ABSTRACT
The work that lawyers do and the procedural systems in which they function influence their ethics and ideals. French procedural systems and limitations on practice manifest just such an interrelationship with avocat rules and ideologies. From at least the sixteenth century until very recently, and throughout the formative period of their rules, avocats did almost none of the office practice that forms the heart of legal practice in the United States. Various rules helped keep avocats out of drafting, negotiating and advising in business matters. The entry of the avocats into the commercial courts likewise shows the interplay between the profession's own values, restraining rules, and competition with other professions. The turn of many avocats toward business practice is threatening the ideals that accompanied traditional litigation practice. French criminal procedure has encouraged avocats to prize independence from the state and to see the bar as an intermediary between state and people.
