Qualifications for Legal Advisors

Abstract

The present research featured criteria of qualified legal assistance. The research objective was to determine the professional and educational qualifications of legal advisors. The current domestic legislation has no legal concept of qualified legal assistance, only some contradicting qualification requirements for lawyers. Since legal assistance requires protection of the interests of the person in a jurisdictional order, the author considered it as the activity of a court agent. The article provides a flexible concept of qualified legal assistance that meets modern requirements of the legal services market. The author proved that it is impossible to establish uniform educational and professional qualifications for all legal advisors. Recognizing the requirement for a higher legal education as reasonable, the author claims that the knowledge of the actual circumstances of the case can sometimes attest to the qualification of the representative. Therefore, each case requires a balance of competence. The research included a thorough analysis of the Concept of Regulation of the Professional Legal Assistance Market issued by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The paper explains the objective obstacles to the implementation of these provisions. The author also analyzed the draft professional standard of a lawyer, submitted in March 2020 by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, and found it lacking, imbalanced, and contradicting to federal laws. Thus, any unified qualifications for lawyers are premature.