One Million Lawyers In The Tropics

Two years ago, Brazil reached the landmark number of one million lawyers, and this number keeps increasing as business is brisk in this profession.  It is estimated that Brazil has one lawyer for every 200 inhabitants, more than the United States which tallies one lawyer for each 244 citizens (1.34 million lawyers in 2018 according to the American Bar Association).  Currently, Israel tops the list with one lawyer per 139 residents.  Brazil has more law schools than anywhere else in the world, and as a result 0.5% of the Brazilian population has a law degree.  The country is also more litigious than the USA; however, it is Brazil’s above average and pervasive corruption level that is stimulating young people to become lawyers.  Since 2005, the escalation of political scandals has increased the profession’s attractiveness and workload.  In the current period of economic morosité, and unemployment, law firms are still recruiting.

Brazil brings to mind Slavoj Žižek’s famous, or infamous, quote “Let us not blame people and their attitude: the problem is not corruption or greed; the problem is the system that pushes you to be corrupt” (2012).  In Brazil, many are just too happy to oblige!  The country is a fertile ground for white collar crime and frivolous lawsuits.  The Brazilian justice system is complex and filled with loopholes, and the rich criminals’ lawyers take advantage of this.  Because legal precedents and due process of law are routinely overlooked, the judiciary tends to be inconsistent and unpredictable.  The result is a low, clogged, baffling and undemocratic sentencing process, if sentencing actually takes place.  In 2018, an estimated 80 million pending lawsuits were chocking the judiciary system! 

                                                         A normal day in a Brazilian judge's office 

This congestion is hard to justify since Brazil spends a whopping 1.3 percent of its GDP on its judiciary branch, the second highest budget per inhabitant in the world! The litigious United States only spends 0.14%.  In Brazil, judges are too few and too well paid!  Ordinary Brazilians are fuming over financial privileges, and the super salaries too many judges receive.  It has been reported that in one month, many judges pocket more than the annual salary of a Western European judge! 

To dodge their monstrous bureaucracy, Brazilians have developed an unique, sui generis way of doing things, it is called dar um jeito or jeitinho, in other words cutting corners to one’s benefit.  There is always a way around a problem, or a complication such as laws, orders, rules, etc. These petty acts of corruption often lead to fines, law suits and trials.  After 20 years of military dictatorship, the 1988 Constitution has created rights and expectations, and Brazil became a country of eager litigants.   Many of my friends have a pending law suit, or went through the process.  Lawsuits usually go on for years because of wrangling, and appeals; the plaintiff pays lots of money in lawyers’ fees and the tax payers sustain the process.

There is one example close to me: the legal wrangling between the management of my condominium building, and a group of unsatisfied owners, of which I am part.  The by-laws of our condominium are pretty straight forward but the management wants to bend them to undertake an illegal construction.  Our group is against it, and has recruited a law firm to protect our interests.  The management’s lawyer does his very best to provide a contrary interpretation of the by-laws.  Our group may eventually win, but meanwhile we are ludicrously footing the dueling lawyers ‘bill! 

However, it is not this excessive judicialization that gets the law students revved up, but the challenge and excitement of hype criminal investigations.  It all started in 2005 when the mensalẩo scandal broke, and nearly toppled the government.  It was a vote-buying scheme set up by President Lula’s party to bribe a number of congressmen to vote for government legislations.  The subsequent investigation exposed a number of A-list politicians who became deep pockets defendants in need of elite white-collar crime lawyers.  Many were locked up in preventive detention (perp walk included) and defense lawyers had their job cut out with fees spiraling upwards.

For procurers and upper crust lawyers, the mensalẩo scandal was a dry run for Operation Car Wash, or Lava jato in Portuguese.  Car Wash is the mother of all corruption scandals, and has become a metaphor for judicial activism against institutionalized corruption.  The bribery investigation burst into the open in 2014.  The investigation revealed that top-level executives of the state-owned oil company Petrobras, and their contractors colluded with government politicians to inflate Petrobras’ contracts, defrauding the company of billions of dollars.  So far, the procurers and the judges have investigated 232 people, made 166 arrests, indicting 179, and convicted 93.   Sixteen construction companies were involved in the scheme.  This tally is for Brazil alone, as the scheme spilled over to many Latin American and African countries. 

Besides, a number of unconnected corruption investigations are taking place.  Many defendants are state governments’ officials and executives from renowned corporations.  With potential clients in preventive detention with little scope for bargaining, the lawyers are able to set their own fees.  Not only has Car Wash created extra work for Brazilian law firms, but its international spillover has brought foreign firms into the protected Brazilian market altering its culture for good.  Because law schools churn out too many mediocre graduates, a great proportion of lawyers toil in obscure jobs; however, those who can get their teeth into the hype bribery investigations enjoy a glamourous life on the fast lane.  All in all, Brazilian lawyers have a bright future, thanks to legislators who keep voting new laws.  As the say goes: “More laws create more law breakers.”

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws." Cornelius Tacitus , 95 AD.