Source: hukumonline.com
The Indonesian Advocates Association (Peradi) is again innovating to strengthen its existence as a single forum for advocates in Indonesia. The target this time is to bridge the gap between old-school advocates and modern-day advocates through the ‘Young Lawyers’ community.
Consolidation in preparation for the launch was carried out on Tuesday (5/6) in Jakarta, at a friendly event and breaking of the fast together, attended by hundreds of young advocates and a number of figures from the National Leadership Council (DPN) of Peradi.
Driven by young advocates from Peradi, the ‘Young Lawyers’ community will soon be launched as an effort to bridge the gap in interaction, cadreship, and regeneration among Indonesian advocates. Andra Reinhard Pasaribu, one of the representatives of the initiators of ‘Young Lawyers’, explained to hukumonline the background of the idea to establish this community under Peradi.
“45,000 Peradi members, 25,000 of them are in the young category. And every year it will definitely increase. Peradi needs to pay special attention to this great potential for mutual progress,” said the young advocate who owns the ARP&Co. Law Office law firm during an interview. The age range of young advocates mentioned by Andra is between 25 years since the minimum age for appointment as an advocate to 36 years.
According to Andra, the increasing number of advocates throughout Indonesia must be accompanied by efforts to improve the quality of the profession through advocate organizations. The role of Peradi is greatly needed in this effort. Among other things, by helping to create synergy between seniors and juniors among advocates.
Together with fellow young advocates, Andra designed the ‘Young Lawyers’ community which will be under Peradi. This community will later run various programs that specifically target the needs of young advocates in pioneering their careers as advocates.
One of them is connecting young advocates to get guidance, knowledge and experience from their seniors. “So far, it all just happened flowing, we want to eliminate this gap , especially for advocate friends in the regions,” Andra added.
According to Andra, most young advocates will plunge freely in pioneering their careers in the world of advocacy. If they are accepted in large law firms, they are quite lucky because they can get better professional guidance. Unfortunately, most large law firms are only in big cities like Jakarta. “We want there to be an equal distribution of the quality of advocates, starting from the young ones,” he said.
The ‘Young Lawyers’ community will be a medium for exchanging information and training various soft skills to support a career as an advocate. The juniors from today’s advocates, who are very numerous, will be facilitated to learn from the experiences of their seniors. Programmed interaction will be attempted between established senior advocates and young advocates in various regions of Indonesia.
“That way, there will be an equal distribution of the quality of advocates in various regions,” said Andra.
The existence of this community will also reduce the gap of “getting lost” for young advocates. He hopes that the ‘Young Lawyers’ community can bring together young advocates with seniors with integrity to be role models and provide guidance. Thus, the cadreship of advocates will run on the right track according to the spirit of the profession officium nobile . Moreover, the advocate profession is part of law enforcement in Indonesia.
“Most young advocates will copy-paste from the previous office where they studied. If they get a “various” office, they will develop the same method later when they create an office,” he explained.
According to Andra, such a role would not be enough if it were only given to the current Peradi organizational structure. Andra assessed that Peradi branches already have many tasks and work programs. A new, more dynamic approach is needed. “The approach must certainly be different,” he said.
The idea of ​​establishing ‘Young Lawyers’ is also the result of Andra and his colleagues’ comparative research on the experiences of various advocate organizations around the world. They noted that a number of advocate organizations in the world have created special divisions or institutions for their young advocate members.
For example, the Young Lawyers Division at the American Bar Association (USA), the Amsterdam Young Bar Association at the Amsterdam Bar Association (Netherlands), the Young Barristers Committee at the Hong Kong Bar Association (Hong Kong) etc.
The General Chairperson of DPN Peradi, Fauzie Yusuf Hasibuan, welcomed the idea put forward by young advocates in the organization he leads. Fauzie, who was present together with the Chairperson of the DPN Peradi Advisory Board, Otto Hasibuan, and the leadership of DPN Peradi unanimously responded positively to ‘Young Lawyers’.
“Nothing is too late, this is necessary. This approach is also related to international relations and continuing education. We should accommodate it,” said Fauzie when interviewed after the event by hukumonline .
Fauzie said that in the history of advocate organizations in Indonesia, there has never been an innovation like the establishment of ‘Young Lawyers’. “It has been long awaited,” he said.
Fauzie also sees the existence of ‘Young Lawyers’ as the right regeneration media to prepare the successors to the Peradi organization’s management baton. As expressed by the Chairman of the Peradi Advisory Board, Otto Hasibuan, in the welcoming session, “Young advocates will become the pillars of the advocate organization and the next generation of senior advocates,” said Otto.
Young advocates will be accustomed to knowing and being involved in being part of Peradi through this ‘Young Lawyers’. So that they are more familiar with the ins and outs of the Peradi organization when the opportunity opens up to join the DPC to DPN Peradi management.
Until this news was published, there was no certainty about when the official launch of the ‘Young Lawyers’ community would be. Andra said that later the community for today’s advocates would bear the official name Advokat Muda Peradi or Indonesian Young Lawyers . “Soon in the near future,” said Andra.