A lawyer’s purpose
Lawyers are professionals of law and justice. For all times, they have been defending your freedoms and your interests.
Their purpose is to advise, assist and defend individuals and companies, with regard to both private or professional legal questions (see articles 1.1 and 1.2 Code of Ethics Avocats.be, 26 Codex 439 to 446quinquies Judicial Code).
Advise
From an etymological perspective, the French word for a lawyer, ‘avocat’, comes from the Latin expression ‘Ad vocatus’, i.e. someone one calls upon when in need of help.
Therefore, your lawyer is there to support you when you need it. He listens, advises and attempts to conciliate.
Your lawyer advises private individuals as well as companies. He stands alongside you, informs you and guides you in the development of your private or professional projects.
Above all, your lawyer listens to what you have to say, counsels you and attempts to reconcile, giving precedence to preventive counsel. He sets out and checks contracts, takes part in negotiations and gives priority to amicable transactions and solutions.
“A lawyer is someone you need to see before in order to avoid problems after !”
Defend
Should no amicable solution be reached, your lawyer will defend your legal interests and support you in your proceedings.
Whatever the jurisdiction, your lawyer is there to plead for you, whether you are a private person or a company.
Assist
You can call upon a lawyer to assist you at all stages of a negotiation, mediation, collaborative law procedure, judiciary process, arbitration or any other kind of dispute resolution means.
The lawyer seeks a solution to every conflict.
Thus, your lawyer may suggest to you some Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) means with a view to avoiding court proceedings.
And so much more...
A lawyer may execute court decisions, for example as a bankruptcy trustee, a debt administrator or mediator, or act in other roles such as the trustee of an association of co-owners, the extra-judicial representative of persons under guardianship, etc.
A lawyer can also be detached into companies for specific missions. In such a situation, he exercises his profession within the companies’ facilities and acts solely as its legal adviser.