The outgoing cabinet wants a national institution for the supervision of lawyers in the Netherlands. The deans of the eleven districts are still ultimately responsible for that supervision, but Minister Dekker for Legal Protection wants to change that. According to him, a central supervisor makes the supervision of the legal profession more independent and effective.
Improving and modernizing the supervision of lawyers has been on Dekker’s agenda for some time – last year an extensive one was published evaluation report about – but the idea of a national body is new. It is a first step in the elaboration of the evaluation, says a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and Security.
Cousin of Ridouan Taghi
The recent arrest of a cousin of Ridouan Taghi, 38-year-old lawyer Youssef T., also plays a role, although according to the spokesperson it is not decisive. “But we don’t close our eyes to current developments.”
T. became early this month arrested suspected of participating in a criminal organization. As a lawyer, he could freely visit his cousin in prison. During those visits, the two would have discussed a violent outbreak, among other things. Afterwards it became clear that the local deans involved had investigated whether T. could do his work independently, but that from this no objections had emerged.
No longer shredded
Dekker writes to the House of Representatives that this case could affect society’s trust in the legal profession, just like other examples of subversive crime. “We must be able to trust that lawyers are reliable and honest. In order to be able to live up to this trust in the future, we are strengthening the supervision of the legal profession.”
The intention is that the central supervisor will soon check whether lawyers are complying with the rules. He can hire several supervisors for this. The fact that the regulator operates nationally means that control is no longer fragmented, says the ministry’s spokesperson. “And it becomes more uniform: equal cases, equal treatment.”
For example, the local deans remain responsible for handling complaints.
Further away from the blankets
Dekker still has to work out exactly what the national supervisor will look like. He mentions the deans meeting as a possibility, in which all eleven deans of the districts sit. They would then be jointly responsible for national supervision. Now they are still individual for their own district.
But Dekker says he is also considering other forms, because he thinks it might be wiser to organize supervision of the legal profession “further away from the covers” in the future. He is still consulting about this with the relevant authorities within the Dutch Bar Association, where the national supervisory body will also have to be housed in the future.
Increase resilience
The bar association says in a response that it agrees well with Dekker’s proposals. “We see the need to further strengthen supervision, partly in the light of combating undermining. I would like to discuss this with the minister in the short term,” says Robert Crince le Roy, who will become general dean on 1 January.
The bar association itself is still working on a working group that should further protect the legal profession against undermining. “Within this task force, it will be considered whether rules for lawyers need to be tightened,” the order said. “In addition, further provisions may be made to increase the resilience of lawyers.”
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