Lietuvos advokatūros teisinės padėties raida

The beginning of the XVI century until the adoption of the First Statute of Lithuania is the period in which we can trace "the tendency of development of the Chambers"; the First Statute of Lithuania created background for the formation of professional Law Chambers. Due to the existing historical conditions, the Lithuanian Chambers, until the beginning of the XIX century, were formed under the influence of tsarist Russia, where the provisions regulating the activities of the lawyers didn’t differ in principle from the provisions of the Chambers of the big Western European countries. When Lithuania restored its independence in 1918, the Lithuanian Chambers had progressive legal traditions, which were preserved and cultivated throughout the entire period until the occupation (annexation). In 1940, when the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Lithuania, the Soviet Chambers model was implemented, which, with slight changes, was in force after Lithuania's independence was restored in 1990. 16 September 1992, when the Supreme Council adopted the law on Chambers, is considered the beginning of the period of the development of the State Chambers of independent Lithuania. The legal acts regulating the activities of the Lithuanian Chambers, which established the status of the Chambers and the procedures, were adopted and changed every few years. The article pays particular attention to the essential changes in the legal status of the Chambers, analyses all the mentioned periods of the development of the Lithuanian Chambers, from the XVI century to the Chambers reform of 2004