Lawyer’s professional culture: defining the concept

The article studies the content of the concept of «lawyer’s professional culture». It is noted that understanding the lawyer’s professional culture is of crucial importance, as it determines the expectations and behavior that are considered acceptable in this area both from the perspective of an individual and from the perspective of a society. Using the deductive method, it is substantiated that the lawyer’s professional culture is a type of the jurist’s professional culture, which, in turn, is a type of general culture inherent in a certain society. The multifaceted nature of the latter concept, the existence of numerous approaches to its interpretation as a certain phenomenon that has axiological, political, historical, philosophical, social, spiritual, cultural and other contexts, determines the polyvariability of approaches to the interpretation of the lawyer’s professional culture. The lawyer’s professional culture is determined by the mission, role, and functions of the bar and the legal profession. It cultivates and represents the key values, traditions, principles, and standards of the bar as a human rights and self-governing institution that, through the tools it has, takes care of its authority in society. The analysis of scientific approaches led to the conclusion that the lawyer’s professional culture is an integral category that encompasses a complex of interconnected and interdependent elements of different nature and order: from the culture of a single individual to the specific requirements and principles of the implementation of the legal profession. Therefore, its interpretation should be carried out taking into account two levels. At the macro level, the lawyer’s professional culture appears as a phenomenon that reflects the values, traditions, principles, and standards of the socio-professional community - lawyers and the institution they represent - the bar. At the micro level, the lawyer’s professional culture should be understood as a systemic, complex, multidimensional characteristic of a lawyer’s personality, which reproduces a whole set of qualities, abilities, and capabilities necessary for a lawyer to fulfill professional duties, the basis of which is formed by the values, traditions, and principles of the legal profession.