advocate act
vishnu sharma
(Querist) 10 July 2009
This query is : Resolved
An advocate enrolled in Bar council can serve in any company as law associate.
PALNITKAR V.V.
(Expert) 11 July 2009
If it is full time employment i.e. service, then you will have to get your name suspended from the roll of the advocates.
A V Vishal
(Expert) 11 July 2009
Dear Sharma,
Attention is drawn to Ch VII of the BCI rules:
Section VII—Restrictions on Other Employments
An Advocate shall not personally engage in any business but he may be a sleeping partner in a firm doing business provided that, in the opinion of the Bar Council the nature of the business is not inconsistent with the dignity of the profession.
An Advocate may be a Director or Chairman of the Board of Directors of a company with or without any ordinary sitting, fee provided none of his duties are of an executive character. An Advocate shall not be a Managing Director or a Secretary of any company.
An Advocate shall not be full-time salaried employee of any person, government, firm, corporation or concern, so long as he continues to practise and shall, on taking up any such employment, intimate the fact to the Bar Council and shall thereupon cease to practise as an advocate so long as he continues in such employment.
Nothing in this rule shall apply to Law Officer of the Central Government or the Government of a State or of any Public Corporation or body constituted by statute who is entitled to be enrolled under the rules of the Bar Council made under Section 28(2)(d) read with Section 24(1)(c) of the Advocates Act, 1961 despite his being a full-time salaried employee.
An Advocate who has inherited, or succeeded by survivorship, to a family business may continue it, but may not personally participate in the management thereof. He may continue to hold a share with others in any business which has descended to him by survivorship or inheritance or by will, provided he does not personally participate in the management thereof.
An Advocate may review Parliamentary Bills for a remuneration, edit legal text books at a salary, do ‘press-vetting’ for newspapers, coach pupils for legal examinations, set and examine question papers; and subject to the rules against advertising and full-time employment, engage in broadcasting, journalism, lecturing and teaching subjects both legal and non-legal.
Nothing in these rules shall prevent an Advocate from accepting, after obtaining the consent of the Bar Council part-time employment provided that in the opinion of the Bar Council the nature of the employment does not conflict with his professional work and is not inconsistent with the dignity of the profession.
