The French avocats of the Paris Bar turn their backs on their « Bar ».

In this regard, for 20 years, during the elections of their representatives (Bâtonnier/e, Member of the Council of the order) there has been a 2/3 abstention rate (24,000 lawyers of the Paris Bar out of 34,000 do not vote) even though the electronic voting methods are very simple (a vote in one click).

In some provincial bars, the participation rate is more than 90% in the ordinal elections. The reason would be that in the provincial bars, the number of lawyers is lower.

However, the population of lawyers is bottle-fed, from the first year of law studies, on constitutional law courses during which the rules of democracy are taught.

Despite this, the lawyers of the Paris Bar massively reject their ordinal democracy.

However, lawyers deal almost daily with their order. Whether it is to recruit a collaborator, the order validates it.

Whether it is to bring in a partner, this association is validated by the Council of the Order.

Whether it is a question of ethics, the order answers dozens of questions of ethics posed by lawyers every day.

Whether it is a conflict with a firm for a collaborator or a conflict between partners, the order often allows for conciliation.

Whether it is a conflict between colleagues before an industrial tribunal hearing, the conflict can be settled by zen industrial tribunal.

Whether it is a search, or a member of the council of the order delegated by the president of the bar to ensure compliance with professional secrecy.

Why this lack of love? What is your problem, Paris Bar ?

30 years ago, there were 12,000 of us lawyers at the Paris Bar. Today, there are 35,000 of us lawyers, which is 3 times more.

Our profession (and we should be happy about it) is attractive. Thousands of students sacrifice their summer by paying for overly expensive prep courses to pass the CRFPA.

In 30 years, working methods have been revolutionized by new technologies.

Lawyers have also become hyper-specialized.

The Paris Bar has also become very international. Over the past 30 years, many English or American firms have set up an office in Paris. There are more American firms in Paris than in London and more London firms in Paris than in New York.

That being said.

What can be done to reconcile the lawyers of the Paris Bar with their order?

More ordinal democracy

In our opinion, we need more ordinal democracy.

Therefore, we must integrate non-ordinals into senior management positions (general secretary, director of ethics, director of dispute resolution, etc.).

Today, these positions are reserved for ordinals without allowing colleagues to apply for these jobs.

We must also make the election to the Bar more transparent and more democratic.

This involves capping campaign expenses (at 50,000 euros, an amount to be debated) and reimbursing them by the order if the candidate obtains more than 10% of the votes cast.

I had filed a report to the Council of the Order in December 2021 to this effect.

We must encourage colleagues to vote. A financial incentive could be created with a reduction of 30 euros in the ordinal contributions for the colleagues who participated in the elections.

We must also put an end to the system of pairs for the elections which has led to a scarcity of candidates (18 candidates or 9 pairs during the elections to the council of the order in 2023 against 50 candidates in 2015 before the reform).

We must also organize an Annual General Meeting open to all colleagues who could ask any questions to their Bâtonnier / and to the members of the council of the order (on the accounts of the order, on ethics, on the technological evolution of the profession with generative AI).

Participatory debates must also be created, particularly on the use of the significant historical profits of the CARPA (35,000,000 euros in 2023 and the same in 2024) due to the increase in interest rates since the beginning of 2022.

We must also establish gender parity at the Conférence du Stage where female colleagues, although in the overwhelming majority at the entrance to the Bar, are surprisingly in the minority within the Conférence.

Here are some ideas.

The Bar Association must once again become a center of attention for lawyers of the Paris Bar.

In this regard, we saw this during the COVID 19 crisis, during which colleagues spontaneously turned to their bar when they had questions (teleworking of collaborating lawyers, financial aid, holding of hearings, etc.).

The Paris Bar Association will be stronger if participation in the bar elections is high.

Otherwise, it risks becoming bunkerized and dying. This would be neither good for it nor good for the lawyers of the Paris Bar.

 

Frédéric CHHUM avocat et ancien membre du conseil de l’ordre des avocats de Paris (mandat 2019-2021)

Candidat au Bâtonnat 2026 (élections des 10 et 12 décembre 2024)

CHHUM AVOCATS (Paris, Nantes, Lille)

 

e-mail: chhum@chhum-avocats.com

www.chhum-avocats.fr

https://www.instagram.com/fredericchhum/?hl=fr

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