Protocol No. XVII
The lawyer’s profession makes people grow cold, cruel, stubborn and unprincipled, and compels them to take an abstract or purely legal viewpoint in all matters. They have learned to consider solely the personal gain derived from every case they handle and not the possibility of the social benefit of its results. They rarely refuse to take a case and always strive for acquittal at all cost, clinging to minor technical points of a legal nature. In this way they demoralize the courts. Therefore we will limit this profession, converting it into an executive public office. Lawyers will be deprived of the right of contact with their clients on the same basis as are the judges. They will receive their cases only from the court, preparing them on the strength of written reports and documents and defending their clients after they have been examined in court on the basis of the facts obtained during the trial. They will receive a salary, regardless of whether the defense has been successful or not. They will act as simple exponents of the