Newly elected Chamber of Advocates President DR LOUIS DE GABRIELE takes over at a time when Malta’s legal profession is facing questions over regulation, professional standards, public confidence, and the balance between independence and accountability. “Comprehensive reform of the legal profession is long overdue, and we have done our part. Will Government finally do its part?” asks Dr de Gabriele.
The Chamber of Advocates has been calling for reform, particularly through the proposal for a Lawyers Act, for almost two decades. Its first White Paper on the need to overhaul the profession’s regulatory framework was published in 2008.
“This is not a recent awakening but a sustained, principled campaign that has outlasted multiple ministers,” calling the situation “profoundly ironic and almost paradoxical.”
“Ordinarily it is the State that seeks to impose regulation while the profession resists. But in Malta, it is the profession itself, through the Chamber, that has been urging the State to act,” adding that the Chamber had already prepared the groundwork.
“We have detailed proposals and legislative frameworks ready drafted. We have presented successive governments with workable bills, and no government ever told us there is no political will for reform. On the contrary, successive governments have engaged with us and expressed agreement and support for our proposals. But when it comes to the decisive moment, none has taken the final step of piloting those proposals into law.”
“We are simply calling for a regulatory framework that reflects the realities of the twenty-first century rather than the nineteenth.”
Dr de Gabriele describes the current regulation of the profession as “fragmented and outdated”.
“The legal profession in Malta today remains largely unregulated by statute. The regulation that exists is fragmented, outdated and scattered across disparate instruments such as the Code of Police Laws and the Code of Ethics promulgated under the Commission for the Administration of Justice Act.”
He is particularly critical of amendments introduced in 2021 through amendments to the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure.
“Frankly, these were half-baked and they create more problems than they resolve, leaving fundamental gaps unaddressed.”
“The profession itself has changed considerably, has grown in size, diversified in specialisation, and now operates in an environment that bears little resemblance to the one in which the existing rules were conceived.”
The need for reform is also linked to what de Gabriele acknowledges has been a decline in professional standards.
“The Chamber is painfully aware that the profession has, over the years, experienced a decline in the standards and values that were once its hallmark. Episodes of professional misconduct in recent years have not only damaged the reputation of the individuals concerned but have cast a long shadow over the public’s perception of the profession. This is a reality we neither deny nor minimise.”
“The episodes of misconduct that have tarnished the profession’s reputation are not evidence that regulation is unnecessary but that it is desperately needed.”
Dr de Gabriele also challenges the assumption that lawyers already have extensive statutory powers to regulate themselves through the Chamber.
“The Chamber of Advocates is recognised by law as the professional body for advocates. But that is precisely what it is, a professional body, not a regulatory authority. The Chamber has no statutory power to regulate the profession,” noting that membership of the Chamber is not mandatory.
At the same time, Dr de Gabriele argues that stronger regulation must not mean putting the profession under political control.
“Safeguards already exist outside the Chamber. The Committee for Advocates and Legal Procurators and ultimately the Commission for the Administration of Justice, over which the Chamber exercises no control, is precisely that independent check. These are constitutional safeguards that are already embedded in our system.”
For Dr de Gabriele, the challenge is therefore to strengthen regulation without undermining the independence lawyers require to represent their clients.
“Independence and accountability are not opposing forces but complementary and inseparable. The independence of the legal profession is not a privilege for lawyers’ personal benefit but a constitutional safeguard that protects their client, the citizen.”
“That independence cannot become immunity. Independence without accountability is a pathway to impunity. And while lawyers must never be punished for what they advocate, they must always be answerable for how they practise.”
That accountability, he says, must be exercised through institutions independent of political influence.
“What we must resist, and what the Chamber will always resist, is the substitution of institutional accountability with political control dressed up as oversight.”
The issue is particularly relevant in Malta’s small professional community, where lawyers may have personal or institutional relationships with politicians and public officials.
“Our professional, political, and commercial circles are closely interwoven. The safeguard against it is not the elimination of relationships, which is neither possible nor desirable, but the rigorous application of professional and ethical obligations, namely the duty of loyalty to the client, the duty to avoid conflicts of interest, and the duty to recuse oneself where a conflict cannot be managed.”
“It is, simply put, acting with integrity.”
Just this week, the Chamber announced the appointment of its first Ethics Officer who will be tasked with reviewing and handling ethics complaints received by the Chamber in compliance with the Code of Ethics for lawyers.
Dr de Gabriele also rejected calls for the Chamber to distance itself from government.
“Our advocacy is only issue driven. We are not a political organisation, and we have no partisan allegiance. When it comes to the Chamber’s relations with government, we are open to any mechanism that enhances public confidence, provided the same standards were applied consistently and proportionately to all professional bodies and stakeholders engaging with Government on policy.”
On the profession’s public standing, de Gabriele was blunt: “Yes, the legal profession in Malta does not enjoy the standing in public opinion that it once did, and this is also partly self-inflicted. This perception can only be improved by the daily conduct of every practising advocate, and by the institutional willingness to confront and address misconduct when it occurs.”
Ultimately, he says, responsibility begins before a lawyer enters practice.
“Rigorous academic knowledge alone is not enough. The profession requires ethical formation, practical competence and true understanding of the responsibilities that come with the warrant.”
The challenge, argues the Chamber’s President, is to secure the modern regulatory framework he says successive governments have failed to deliver, while ensuring that the profession itself lives up to the standards it demands.
“The public has a right to expect that when a complaint is made against a lawyer, it will be dealt with thoroughly, fairly, and within a reasonable time. We share that expectation entirely.”
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