HH The Amir amends certain provisions of the Law Practice Act

His Highness The Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued on Tuesday Law No.1 of 2018 amending some of the provisions of the Law Practice Act promulgated by Law 23 of 2006.

The law provides for expanding the scope of the Department of State Affairs in the Ministry of Justice to include public bodies and institutions, as well as ministries and other government agencies, in addition to regulating the work of legal officers in private companies and institutions by granting them the right to provide legal advice and the drafting, registration and documentation of contracts.

The law requires obtaining a license by the lawyers acceptance committee for non-Qatari lawyers who work in Qatari law firms to appear before Courts. It also added new requirements for the registration of lawyers who have worked in the judiciary and/or the prosecution by setting the duration of judicial work by no less than (5) years and passing the personal interview and tests set by the committee.

The Law also requires lawyers applying for registration at the courts of Appeal and Cassation to submit the necessary documents to register and inform the committee of their previous work, in addition to completing the work tenure before lower courts.

The law also details the registration requirements before the Court of Cassation for the categories of employees in government and private bodies, in terms of duration and nature of the work and in accordance with the regulations issued by the Minister of Justice.

The law allows for the payment of the bonus to the lawyer under training to include, in addition to training at the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, the duration of training that they spends in one of the law offices.

The law obliges the law firms to have websites and considers that owning stakes and shares in joint stock companies to be outside the scope of the ban on trade.

The law extends the guarantees granted to lawyers regarding their access to documents of cases, lawsuits and investigation papers, and allows for the possibility of agreement between the lawyer and his client on the condition of fees entitlement to be pending winning the claim.

The law also grants the client the right to lodge a complaint against the lawyer, investigate them before the committee, and sets specific duration for the upgrading the degree of the lawyer who signed a disciplinary penalty. The law also sets the jurisdiction and competence of the disciplinary board of lawyers formed by a decision of the Supreme Council of the Judiciary, in terms of lawyers accountability, imposing the necessary penalties on them, and considering suspending them from practicing the profession.

The Law is to be effective and is to be published in the official gazette.