State lawyers play a key role in defending the interests of the State of Spain, whatever the specific area of law: advisory, management, administrative, financial, labor. As civil servants with positions in the public administration, state lawyers, also known as state attorneys, act in the interests of their client: the government.
Functions of the State Attorney
Professionals in the national corps of state attorneys can perform various functions depending on the case they are working on or which ministry they are representing. Upon passing the state bar exams, one usually has to choose the specialty or branch of public law. Specializations include:
- Administrative law
- International public law
- Constitutional law
- Criminal law
- Tax law
- Labor law
In general terms, however, here are some of the main functions of a state attorney:
- They represent and defend the national interest before any court of competent jurisdiction and in preliminary and extrajudicial proceedings.
- They deal with human rights guarantees in any international court or tribunal in this matter and provide legal assistance to Spain.
- They request advice on EU law from the institutions and any arbitration process between both parties (EU and Spain).
- They create study groups and conduct discussions and debates to analyze national or international legal matters.
- They allocate and manage the budget of the State Legal Service.
Requirements to become a State Attorney.
To become a State Attorney, the path is quite long, and sometimes hard, because it is a very demanding profession. First of all, you must have a corresponding degree in law. After obtaining the necessary degree, like any position in the public administration, you have to sit and pass a competitive examination.
To give you an idea of how complicated it is, only one third of the applicants who apply for the state attorney’s competitive examinations pass them. It takes an average of 5 years to prepare for them since you have to study 455 topics in depth.
If you would like to prepare the oppositions to become a state lawyer, there are some requirements, which are the following:
- To have Spanish nationality.
- To have a degree in Law.
- To be older than 18 years old and not to have reached retirement age.
- Not be incapacitated or disqualified from practicing law or holding public office.
The test consists of five exercises. The first two are focused on purely legal matters. The third exercise consists of a placement test in English or French. Finally, the last two examinations are writing exercises: the fourth exercise consists of writing an opinion and the fifth exercise consists of an essay on a legal subject of interest to the Public Administration of Justice.