediation and arbitration; (5) Answering legal advice and writing legal documents, etc. In order to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the parties and the correct implementation of the law.
According to Article 24 of the Measures for the Administration of Lawyers' Practice, lawyers must abide by the Constitution and laws, and abide by lawyers' professional ethics and practice discipline. Lawyers' practice must be based on facts and take the law as the criterion. Lawyers' practice should be supervised by the state, society and the parties concerned.
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2. Company lawyer
China began to pilot the work of corporate lawyers in 2002, and its basic characteristics are as follows: first, corporate lawyers work in functional departments of enterprises, so corporate lawyers are both employees and lawyers; Second, customers are fixed. Company lawyers can only provide legal services for their own units, not for the society. Not to work part-time in law firms and social legal service institutions, and not to handle litigation and non-litigation cases outside the unit as lawyers. Third, the service is free. As on-the-job employees of enterprises, company lawyers provide legal services for their enterprises and institutions free of charge.
A company lawyer should meet the following requirements: (1) having the qualification of lawyer in People's Republic of China (PRC) or the legal professional qualification issued by the Ministry of Justice; (two) full-time engaged in legal affairs within the enterprise; (4) The company agrees to be the company's lawyer.
The main duties of company lawyers are: (1) to give legal opinions on the production and operation decisions of enterprises; (2) Participate in the drafting and revision of enterprise legal documents and review enterprise rules and regulations; (3) Review and manage enterprise contracts; (four) put forward suggestions to correct the illegal behavior of enterprises, and carry out legal publicity and education within enterprises; (5) Participate in the negotiation of enterprises, and represent enterprises in litigation and arbitration activities; (6) Other legal affairs that should be undertaken by the company's lawyers.
Company lawyers enjoy the following rights: (1) They have the right to investigate and collect evidence and consult case materials according to law in their practice activities; (2) Join the Bar Association and enjoy membership rights; (3) you can participate in the evaluation of lawyer titles; (4) You can directly become a social lawyer. If a company lawyer applies to become a social lawyer, it shall be handled in accordance with the procedures for replacing the certificate, and the experience as a company lawyer shall be counted into the practice period.
Company lawyers have the following obligations: (1) accept the professional guidance and supervision of local judicial administrative organs; (two) do not engage in paid legal services or work part-time in law firms and legal services; (3) Not handling litigation and non-litigation cases outside the company as a lawyer.
Management of corporate lawyers: (1) Corporate lawyers are internal employees of the enterprise, who carry out business activities under the leadership of the enterprise, and personnel relations, wages and benefits are managed by the enterprise where they belong; (2) The judicial administrative organ is responsible for the qualification management and business guidance of the company's lawyers; (3) During the pilot period, the lawyer's practice license of the company shall be uniformly made by the Ministry of Justice and issued by the judicial departments (bureaus) of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government; (4) Company lawyers should participate in the annual inspection and registration of lawyers. When handling the annual inspection registration, the lawyer of the company shall submit the annual work summary and the materials issued by the unit to prove that he is engaged in legal affairs full-time; (5) Lawyers of the company should join the local lawyers' association and participate in the training and practice discipline education activities organized by the lawyers' association.