I719 - ORDER OF LAWYERS OF BRESCIA TO BE INVESTIGATED
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
PROFESSIONS: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY TO INVESTIGATE ORDER OF LAWYERS IN BRESCIA
This follows a complaint by two lawyers of the A.L.T. (Assistenza Legale per Tutti, or Legal Aid for All) who were punished for unfair and unbecoming conduct. The proceeding must determine whether the Order's decision constituted an anti-competitive arrangement with the aim of impeding the use by professionals of the levers of competition.
The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 18 June 2009, decided to open an investigation into whether the decision taken by the Order of Lawyers of Brescia to punish several colleagues from Milan who set up the A.L.T. (Assistenza Legale per Tutti, or Legal Aid for All) constitutes an anti-competitive arrangement.
The proceeding was begun following a complaint from two lawyers, founders of the initiative, who had been punished by the Order of Lawyers of Brescia for unfair and unbecoming conduct.
A.L.T. offers traditional services ranging from simple consultations on specific questions of a legal nature to courtroom representation. The defining characteristic of the A.L.T. firm, however, is the fact that it is a “shopfront operation” in premises that open onto the public street. For this reason, just like a store, the firm has a window and a sign which provide some general information about the kinds of professional services offered and which advertise the availability of a free first consultation.
These particular characteristics seem to have been the cause of the punishment (censure) decided upon by the Council of Brescia to whom the Council of the Order of Milan had sent the documentation, since one of the lawyers subject to the disciplinary action was a counsellor of the Order of Lawyers based at the Milan Court of Appeals. The Order of Brescia punished the two lawyers with an official reprimand for “having, with the aim of acquiring custom, engaged in unfair and unbecoming conduct, consisting in having opened an office directly fronting onto the street in Viale Abruzzi 67, Milan, beneath the suggestive sign A.L.T. Assistenza legale per tutti (Legal Aid for All) and carrying on the door, written in large letters, the words ‘First Consultation Free’”.
The Antitrust Authority's investigation must determine whether the Order's intervention – involving the formal reprimand and the recording of all the documentation and distribution of all the communications leading up to it – was intended to prevent lawyers registered in Brescia and Milan from using, in the exercise of their profession, the various competitive levers introduced by law into the legal profession as well, such as the freedom to set fees, the use of advertising and the relationship between the professional and his client.
Rome, 27 June 2009