State Council requests National Bar Council to publish directory of open data lawyers

In the event of the CNB’s refusal to publish the national directory of lawyers referred to in Article 21-1 of the Law of 31 December 1971, the association brought an action before the tribunal administratif de Paris (Administrative Court, Paris), which dismissed its application. The association then decided to bring an action before the Conseil d’État.

By a judgment delivered on 27 September 2022, the Conseil d’État (Council of State) recalls, first of all, that, since the lawyer’s directory is a communicable administrative document, the Conseil national des barreaux (CNB) is required to make it available in electronic form in an open standard that is easily reusable and exploitable by an automated processing system within the meaning of Article L.300-4 of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration.

The Conseil d’État then states that the placing online of a search engine on its website enabling the public to search the national directory of lawyers does not enable the CNB to fulfill its obligation to publish that directory online.

Finally, while the directory contains personal data, the Conseil d’État considers that that directory constitutes ‘an administrative document which may be communicated to any person who so requests and which, being necessary for informing the public about the conditions for the organization and exercise of the regulated profession of lawyer, may be placed online without being subjected to processing which makes it impossible to re-identify persons, in accordance with the provisions of Article D. 312-1-3 of the same Code’.

Consequently, the Conseil d’État orders the CNB to make the national directory of lawyers available online, in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration.