The contractual relationships between attorneys and their clients: concerning the question of their legal status

Abstract

Since the 1920’s, both the Supreme Court and the majority of legal opinions have supported the classification of the private-law relationships between attorneys and their clients, as a general rule, as service contracts, as defined in Art. 1544 Spanish Civil Code and governed by Arts. 1583 to 1587 of the same code. In spite of this, there are important reasons, in our opinion, that make it more accurate to understand these relationships, in ordinary cases, as an instance of a mandate. Moreover, although case law has supported the theory of locatio conductio operarum - without failing to apply the mandate, or its regulations, to certain specific cases – in recent rulings the Supreme Court has asserted that the relationships in question normally develop within the framework of a management contract, which case law itself constructs, in a not completely satisfactory manner, using elements taken from the service contract and from the mandate, and hence the question is not undisputed by any means.