LEGAL COUNSELING
ROMMEL L. VERECIO
JD-4A, Student
CHAPTER II
WORK TASKS OF LAWYERS
Law practice may be classified into
the following tasks undertaken by a lawyer
in the pursuit of his profession, to wit:
A. Advice
B. Negotiation and conciliation
C. Drafting
D. Litigation
E. Financing
F. Property Management
G. Acting as Executor or
Trustee
H. Specialization
A. Advice
Giving of advice is the task lawyers
most commonly perform, and whatever
else they do for clients is almost invariably
accompanied by advice. The advice may
center on the information and probable
results based on the following additional
consideration such as:
1) anticipated reactions of courts
other administrative agencies official or
quasi-judicial bodies;
2) Probative value of evidence;
3) Desires and resources of clients
and other parties; and
4) Alternative courses of action.
 Alternative Courses of Action
In giving advice, the lawyer should
program any or all of the following
alternatives:
1. Indicate his preference as to
which course of action should be followed
by the client;
2. Proceed to argue persuasively as
to why the client should adopt this course
of action; or
3. He may try to avoid showing any
preference at all on which course should be
taken, merely posing available alternatives
in as neutral terms as possible.
 Sidelights of Advisory Job
The lawyer who does his advisory
job well makes the law and legal processes
meaningful to clients. In terms
understandable to laymen, he should
endeavor to explain the applicability and
probable impact of the substantive law and
legal doctrine involved.
 Non-Legal Advice
Not infrequently lawyers are asked
to give advice having little or nothing to do
with legal doctrine or law-making or
adjudicating bodies. Lawyers who are
holding positions in government and
business often becomes trusted
counselors on a wide range of family,
business, administrative and political
problems. As long as the performance of
these acts do not prejudice the interest of
the public or are done outside of office
hours, there is nothing wrong in the act of
government lawyers who earn extra
income outside of their official functions.
 Role Conflict in Giving Advice
In advising the clients, the lawyer
can often run into role conflict giving rise to
the following questions:
a.) When should the lawyer be the
client’s servant and when his
critic?
b.) To what extent should he
identify with the client’s goal
and follow his expressed
wishes?
c.) To what extent should he
question them?
1|Page
  Lawyer’s Ultimate Word
The best approach in dealing with this
particular client is to define right upon the
acceptance of the employment or before
giving any advice, the extent of the client’s
role. He should be made to feel that as a
lawyer his wishes can be followed insofar
as they appear to be legally feasible and
not collide with the lawyers oath.
B. Negotiation and Conciliation
 Essential factors in negotiation
One of those most common lawyer tasks
is negotiation, the dealing with another in
an effort to reach an accord between the
client and this other person.
The essential elements in
negotiation are:
a) Proposals to the other side
b) Counter-proposals
c) Reconsiderations
d) Compromise
e) Advice to clients
f) Client instructions to counsel
 Parties to negotiation
There usually are only two sides
involved in a negotiation, and usually all
exchanges between two sides handled by
but two persons, one on each side, with
one or both of these persons frequently
being lawyers. But negotiations may
involve more than two sides or parties, and
negotiation efforts for any side may be
made by a team of persons. The client and
his lawyer are a common team.
 Mechanics of negotiation
Negotiation usually occurs in a face
to face conferences, but some or all
exchanges may be accomplished by
telephone or correspondence, In some
cases a key figure in the negotiation,
perhaps a lawyer, may go to each party
individually and secure commitments,
thereby piecing together an agreement
without the other participants meeting
face to face. Lawyers may enter
negotiations at any stage. Some clients
want their lawyers to participate at the
inception of dealings, others wait until
after the essential terms of a bargain have
been agreed upon.
One important thing to remember
when negotiating for a client is that the
lawyer must be equipped with a special
power of attorney before sitting at the
negotiating table. This is so because the
essence of lawyer and client relationship is
likened to that of agent and principal in a
contract of agency. As aptly ruled, a
compromise agreement without a special
authority from the client renders the
judgment based on a compromise
agreement null and void.
Most common subject of negotiations are:
closings, coverage of title, insurance
policies, eminent domain awards, conflicts
between real estate brokers over sales
commissions, mortgages, real estate tax
adjustments, lease terminations, tenant
relocations and settlement of litigation.
Effective negotiation techniques:
1. Speeding up litigation process
Delay is one of the effective
techniques in negotiations designed to
increase on the other side and to act as
deprivation, at least before the case
reaches out.
2. Concealment of Facts
 Conceal from the other side the
least favorable terms that their
clients are willing to accept.
3. Shifting negotiation technique
A negotiation technique yielding
wondrous results when matters are not
doing well, is that of attempting a shift of
negotiations to the final decision maker or
someone close to him, going over the head
of the subordinate with whom the
negotiator has been dealing.
2|Page
 Special Power of Attorney

(Article 1878 of the Civil Code)

Special Powers of attorney are necessary in

the following cases:

1. To make such payments as are not

usually considered as acts of
administration;
2. To effect novation which put an end
to obligations already in existence at
the time of the agency was
constituted;
3. To compromise, to submit questions
to arbitration, to renounce the rights
to appeal from a judgment, to waive
objections to the venue of an action
or to abandon a prescription already
acquired;
4. To waive any obligations
gratuitously;
5. To enter into any contract by which
the ownership of an immovable is
transmitted or acquired either
gratuitously or for a valuable
consideration;
6. To make gifts, except customary
ones for charity or those made to
employees in the business managed
by the agent;
7. To loan or borrow money, unless the
latter act be urgent and
indispensable for the preservation of
the things, which are under
administration;
8. To lease any real property to another
person for more than one year;
9. To bind the principal to render some
service without compensation;
10. To bind the principal in a contract of
partnership;
11. To obligate the principal as a
guarantor or surety;
12. To create or convey real rights over
immovable property;
13. To accept or repudiate an
inheritance;
14. To ratify or recognize obligations
contracted before the agency;
15. Any other act of strict dominion.

3|Page