The article discusses the issues related to determining the legal nature of disciplinary liability of legal sub-professions. The author believes that constitutional directives are decisive in determining the legal nature of disciplinary liability. The article presents the evolution of the statutory regulation of legal sub-professions from the pre-war period onwards and the gradual departure from internal liability towards instruments derived from criminal law. The author concludes that the disciplinary liability of lawyers is now of a criminal nature within the meaning of constitutional standards and that it is necessary to adjust the disciplinary proceedings to them.