The Paradoxes of the Free Movement of Attorneys in Europe

The possibility of becoming a lawyer in Spain to register as "avvocato" in Italy is known by Italians as the future lawyers "via spagnola. The process is based on the approval in Spain for a diploma in foreign law schools and then have access to the exercise of the race in Italy. The reason behind this practice is to avoid Duris requirements applicable in Italy to enter the legal profession. That possibility arises from the interaction of the Spanish , Italian and European regulations as explained below:

In Spain access to the legal profession is regulated by the Statute Law (Royal Decree No 658 of June 22, 2001), where only required to become a lawyer in possession of the title of Bachelor of Laws or the approval of foreign securities that are certified by the college and a Bar. Neither bar exam nor other requirements.

However, in the framework of the European Union, Spain is an exception.Other countries require that after the completion of the degree of Master of Law, graduate courses are conducted, gained a certain experience, and enabling more than one review. This is the case in Italy, where Law graduates make a practice of 2 years after they face the dreaded "esame di Stato" which consists of written and oral evidence and takes a total of 7 months since the start until the candidate becomes definitively lawyer (Decreto Legislativo 2 febbraio 2001, n. 96). The problem arises when such review shows higher unfit for up to 50% in some cities, which are excluded from the profession until it finally exceeded.

In this context of inequality in Europe in the field of access to lawyers, Directive 98/5/EC of 16.2.98 was a small revolution for law professionals from member countries of the European Union, in establishing freedom of movement and thus opened the possibility to practice law in any other EU Member States regardless of where it has obtained the qualification as a lawyer.

This legal framework is that some candidates "avvocato" in Italy to take advantage of entering the profession in their country.It seems logical that, given the constraints imposed in Italy, is the type of the title of Laurea in giurisprudenza in Spain to choose the path for many because, once qualified as a lawyer in Spain, the only Italian candidates must be registered in the relevant professional body to practice throughout the EU. thus avoiding the difficult conditions of access to their home country imposes.

In order to help Italian students to carry out the process for approval of their titles with the earliest and most successful, there are companies specializing in this sector. Some companies offer services that go beyond mere bureaucratic and include other services such as courses in Spanish legal shipment of equipment for preparing the test in Spain and advice during the entire process.One example is e-AssistenzaLegale, a multidisciplinary team of professional Spanish and Italian offered a service model that is having very good acceptance from the Italian public, says one of its representatives in Spain.

In quantitative terms, the number of requests made by Italians to certify their titles during the year 2007 was 337, and in 2008 the figure had nearly doubled to reach 594.These figures are expected to grow significantly as the year 2011 approaches. In October of that year, the new Law 34/2006 on access to the legal profession come into force in Spain after a long legislative vacatio mixed for 5 years and access to the legal profession with the regulations of other countries the EU. Since then, may only obtain the professional title of attorney who are in possession of a graduate degree in law who passed a postgraduate specialist training and a subsequent test of professional competence (Articles 2 4). This policy change also represents a major innovation for the legal profession in Spain.