European Lawyers Day 2014: Lawyer Client confidentiality

Each year, the role of lawyers in promoting the rule of law across Europe

is celebrated on European Lawyers Day. This year, on Wednesday 10 December 2014, the theme is mass surveillance and lawyer-client confidentiality.

The Chairman of Bar Council attended and spoke at the

‘s foremost legal figures explored the issue of lawyer-client confidentiality. A former judge of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Sir David Edward wrote The Professional Secret: Confidentiality and Legal Professional Privilege in the Nine Member States of the European Community for the Council of European Bars and Law Societies (CCBE) in 1975. He served as counsel for the CCBE in a case in 1982 in which the Court of Justice affirmed that “as regards certain communications between lawyer and client, confidentiality serves the requirements, the importance of which is recognised in all of the Member States, that any person must be able, without constraint, to consult a lawyer whose profession entails the giving of independent legal advice to all those in need of it.”

Sir David has described the rights, duties and privileges given to lawyers as “an essential element” in the protection of individual liberty in a free society, and stated that they existed for the public interest and were not created by lawyers for their own benefit.

To mark the occasion, the leaders of the legal professions from

issued a joint declaration, stating that lawyer-client confidentiality was entitled to special protection by the state. The European Lawyers Day Declaration 2014 notes that it is a fundamental duty of every lawyer to preserve and protect the confidentiality of clients. It reaffirms the commitment of the professions to the rule of law, the administration of justice and the highest standards of professional conduct.

Click here for a copy of the Chairman’s Speech