Articles
28 June 2025in Nascer do SOL OPINION | The professional secrecy of lawyers and the erosion of fundamental guarantees

 A lawyer's professional secrecy is not an obstacle to justice. It is a condition of its existence.

You learn a basic rule at law school: a lawyer's professional secrecy is sacred - almost as much as a religious confession or the recipe for pastéis de Belém. In the froth of everyday life, lawyers are sometimes surprised by leaks of information protected by professional secrecy. When confronted with confidential information they receive, the correct question should be whether the material is protected by secrecy, not whether it can be given a good headline.

Of course, there is legal material that can be tempting, such as the urge to access the email exchange between the lawyer and his client, which reveals the secrets contained in the procedural strategy.

The publication of confidential documents in the media raises questions about the limits of freedom of information and the principle of the legality of evidence. When information leaks into the public sphere, the temptation is immediately to favour “transparency”. But do the means justify the end, even if they are illegitimate?

Opinion article by Bruno Melo Alves in the opinion column ‘Burden of Proof’ in the newspaper Nascer do Sol.

Article by: Bruno Melo Alves