The lawyer’s profession

Lawyers are professionals of the law and of the procedures that are associated therewith. They intervene in their clients’ private or professional sphere in order to fulfil their assignment of counsel, negotiation, representation and/or defence of their clients’ interests.

A lawyer’s intervention is not limited to representation before the court: on the contrary, it allows court proceedings to be avoided as far as possible. In this context, lawyers have the duty to minutely examine every dossier that is entrusted to them, so that they can provide their clients with the best possible advice concerning the consequences and opportunities of all foreseeable measures.

The high degree of professionalisation in legal practice, combined with the great responsibility attached to the lawyer’s profession, makes lawyers privileged interlocutors for pronouncing an objective opinion on a dossier and appraising the validity of a potential court action or, more generally, any important decision from a legal point of view.

Lawyers also enjoy a monopoly on speeches for the defence on behalf of clients subject to trial during legal proceedings. Whereas, in theory, citizens are able to defend themselves before a judge, the extreme complexity of the law and the need for specialist support bestow a central role upon the lawyer within the subject area.

Within the scope of all of his assignments, a lawyer is subject to strictly defined ethical rules, which are inspected among others by the president of the bar and the bar’s disciplinary council. A lawyer’s duties of independence, probity and professional secrecy make him an interlocutor of trust.

Within this framework, LDT follows the ethical rules of the Liège bar.