The supervision of the legal profession is changing. Instead of eleven regional deans who supervise the lawyers in their district, there will be a national supervisor. That writes Minister for Legal Protection Franc Weerwind (D66) to House of Representatives.
Due to its effectiveness, Weerwind’s predecessor Sander Dekker (VVD) had already pre-sorted at a national supervisor. Scandals such as the fraud at state lawyer Pels Rijcken and those involving Ridouan Taghi’s lawyer cousin would show the need for a strong national supervisor. The local deans would also have insufficient clout to check the lack of compliance by lawyers with the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act (Wwft).
With the national supervisor, the supervisory role of the eleven regional deans will disappear. Weerwind is ignoring the deans’ advice to create a second layer of supervision under the national supervisor of eleven decentralized supervisors with local knowledge and experience. However, Weerwind states that it considers “a certain degree of local embedding” important.
In the new system proposed by Weerwind, lawyers remain responsible for their own supervision through self-regulation. The Netherlands Bar Association (NOvA) will also continue to play a leading role. The new national supervisor will become part of that bar association. In addition, the members of the supervisory body will be appointed on the recommendation of the NOvA board.
Supervisory body with 3 lawyers
The new supervisor will be an administrative body and will be able to impose both administrative sanctions and disciplinary complaints. Minister Weerwind writes that with the arrival of the national supervisor, the supervision of the legal profession will be ‘strengthened’. The new national supervisor that will supervise the country’s 18,000 lawyers will consist of three people, all lawyers. The size of the workforce that they will have at their disposal is still unclear. The costs will be borne entirely by the legal profession.
Because of ‘the special role and position of the legal profession in the rule of law’, Weerwind believes it is important that lawyers remain responsible for their own supervision, in order to guarantee the legal profession’s independence from the state.
Also read: Supervisor finds supervision of lawyers not independent enough and resigns
In recent years there have been several criticisms of the lack of independence within the supervision of the legal profession, which is almost entirely in the hands of lawyers. The only exception is the three-member supervisory board for the legal profession, which has two non-lawyer members appointed by the Crown and acts as system supervisor.
Lack of independence
Last week, chairman of the board Jeroen Kremers resigned and he criticized the lack of independence within the supervision of lawyers. He argued in favor of a national supervisory authority following the example of Germany or the United Kingdom, where a strict separation has been made between advocacy and regulation and supervision. If it is up to Weerwind, these matters will remain under the umbrella of the NOvA in the future.
Within the new supervisory regime, the supervisory board will disappear. According to Dekker, the board is no longer necessary now that a national supervisor is coming and the supervisory role for the blankets is disappearing. He does want to set up a new three-headed body that provides an ‘outside view’ and looks at the way in which the new national supervisor functions.
Weatherwinds plan for the new supervision will be discussed in the House of Representatives next week. The law must be amended for the new supervisory regime. The minister cannot yet indicate when that amendment to the law is on the agenda.