Legal aid attorney
A public legal aid attorney or a private attorney can act as an attorney in legal aid matters. The private attorney must be an attorney-at-law or a licensed trial counsel.
The person applying for legal aid can choose whether they wish to have a public legal aid attorney or a private attorney to assist them in court proceedings. As a rule, where a client needs assistance in some other judicial matter than in court proceedings, a public legal aid attorney acts as the attorney.
Public legal aid attorneys
The official title of a lawyer working at a state legal aid office is public legal aid attorney.
The required qualifications for a public legal aid attorney are a master’s degree in law other than a master’s degree in international and comparative law and sufficient experience of the duties of an attorney or a judge. Most public legal aid attorneys hold the title of ‘Master of Laws, Trained on the Bench’, which means that they have completed court training in a district court after their graduation.
The Ministry of Justice appoints the director of a legal aid and public guardianship district. The director of the legal aid and public guardianship district appoints public legal aid attorneys.
Public legal aid attorneys perform legal work and they shall adhere to proper professional conduct when representing a client in court. In this regard, they are subject to the supervision of the Finnish Bar Association. More than half of public legal aid attorneys are members of the Finnish Bar Association. A public legal aid attorney shall attend to a case allocated to him or her in an independent and impartial manner.
The work of a public legal aid attorney requires versatile legal knowledge and good people and negotiation skills. An attorney must be able to present things clearly, both orally and in writing. The work requires high stress tolerance, since the tasks vary a lot, come unexpectedly, and the clients are often going through a crisis in their lives.
Private attorneys
The services of private attorneys can be obtained from law offices and other firms providing legal services.
An attorney-at-law is a lawyer who is a member of the Finnish Bar Association and whose activities are supervised by the Chancellor of Justice and the Disciplinary Board operating in connection with the Finnish Bar Association. An attorney-at-law shall adhere to proper professional conduct when representing a client in court. The professional title of an attorney-at-law may only be used by attorneys-at-law entered in the roll of attorneys-at-law.
A licensed legal counsel is a lawyer who has been granted a licence to serve as an attorney or legal counsel by the Legal Counsel Board. When representing a client in court, a licensed legal counsel must observe similar ethical rules as attorneys-at-law. In this regard, a licensed legal counsel is subject to the supervision of the Disciplinary Board operating in connection to the Finnish Bar Association, the Legal Counsel Board, and the Chancellor of Justice.