Could you expand a little on what happened in your particular circumstances? The advice "Never accept the word of a lawyer on anything" seems a little controversial, to say the least.

To support his point, I registered a startup in Cyprus a while ago, we made it clear to the lawyer that we had very little money and we needed it as cheaply as possible, but he still had us register for trademark, VAT, and who-knows-what other bells and whistles we never needed. It cost us a few thousand dollars more than if we had to do it ourselves (it was about $50 and filling out two forms to do it ourselves).

When it came to dissolving the company, the lawyer quoted us $3000 to dissolve. Not trusting anyone by that point, I called the companies house and they said that, to dissolve the company, all we had to do is fill out a form at their offices, we did it and we didn't even have to pay a cent.

Many lawyers will give you advice that leads to them getting paid more rather than benefitting you.

Getting advice from the clerk behind the counter is a big mistake. Filing the form may be all that's required from their end, but that may not be all that's required by law.

It sounds like you failed to communicate effectively with your lawyer to get the advice you needed. And that's what it is: advice. You can choose to accept or reject the advice since you are the one who is taking the actions.

On what grounds would I choose to reject it? I'm paying him to give me advice because he's the one who knows how these things work, if I knew what to do I wouldn't need him.

By that logic, in the end it all comes down on the GP's "never accept the word of a lawyer on anything".

If it is that blatant then follow up with the relevant professional association that licenses lawyers wherever you are - if there was misconduct then you may well be due some money in recompense.