​Several lawyers demand, in an online petition that has gathered more than 1,800 signatures, to withdraw the bill initiated by PNL senators led by the vice-president of the National Union of Bars of Romania (UNBR), through which the electronic exchange of data between lawyers and clients will be through an IT portal, whose secure communications and cyber security could be provided free of charge by DPS and SRI.

The lawyers claim that “the legislative proposal was not made after consulting lawyers, but was developed by a small group behind closed doors, without the feedback and expertise of a professional body.”

• “After some protests and discussions that arose in the courts or social networks, yesterday, 02/16/2023, UNBR published the text of the question and answer more than 10 days after the submission of the legislative initiative;
• also yesterday an email was sent to the partners of some law firms as part of a mock public consultation aimed at covering up the lack of transparency and integrity of the professional body.’ the undersigned lawyers claim.

Other reasons why the project should be withdrawn:

• An opportunity given to a professional organization with specific responsibilities under the statute and law to make decisions on professional policy in this sense. granting special services and other state bodies unlimited access to the database of the profession.

  Legally and by statute, such a decision of extreme importance to the profession can only be made by the UNBR Congress and cannot be left to the discretion of a limited number of members who may have various instantaneous disadvantages.
  
  We emphasize that in this particular case, the Council of the UNBR acted outside the scope of its powersthe proposed bill is such that it deviates completely from the originally voted resolution and especially from the direct will of the professional body as revealed by a democratic vote at the UNBR 2022 Congress

• Excessive politicization of the project, it is supported by the National Liberal Party. In a situation where the public perception of the profession is negative, and the leadership of the profession systematically ignores this fact, a false impression is created that the lawyer is a profession enslaved by a political party.

  This perception that may be caused by the authorship of this bill, with the majority of signatories from the PNL, initiated without public consultation with the professional body, is contrary to what is stipulated in the statute of the profession, the law is a service of public interest with fundamental attributes regarding “the promotion and protection of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities, in accordance with public and private law”, under conditions of autonomy and independence.

• Although in principle the legal activities listed in the law can be useful for the profession, the excessive centralization of the simplest services, such as the translation of original documents into electronic form, actually limits legal activities and creates prerequisites for the violation of professional rights. secrecy and control and authorization of the day-to-day legal activities of the UNBRD.
• The project practically nationalizes the profession, turning UNBR into a real “ministry of lawyers” and forgets about the fundamental mission of this professional representative forum, namely the promotion of democratic principles and basic rights and freedoms, as well as ethical principles that govern the legal profession, in conditions of autonomy and independence from the state .
• The project is a real threat to the legal profession and a clear attack on the independence of the judiciary. The independence of the judiciary cannot be understood without the independence of the legal profession. The independence and independence of the bar are components of the independence of the judiciary. A power of attorney that is servile or servile is void.

The reaction in the Senate and on Facebook: Extremely damaging to the legal profession

The bill has been collected negative reaction in the Senate where it was published on February 6, 2023, but also on the UNBR Facebook page where several lawyers argue that the draft will be extremely damaging to the legal profession.

• VIEW THE DRAFT LAW AND THE FUND HERE

Among the initiators of the bill: Sebastien Bourduya, Minister of Digitalizationwhich already handles the appearance government cloud – An IT platform that will host central public IT systems in DPS data centers, and cyber security will be provided by SRI.

In addition, the draft law specifies that the E-UNBR portal can migrate / connect to the private government cloud free of charge at the request of the UNBR Council and with the approval of the ADR (Digitization Authority of Romania).

Bohdan Manoleya, a lawyer specializing in online law, also criticizes the projectexecutive director of the Association for Technology and the Internet (ApTI), who warns lawyers that when they turn to a third party (public or private) for IT security services, any interaction between users and any element of the IT system can lead to track or at least analyze.

• “That is why the relationship with any such provider should be based on professionalism, trust and strict confidentiality of contractual provisions. Not because SRI, STS or any private company gives them to you for free. Or that he will stand with his back to the door and not look inside. Otherwise, you will have a Trojan horse in your home.”, – warns lawyer Bohdan Manoleya.

What is the purpose of the draft law: clarification on the UNBR website after the scandal broke out

After the launch of the legislative initiative and the scandal surrounding it, The National Union of Bar Associations of Romania (UNBR) published on its websiteOn 15 February, a series of questions and answers on the bill, concluding with the statement that “Bill B47/2023 on professional services provided by lawyers in electronic format is perfect”.

• “In essence, the draft law provides for the creation of a single point of online interaction – the e-UNBR portal – with other institutions of the judicial system, with parties and state authorities, as well as the creation of a digital identity of a lawyer, with the help of which he will be legitimized in documents and procedures that they are carried out in electronic format, during the performance of professional activities in accordance with the law.
• And last but not least: the e-UNBR portal will create the necessary platform for a lawyer to execute documents or actions in electronic form without the physical presence of the client, which is currently impossible to do in this way,” UNBR notes.

Connecting lawyers to the platform will not be mandatory

UNBR also notes that lawyers will not be forced to log on to the platform.

• “A lawyer can choose to use the communication opportunities offered by the platform or to resort to traditional means. However, the portal will offer certain functions to carry out activities that cannot be carried out using traditional electronic means of communication, for example, certifying documents without the physical presence of the parties, converting documents from physical to electronic form, etc. However, if he chooses a digital person, the lawyer must be responsible certain conditions stipulated by the draft law.
• In addition, in the case of electronic interaction between the lawyer and the client (eg video calls, instant messaging services), the portal is not a mandatory tool, but can be designed solely as a facilitation tool for any lawyer who does not have such capabilities and wants to to use the portal’s capabilities in this sense on the terms that will be established by the Decision of the Council of the UNBRD”, – states the UNBRD.

What does UNBR say about the role of SRI and STS and how they would maintain professional secrecy

The clarifications of the UNBR also state that “according to the project, both ensuring the cyber security of the Research Institute and ensuring the DPS of the communication system of the e-UNBR portal with state authorities and institutions are optional matters, professional political decisions that are tranched by the Council of the UNBR” .

• According to Art. 6, paragraph 8 of the draft, the cyber security of the platform “may” be provided free of charge, at the request of the UNBR, by the Intelligence Service of Romania. It is therefore a matter of professional policy whether UNBR chooses to provide cyber security for free to SRI or pay a private firm. Of course, the decision will be made at the UNBR Council.
• On the other hand, the communication system of the e-UNBR portal with state authorities and institutions “may” be provided free of charge at the request of the UNBR by the Special Service of Telecommunications of the DPS. According to the project, the conditions for providing the communication system are established by the contract concluded between UNBR and DTS.
• – According to Art. 59 par. (1) of Law No. 51/1995, UNBR is a legal entity of public interest, and in this capacity, through the amendments made to Law No. 92/1996, UNBR became the beneficiary of the special telecommunications networks provided by STS.
• The UNBR platform will inevitably have special telecommunication elements to ensure secure communication with public authorities, courts and prosecutors and, finally, to protect professional secrecy. That is why, at the request of UNBR, the e-UNBR platform can take advantage of the protection of communication with DPS.
• Through the e-UNBR platform, confidential and personal data on Romanian citizens, as well as data from public authorities, will be shared. This data will inevitably become the target of some sophisticated cyber-attacks, which can steal said data and partially or temporarily disable the entire platform, as well as other platforms, applications and government services with which they are interconnected.
• According to the Law on Cybersecurity and Protection, preventing and combating APT-type computer attacks at the national level is the responsibility of the Romanian Intelligence Service through the National Cyber-Internet Center.
• The law allows UNBR to use the cyber security services offered by CyberInt free of charge and upon request to protect the data of citizens and the state, as well as the integrity of the Platform as a whole.
• The Cyber ​​Security Act prohibits the SRI from obtaining content data or illegally accessing a computer system outside of the jurisdiction of the court, which is governed by the Criminal Procedure Code and the National Security Act,” UNBR notes.

How will professional secrecy be protected?

• “A lawyer will be able to use electronic identification precisely to protect the confidentiality and security of information about his clients.
• Data access by design involves a structure based on claims and roles (claims@roles), which are only accessible through authentication and under user control.
• Communication channels will necessarily ensure data encryption using dynamically updated certificates.” UNBR also mentions.

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