One cannot be and have been, said the poet. Astrid D., she tried. Twice, in November 2018 and February 2019, before the family affairs judge of the Draguignan court. By also sending a letter to Me Gilles Ordronneau in March 2019, beginning his remarks with “My dear colleague”.
So many offenses of illegal exercise of the profession of lawyer, incurring its author one year of imprisonment and 15,000 euros fine. Because if Astrid D. was able to put on the dress for a time in her professional career, she is no longer an auxiliary of justice today.
A lawyer at the Carpentras bar for eight years, the young woman asked at the end of 2016 for her omission for personal reasons. When she decides, in March 2018, to re-register at the Avignon bar, she comes up against several obstacles “administrative”. Evasive, the defendant fails to explain why she failed to obtain the exeat [un document autorisant un avocat à quitter un barreau pour s’inscrire dans un autre] with the Bar of Carpentras.
“For me, it was not a problem”
“It is not because a rapporteur, in Marseilles or Avignon, gives a favorable opinion, that one becomes such a dry lawyer again, underlines the president Lionel Escoffier intervening in the interests of the Bar of Draguignan. You must pay your contribution to the expenses of the Order, which alone will then decide on the merits.”
So as not to remain stuck in the water, Astrid D. becomes a lawyer with a lawyer from Raphaël who specializes in commercial law. “For three years, she exercised these functions, details his lawyer, Me Gaële Guenoun. Twice, because he was ill and because he was in trouble with the opposing party, his employer asked her to find out if she could plead in his place.
“For me, this was not a problem, because my file for re-registration with the Carpentras bar was in progress, apologizes Astrid D. I anticipated because I did not understand why I was still not registered.” “You should not presuppose”the tance the prosecutor Mathilde Gauvain.
“A draft intended for a client”
Regarding the mail addressed to Gilles Ordronneau, the defendant assures that it was only a draft sent by mistake by someone else. “It was a draft for a client. I did not sign as a lawyer.”
“Put your name, even on a draft when you do not exercise the function, it can be confusingexclaims Me Escoffier. There is a reason that the profession of lawyer is regulated.”
Despite the efforts of her counsel, who were moved that Astrid D. was able “to be denounced by colleagues who have taken an oath”, provoking the ire of the chairman, the lawyer who was no longer a lawyer was sentenced to a fine of 5,000 euros. The court did not prohibit him from carrying out a training activity. What is now his profession, with law and political science students…
