LEGAL PROTECTION FOR ADVOCATES AS WORKERS IN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS WITH LAW OFFICES IN INDONESIA
Keywords:
advocate, employment relations, legal protection, employment, professional independenceAbstract
Normatively, advocates are positioned as a free and independent profession based on Law Number 18 of 2003 concerning Advocates. However, in practice, many advocates, especially junior advocates or associates, work within the organizational structure of a law firm by receiving a fixed salary, subject to orders, case targets, and supervision, thus fulfilling the elements of an employment relationship in the form of work, wages, and orders as known in labor law. This condition creates a dualism in the legal status of advocates and a normative vacuum that results in the failure to fulfill employment protections such as wage certainty, social security, and protection against termination of employment. This research is a normative legal research with a statutory, conceptual, and case approach, using primary, secondary, and tertiary legal materials analyzed qualitatively through legal interpretation. The results of the study indicate that legally advocates working in a law firm can be qualified as professional workers as long as they fulfill the elements of an employment relationship, without eliminating their professional independence. Therefore, a hybrid legal protection model is needed that combines the characteristics of the legal profession and employment, including certainty of legal relationship status, fair written employment agreements, protection of economic rights, social security, guarantees of professional independence, and a special dispute resolution mechanism. Such arrangements are crucial for achieving legal certainty, justice, and a balanced relationship between advocates and law firms, while also maintaining the integrity of the legal profession within the judicial system
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