When somebody calls himself a ‘lawyer’ in English, this typically means that he or she has a lawyer’s degree and is a member of a Bar association of the respective state. In its term, ‘law firm’ would mean a partnership or a company where ‘lawyers’ are practicing together with other lawyers.
Surprisingly, this might not be the case in Latvia. Both ‘lawyer’ and ‘law firm’ are not protected titles in Latvia. As a result, anyone (even without lawyer’s degree) can call himself a ‘lawyer’ (in English) and practice in a ‘law firm’.
In Latvian, however, there is a distinction between ‘jurists’ (lawyer) and ‘zverinats advokats’ (lawyer or attorney at law). While all lawyers can be called ‘jurists’, only qualified members of the bar can be called ‘zverinats advokats’ or ‘advokats’.
The same goes to partnerships and companies run by lawyers. In Latvian, there is a clear difference between a ‘zverinatu advokatu birojs’ or ‘advokatu birojs’ and a “juridiskais birojs”, although both of them would be translated as ‘law firm’ in English.
Zverinatu advokatu birojs can only be owned by persons who are members of the Latvian Bar Association. To become a member of the Bar Association, you need to have at least a Master’s degree in law and have passed the Bar exam. As a member of the Bar Association, you must undergo training regularly and you have to hold a professional indemnity insurance policy. Client may address the Bar Association, if having complaints about the quality of the service provided by zverinats advokats.
At the same time there is no regulation for ‘juridiskais birojs’. Such law firms in Latvia have no qualified lawyers. They have no supervising bodies and their activity is not licensed. Such consulting firm cannot be called ‘zverinatu advokatu birojs’ and no persons working there can call themselves ‘zverinats advokats’ in Latvia.
It is therefore advisable to check if your service provider is ‘zverinatu advokatu birojs’ or ‘zverinats advokats’.
Additional Information
For more information, please contact partner, attorney at law (zverinats advokats) Sergei Petrov (sp@njordlaw.lv).
NJORD is one of Latvia law firms (advokatu birojs) with offices in Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We have more than 200 employees of which about half are lawyers. We are a full service business law firm with particular focus on litigation, intellectual property, corporate and commercial, immigration and criminal law (white collar crimes). Please visit us at www.njordlaw.com
