DUTIES OF AN ADVOCATE

An advocate must serve many masters. The unique position advocates assume
in society makes them answerable to a variety of stakeholders. An advocate
owes duties to clients, courts, opposing counsel, opposing parties, and the
wider community/nation. Along with those external duties, the advocate owes
a duty to himself/herself.

An advocate is defined under section 1 of the advocates Act to mean any

person whose name is duly entered upon the roll. In addition 7 of the
Advocates amendment act 20002. Provides that a holder of a law degree from a
recognized university in Uganda or from a university operating in a common
wealth country recognized by law counsel holds a qualification for enrollment
as an advocate.

Section 11 of the Advocates Act as amended provides that the law council then
instructs the chief registrar to issue a practicing certificate to enroll advocates
upon payment of the prescribed fees to the chief registrar.

DUTIES OF ADVOTES TO THEIR CLIENTS.

Section 1 of the Advocates Act defines a “client” as, ‘any person who as a
principal, or on behalf of another, or personal representative, or in any capacity
has power to retain or employ, an advocate costs.’

1, Duty to act upon Instructions of a client. Under regulation 2 of the

advocates act provides that no advocate shall act on behalf of a litigant unless
duly instructed.

In the Mulenga Chriustopher Vs Stanbic bank HCMA No. 200 Of 2013,

justice Madrama held that taking instructions by an advocate is fundamentally
an ethical question, a lawyer has no authority to act on behalf of a person
minus instructions.
2, Duty of an advocate to respect a client. An advocate must respect a
client, this is because the client is the one who employs an advocate and
therefore a client is an advocate’s boss. Even in instances of probono, an
advocate is ethically obligated to respect the client.

3, Duty of an advocate to bill a client fairly. An advocate must bill the client
fairly, he or she should not base on a client’s economic status to bill the client
highly. He or she is obligate to bill the client reasonably.

4, Duty of an advocate to keep time (timely work). An advocate should

respect time when it comes to legal representation of the client. He should
always be present in court on the date and time he is supposed to be there and
in case of any emergency, he should communicate in time. This is necessary in
order to prevent unnecessary adjournments.

5, Duty to communicate to clients; Regulation 2(2) of the Advocates

(Professional Conduct) Regulations provides that, an advocate shall not
unreasonably delay the carrying out of instructions received from his/her
clients and shall conduct business on behalf of clients with due diligence,
including answering of correspondence dealing with the affairs of his or her
clients.

6, Avoiding representing clients in conflicts of interest; Regulation 9 of the

Advocates (Professional Conduct) Regulations restricts advocates from
appearing before any court or tribunal which the advocate has reason to
believe that he/she will be required as a witness.

6, Representing clients in court; It is a duty of a lawyer to represent his or

her client in both civil and criminal proceedings. Article 28(d) of the
constitution requires a person charged with a criminal offence to appear before
the court in person or by a lawyer. Thus in Lobo VS Saleh Salim and others,
it was stated that, “….an advocate who appears for a client in a contested case
is retained to advance or defend his client’s case is retained to advance or
defend his client’s case as an officer of the court.
7, Providing legal advice to clients; Advocates have a duty to provide legal
advice to clients. This advice has to be in position to help the client regarding
the legal issue at hand. Thus in Kirima Estates(U) v. K.G Korde, were the
advocate gave his client wrong advice about his financial standing thus led to
losses after lending money. The court held that, the defendant had broken his
duty to offer advice to the plaintiff as to the financial standing.

8, Documentation management; Clients entrust advocates with important

papers and documents and thus rely on their advocates to manage the client’s
legal files in a secure and orderly manner.