Kaban ni Lino Labra: BAYAD SA SERBISYO, SUKLIA'G ABILIDAD SA ABOGADO???

Man is a social being. He can’t live alone like an island. He has to live with others from pre-historic time up to this modern day. As social being, man organized a band with his closely-knit relatives consisting of less than a hundred members in pre-historic times. They were nomadic and survived in hunting and gathering as their means of living.

Band evolved into tribes as population increased due to intermarriages. Tribal societies were semi-nomadic. In most of the cycle of their lunar calendar, they were settled close to their farmlands as their livelihood before their annual migration to another green pasture. It was from tribes that chiefdom evolved through the years in the riverine societies across Asia, Europe and Africa. Irrigation societies of the chiefdoms paved the way to emergence of state as the highest level of development in society.

Lawyers in state societies during modern age in our history were considered necessarily evils. They were the defenders of the state from the dissenters and destabilizers of the established order. "The first thing we do," said the character in Shakespeare's Henry VI, is "kill all the lawyers." Contrary to popular belief, the proposal was not meant to demean lawyers in the society. Rather, it was intended to eliminate those who might stand in the way of a contemplated revolution -- thus underscoring the important role that lawyers can play in society as the guardians of independent thinking that safeguards peace and order of the state. They were called prosecutors, counselors, district attorneys and fiscals through the years of defending the state from the criminal elements in the societies.

From the ranks of lawyers, you have also the human rights crusaders either as advocates or as private litigators. They were usually the counsels of the accused against the counsel of the state. The rules disallow them from being seen together to avoid jeopardizing their respective advocacy for their respective clients. That was the old order from whom; the rules on ethical standards among lawyers were drawn.

During the Roman Empire these private practitioners practiced law pro bono. From the Latin words pro bono, it means service for free. It has historical root to serve the people for free from the abuses of the state. But if the clients would like to win the case, they should know that these lawyers would not decline gifts as cultural decay started to zip in the corpus of lawyers’ oath. From then on, Attorney’s Fee was a product of necessity of the decadent society in Medieval Ages.

Since lawyers are social beings, you cannot take away from their systems the tendency to group them as BAND, others as TRIBES and CHIEFDOM even if they are the defenders of the STATE and the counsels for the enemies of the STATE in this civilized societies like ours.

 

I know of lawyers who called themselves as CKD TRIBE. It was a tribe of lawyers that never increased in numbers beyond the founders. They were known to have been equipped with virtues of loyalty of the SAMURAI when it comes to their queens without crowns. They were also known as the Last of the Mohicans because they are the vanishing tribe of Loyal Husbands in the Rolls of Attorneys in the country.

The CHIEFDOM of lawyers in Cebu dictates who would be the next leaders of the two IBP chapters. It is a Holy Alliance of many TRIBES. One Tribe of Lawyers is known for being young below 40’s. The others played their games like pro every Wednesday. The last in their company is the descendants of Datu Mantawi and Lapu-Lapu.

I am happy because there is no brewing animosity among lawyers in Cebu even if they are the defenders of the state and private advocates and despite of their tribal origins. I don’t see any reason to worry that one day their cases will be decided over bottles of beer because they are not lawyers of the Medieval Era. Modern lawyers are upright courtesy of the continuous reminders of Legal Ethics in MCLE. They might not be morally upright as to the issue of chastity belt but I can guarantee that the Supreme Court can find no other cause of action to strip these lawyers of their oath.

When I heard that a group of lawyers are organizing a BAND, it did not surprise me. As I said, lawyers are humans; they need others to socialize. Initially, this BAND is composed of five male, married and smart counsels both for the state and the enemies of the state. I heard that they are having regular practice twice a week in preparation for their introduction to the public as permanent mainstay in the IBP.

If I were to ask which one shall I prefer? I choose banding of lawyers instead of grouping them as chiefdom. In chiefdom, there is a chief; in band there is only a leader of the band. In band, it is easy to disband if discordant interest would become out of tune. In chiefdom, interest is complicated that usually result to internecine conflict. Mafias are modern chiefdom in the world of criminals. If we allow them to co-exist with the state, it would not be healthy to democracy even in our own organization like IBP.

This newly-organized band of lawyers are aptly right in calling themselves as ATTORNEY’S FEE. This is an information I got from one of their fans. It might be temporary identity for now but it sounds fitting because all the members are abogado de campanilla (in Spanish words) not pro bono lawyers in the Latin world. With their plan to show their hidden talents this coming IBP Week, I would be in the frontline to cheer them up to sing my favorite song dedicated to IBP “QUE SERA, SERA.”

(Bug-os ang  pasalamat sa KAHAYAG ngadto sa nagsulat niining  artikulo  nga si ATTY. PAULINO  B. LABRADO, Senior Partner sa P.B. LABRADO  and PARTNERS. Magsusulat  ug magpaambitan siya sa iyang mga  hunahuna mahitungod sa  nagkalain-laing hisgotanan nga makita sa  maukiton niyang mata ug mga kasikas nga madungog sa  iyang maabtikong dunggan.)