As part of a national consultation of lawyers, the president of the National Council of Bars, Julie Couturier, is visiting various bars in France. The goal? To listen, engage in dialogue, and find solutions to better address the profession’s challenges. On Thursday, June 27, she visited Nice. It was an opportunity to interview her about this consultation and the opinion of the entire profession.
Since June 5, Julie Couturier has been visiting numerous bars in France. A lawyer in Paris, she currently presides over the National Council of Bars. In her role, she launched a major national consultation. In this capacity, she is responsible for questioning the 76,000 lawyers across France about their perceptions and expectations concerning the national institution. On June 27, the consultation took place in Nice, a moment the lawyer had been looking forward to.
“We have entered a new world, and the future promises us unprecedented challenges. We will need 76,000 of us to face them. After several trips to Rouen, Agen, and Lyon, I am very happy to meet with my colleagues from the Nice bar,” she asserts.
What are the different concerns of the lawyers?
“There’s the issue of artificial intelligence and how the profession is dealing with this topic. There are all the issues related to the judiciary, the question of the effective representation of the profession. That is to say, how we manage to secure decisions in our favor from public authorities, parliamentarians, the ministry. How we manage to influence civil procedure reforms, for example. These are the various topics that were discussed with our colleagues.”
Are these issues unique to Nice?
“These are very variable issues depending on the bars. Overall, there are a few common topics that regularly resurface. But here, I’m mentioning those we just addressed in Nice. However, there are, of course, other concerns elsewhere.”
Among other concerns: identifying future markets, defending equality and combating inequalities within law firms, safeguarding defense rights, dialogue with judges, or even protecting their professional secrecy.
How do you respond to these expectations?
“I respond at the national level. We invite colleagues to respond to this major national consultation. We listen to them through meetings, like the one we had for 2.5 hours today. Then, we relay everything to the National Council of Bars. And then we’ll think about these different issues once we have the results of the national consultation and feedback from all the bars. We’ll see which topics come up the most and what our colleagues expect from us.”
How is this organized?
“Well, the national consultation will be replaced by a platform. It’s a secure email sent to each colleague in France. The platform will be in place until the end of September, early October. After that, we’ll conduct an analysis of the responses and a report on these responses.”
The National Council of Bars has chosen to give (back) a voice to lawyers by setting up a digital platform, as discussed by Julie Couturier. It allows all lawyers to vote and share their opinions through fifteen questions.
Why is this national consultation important?
“What’s interesting is that it’s somewhat new as a mechanism. We’re introducing participatory democracy into our representative democracy system. That’s the key takeaway. It’s that the national lawyers’ institution may seem somewhat distant to them. Because it’s in Paris, there can be a sort of disconnection between regional lawyers, whether in Nice or elsewhere, and the national institution.”
“That’s why, to better serve and represent our colleagues, we meet them to explain what the National Council of Bars does. It has a number of legal missions and offers services that many colleagues are unaware of. So, we’re coming to explain what we do and to gather their expectations,” she adds.
On July 4, Julie Couturier will head to Rennes. Then to Poitiers on July 11. To Bordeaux on July 12. And finally to Nîmes, Tarascon, Carpentras, and Avignon from July 17 to 19, 2024.
