The birth of the first professional associations led to the Decree of 13 December 1803, as recorded by Lorenzo Arrazola in the Enciclopedia Española de Derecho y Administración o Teatro de Legislación de España e Indias, which affirms, in the Historical Introduction, and referring to the XVII century that “The limitations regarding the legal position and the circumstances of the agents had been increasingly growing . The trendy fashion of the guilds, that were so buoyant in the last centuries and the examples of the associations of notaries, solicitors and lawyers, on the one hand, and the anger against the consequent abuses against the freedom of the exercise of the profession, on the other, gave rise to the project of reducing the number of solicitors and demanding guarantees and authorization to become one of them.”

King Carlos II, through a Decree dated 25 August 1668, and another one dated 1 December 1675, ordered that monks and priests could not act as agents or solicitors, nor they could defend anybody before the courts except themselves or their relatives. That situation was quite usual for that time .

A more restrictive approach was taken by Felipe V, who on January 10, 1707, through a Disposition, prohibited the exercise of solicitor and business agent unless a special royal permit was issued. But, as in so many occasions, the regulation of the profession was never drafted, which in the long run allowed professional intrusion once again.

Therefore, King Carlos III in the Royal Order of November 25, 1764, granted in San Lorenzo (Ley 1, Título XVII, Libro I de la Novísima Recopilación de las Leyes de España) would insist again on the incompatibility of monks and priests with the exercise of this profession.

Article IX of this Law indicates that “The Orders issued by the Nunciature, Title IV, Book II, and the chapters dedicated to abbreviators, the secretary of justice, the archivist, the commission judges, the secretary of briefs and his officer, the barristers and receivers and to the number of receivers and barristers, agents and solicitors, do not directly interest the members of the society, nor have anything to do with the nation and, consequently, do not correspond to the General Code. Be it duly published, and separately printed, for the benefit of those who have an obligation to know them or those who, for particular reasons, want to acquire this news “.