Lawyers all over the world have long been the butt of cruel jokes and anecdotes and have, over the years, not gone down so well with the general public in need to engage their professional services. Unfortunately, as one of that professional clan, I have lately been torn with curiosity in knowing how the legal profession came into existence and how and when lawyers, advocates and other legal professionals by any other name started to ply their profession.
Lawyers born only 30 or 40 years ago may not realize that the legal profession as it is today did not always exist. As a matter of fact, at one point there was no such thing as a lawyer and even after the legal profession was born it has been subjected to booms and declines many times. No one really knows who was the first lawyer in history but we do know that there were ancient lawyers who paved the way for today’s modern lawyers.
The first known legal decision was in 1850BC. And in 1700BC the first written laws were established by a Babylonian king named Hammurabi. Lawyers, some would say paradoxically, are associated with the rise of civilizations that have been recognised as the root of western civilisation. Lawyers have always been concerned with the interpretation of the rules which apply to societies and the settlement of disputes through the application of rules. References to lawyers are found in early parts of the Bible where we find a reference to lawyers in the ancient Hebrew nation as “experts in the law”. Actually, the Scribes were the experts in the law. Indeed, many jokes about lawyers which appear to have become popular in contemporary times are motivated by the same sentiments which appear in a quote from the Bible (Mark 7:5-9) when Jesus is taken to task by the Scribes for allowing His disciples to break the written law, to which He replies: “You have a fine way of rejecting the Commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition!”.
In the original New Testament Bible language of “Greek”, the term Paul used for "lawyer" in Titus 3:13 is “nomikos” (Strong's Number 3544). This term is used seven times in the gospels and, each time referred to Jewish Mosaic law experts (Matthew 22:35, Luke 7:30, 10:25, 11:45, 11:46, 11:52, and 14:3). In the quote above, the apostle Paul speaks favourably of a “lawyer” named Zenas. Zenas is the only “Christian” lawyer mentioned in the Bible. Additionally, Zenas is the only lawyer spoken well of in the Scriptures. While Zenas might possibly have been the only "attorney at law" mentioned in the Bible, most likely, he was a former scribe.
Lawyers continued to flourish in societies such as ancient Greece and Rome where the institution of the law was used as a method for unifying, regulating and maintaining social order in societies that were becoming organised around foundations that are recognisable to modern lawyers. In Ancient Greece, the Athenian legal system did allow for representation by others, known as “orators”, within courts. However, this was not done for financial reasons. This tradition was continued by Ancient Rome. A law enacted in 204BC barred Roman advocates from taking fees, but the law was widely ignored. The ban on fees was abolished by Emperor Claudius, who legalised advocacy as a profession and allowed the Roman advocates to become the first lawyers who could practise openly, but he also imposed a fee ceiling of 10,000 sesterces. This was apparently not much money. The Satires of Juvenal complained that there was no money in working as an advocate. Incidentally, St Ives is the patron saint of lawyers. This is because, as a French lawyer from 1267 onwards, he practised as a lawyer of the poor, probably the first-ever advocate for legal aid!
The first signs of a rudimentary legal system and practice in Malta can be traced back to Roman times, evolving with time when the Knights came to Malta in 1530 and the compilation of the Hospitallers' and Malta's laws during their stay on the Island commissioned by Grand Master Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc in 1781 and completed in 1784, thanks to a Maltese lawyer Federico Gatt who devised the new code of laws.
In the modern world, the first Law School was not opened until 1100AD in Bologna, Italy. Although people were actively studying the written law since the BC era, it was the English King, Edward I in the late 1200sAD who spawned the earliest form of modern lawyers through legal reforms in England. These early lawyers were called “barristers” and “solicitors” and they represented “for” and “against” sides in legal disputes. It was not until the US Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791 that people in the US were guaranteed legal representation by the sixth amendment. Since then, a modern, disciplined and well-organised legal profession has spread across the modern world.
One of the major attributes of the legal profession is that it is independent. This is very important, constitutionally. This independence can be as basic as a lawyer giving independent advice to his clients irrespective of the policy of the government of the day. It also involves a professional obligation to take up any case, especially those, wherein the public opinion is against the same. The assertion of independence may also imply that the professions should be free to regulate themselves in accordance with their own rules of professional conduct, without interference by the government.
Lawyers are necessary in a community. Some of you might take a different view but as I am a member of that legal profession, or was at one time, I still retain the pride of the profession. And I still insist that it is the law and the lawyer that make popular government under a written constitution and written statutes possible.
Dr Mark Said is an advocate