Professional Conduct in the Office: What the Rules Allow, and What They Forbid

In one line

Running a law office is regulated: an advocate may not advertise, may not share a fee with a non-advocate, may not take a share of the result, and may not repeat what a client told him, and section 35 is what happens when he does.

In exam wording: the standards of professional conduct and etiquette prescribed by the Bar Council of India under section 49(1)(c) of the Advocates Act 1961 bind an advocate in the conduct of his practice, and a breach is professional misconduct punishable by the disciplinary committee of the State Bar Council under section 35, subject to appeal under sections 37 and 38.

Advertising: Rule 36, in full

This is the rule students are asked about most, and it is worth having exactly.

Rule 36, in the Section headed "Duty to Colleagues":

An advocate shall not solicit work or advertise, either directly or indirectly, whether by circulars, advertisements, touts, personal communications, interviews not warranted by personal relations, furnishing or inspiring newspaper comments or producing his photographs to be published in connection with cases in which he has been engaged or concerned. His sign-board or name-plate should be of a reasonable size. The sign-board or name-plate or stationery should not indicate that he is or has been President or Member of a Bar Council or of any Association or that he has been associated with any person or organisation or with any particular cause or matter or that he specialises in any particular type of worker or that he has been a Judge or an Advocate General.

Notice how much is prohibited beyond an advertisement: circulars, touts, unwarranted interviews, inspiring newspaper comment, and publishing photographs in connection with cases. Notice also the second half, which is about the name-plate and stationery and which students routinely forget: no claim to office in a Bar Council or association, no claim of association with a cause, no claim to specialisation, and no reference to having been a Judge or an Advocate General.

The website proviso, added in 2008

The Rule continues:

That this Rule will not stand in the way of advocates furnishing website information as prescribed in the Schedule under intimation to and as approved by the Bar Council of India. Any additional other input in the particulars than approved by the Bar Council of India will be deemed to be violation of Rule 36 and such advocates are liable to be proceeded with misconduct under Section 35 of the Advocates Act, 1961.

The print records that this was added vide Resolution No. 50/2008 dated 24 March 2008.

The Schedule lists what a website may carry:

1. Name
2. Address, telephone numbers, e-mail id
3. (a) Enrolment Number; (b) Date of Enrolment; (c) Name of State Bar Council where originally enrolled; (d) Name of State Bar Council on whose roll the name stands currently; (e) Name of the Bar Association of which the Advocate is a Member
4. Professional and Academic Qualifications
5. Areas of Practice (the Schedule's own example: Civil, Criminal, Taxation, Labour, etc.)