Andorran Bar Association Faces First Contested Election for Leadership

The Andorran Bar Association will hold its first contested election for dean and board positions on March 2, with members able to vote openly by selecting nine leaders from 18 candidates across two rival slates.

Josep Antoni Silvestre's "Pel Canvi" slate, mainly comprising criminal lawyers involved in guard duties, registered its candidacy with current dean Sònia Baixench shortly after 3 p.m. on Thursday. The group confirmed all candidates meet statutory requirements for seniority, eligibility, and compatibility. Under article 72.1 h of the professional regulations, the dual candidacies trigger open voting: electors must choose candidates for specific roles while forming ballots with exactly nine names.

Silvestre is running for dean, supported by Dory Garcia Fernández as vice-dean candidate, Tània dos Santos for secretary, Oriol Giró for treasurer, and vocals Melanie Cachafeiro, Alba Cervós, David Monclús, Katia Carneiro, and Jordi Segura. The platform demands "real change" in governance, prioritising small and medium-sized firms amid claims of lost institutional respect toward lawyers and strained ties with the justice administration. Key pledges include establishing a prison oversight judge, publishing significant rulings on fundamental rights, modernising internal operations, expanding training in AI and data protection, reforming guard-duty rotations for fair and prompt pay, promoting work-life balance and digital disconnection, and increasing transparency via disciplinary statistics and regular financial accounts. Their slogan, "For a free and independent practice," calls for greater member participation and a stronger institutional voice.

Margarida Marticella's continuity slate, presented Wednesday as an extension of Baixench's board, positions the current treasurer for dean, with Eric Alguacil as vice-dean hopeful, Sílvia Estrada for secretary, Concepció Criado for treasurer, and vocals Elsa Bucquet, Gerard Farré, Catalina Llufriu, Gal·la Ballesté, and Anton Borrell. Four members—Estrada, Criado, Llufriu, and Borrell—served on the outgoing board, joined by newcomers from established firms. The group emphasises service, listening, and transparency to build cohesion and address challenges through unity. Priorities feature stronger court relations for agile justice, fixing technical issues in the electronic court file system via unified access standards and tribunal coordination, improving guard-duty and public defender rotations with better organisation and pay to ensure access to justice, confronting disruptive individual litigants, and updating outdated lawyer advertising rules. It enjoys implicit backing from former deans including Baixench, Manuel Pujadas, Jean-Michel Rascagneres, and Sophie Bellocq.

The surprise "rupturist" challenge has heightened tensions, exposing internal discontent over transparency, guard-duty pay delays, poor small-firm representation, and frosty judicial relations. Silvestre recently criticised the board on social media for not publishing full judicial resolutions. The open voting system—never used before—could yield a mixed board, with voters picking between slates for each role and five vocals from ten. The current board must now organise the unprecedented polls ahead of Monday's general assembly.