Salvador González, dean of the Lawyer of Malaga, has had a clear objective since the beginning of his mandate: to convert the legal profession into a place of protection for its members. With this motivation, the idea of creating the Lawyer’s Defense Office arose to offer members a specific place just to assist and help them in delicate moments of their career. Finally, this year we will see the culmination of this plan with the inauguration of the Office.
“Our intention is to show Malaga society the values of the profession and, at the same time, be a meeting place for our lawyers where they are aware that they can count on support when they need it,” González points out. «For me, and I think that the same thing happens to all my fellow deans, the treatment and closeness with our members is very important. And the friendships that grow within our walls end up turning the college campus into a second home.
In the exercise of their work, it is the job of lawyers to serve the citizenry and justice, but the work of the College is to serve their members. The Office for the Defense of Lawyers, scheduled to be inaugurated this year, will have among its functions to provide members with an efficient complaints channel. Currently there are already methods for this, but this way it will be a specific one for complaints coming from the collegiate and, therefore, more efficient. In it, lawyers will be able to report the difficulties they suffer during their professional practice.
«It is part of the school DNA, defending their lawyers”, declares the dean in whose electoral program he already announced his intention to create this Office and, now, he has made it a priority of the Governing Board. “We are going to ensure the protection of the interests of our members, as well as assisting them in personal and professional situations.”
The office will make available to you: the completion of procedures, the suspension of actions, the request for aid, the expediting of insurance payments and forced substitutions. For this, the Social Fund has been increased, which will be allocated to members with long-term illnesses, psychological care and financial aid, among others.
This fund also serves as financial support for the children of the members, granting scholarships to help them carry out their university studies. According to the data for the 2021/2022 academic year, ten scholarships were awarded for children of collegiate members.
Current quality training
On the other hand, ensuring access to constant and quality training is another way of serving its members, which is why for Salvador González it has always been a very important point in his mandate.
Law is a career that keeps pace with society and changes with it, which is why it is necessary to keep constantly learning what’s new. “In the Legal Profession we want to offer our members a wide variety of courses that deal with various topics and help them update their training,” says Salvador González.
Every month, Málaga members have different courses, whether online, face-to-face or hybrid, to sign up for. They can access quality training completely free of charge. An example of this purpose are the data presented in its report, from last year, in which it was reported that during the year they held 108 training activities divided into: 81 short activities, 10 conferences, 7 specialization courses, 2 access courses and 8 recycling courses.
Online training was promoted during the pandemic, as a way to continue giving options to members at that time. However, it has been a success as many find this model easier to combine with their daily schedule. For this reason already in 2022 more than half, 62%, of the training activities belonged to the online or bimodal modalities (online and face-to-face).
This does not mean that in the legal profession they put face-to-face training aside, since they continue to hold multiple congresses, conferences and seminars to promote proposals for improvement in justice and legislation. “We have always encouraged face-to-face training events, which also serve as a window for networking and getting to know other lawyers or legal professionals better,” explains Salvador González. “Lawyers from all over Spain or even from abroad come to some of our congresses and in this way the possibilities of collaboration and learning are expanded,” he adds.
This year the I Labor Law Congress has already been held; and others are planned such as: Family, Minors and Capacity; the Penitentiary; and that of Civil Liability, as well as the 18th edition of its Legal Congress, which has become a benchmark legal event in recent years and will return to the capital of Malaga in this edition.
