Questão jurídica principal
Whether a legal trainee may assist a lawyer acting as court-appointed legal aid counsel.
Decisão extraída
Yes. Assistance by a legal trainee is permissible if the lawyer personally handles the case in a substantive sense, remains actively involved, discusses the case with the trainee, and supervises and controls the trainee's procedural acts.
Fundamentação extraída
Because legal aid counsel is a public-law relationship with the state and only licensed attorneys may serve, the lawyer must render the service personally. Personal performance is still satisfied when a trainee working toward admission assists under the lawyer's direction and responsibility, provided the lawyer's involvement is real and not merely formal.