A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialize in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the law and giving legal opinions.
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to practise there as such. For example, in England and Wales a solicitor is admitted to practise under the provisions of the Solicitors Act 1974. With some exceptions, practising solicitors must possess a practising certificate. There are many more solicitors than barristers in England; they undertake the general aspects of giving legal advice and conducting legal proceedings.
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to the bar". "The bar" is now used as a collective noun for barristers, but literally referred to the wooden barrier in old courtrooms, which separated the often crowded public area at the rear from the space near the judges reserved for those having business with the court. Barristers would sit or stand immediately behind it, facing the judge, and could use it as a table for their briefs.
The Postgraduate Certificate in Laws is an intensive one-year, full-time professional legal qualification programme in Hong Kong. It allows graduates to proceed to legal training in order to qualify to practice as either a barrister or a solicitor in Hong Kong. The "LL." of the abbreviation for the certificate is from the genitive plural legum. The programme is similar to the Legal Practice Course or the Bar Professional Training Course in England and Wales, or the Certificate in Legal Practice (Malaysia) in Malaysia which focuses heavily on practical and procedural issues in legal practice, unlike a first degree in law.
The Common Professional Examination/Postgraduate Diploma in Law (CPE/PGDL) is a postgraduate law course in England and Wales taken by non-law graduates wishing to become either a solicitor or barrister in England and Wales. It is being replaced by the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) which was introduced on 1 September 2021.
The Legal Practice Course (LPC) – also known as the Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice – is a postgraduate course and the final educational stage for becoming a solicitor in England, Wales and Australia. The course is designed to provide a bridge between academic study and training in a law firm. It is a one-year, full-time course, and tuition fees range from £8,000-£17,300 a year. A small proportion of students may have their fees and some living expenses paid for by future employers under a training contract.
TheUniversity of Law is a private for-profit university in the United Kingdom, providing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in law, business, psychology, criminology, policing and computer science. It also provides postgraduate courses in education, and specialist legal training and continuing professional development courses for British barristers, solicitors and trainees; it is the United Kingdom's largest law school. It traces its origins to 1876.
Legal executives are a kind of trained legal professional in certain jurisdictions. They often specialise in a particular area of law. A legal executive usually receives both vocational training and academic training.
Barristers in England and Wales are one of the two main categories of lawyer in England and Wales, the other being solicitors. Barristers have traditionally had the role of handling cases for representation in court, both defence and prosecution.
In the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland, and certain other English common law jurisdictions, a trainee solicitor is a prospective lawyer undergoing professional training at a law firm or an in-house legal team to qualify as a full-fledged solicitor. This period of training is known as a training contract and usually lasts for two years.
Cardiff School of Law and Politics, also known as Cardiff Law School is part of Cardiff University in Cardiff, Wales. It confers LLB and LLM degrees for British and international students.
Legal education in the United Kingdom is divided between the common law system of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and that of Scotland, which uses a hybrid of common law and civil law.
The Graduate Diploma in English and Hong Kong Law (GDEHKL) is a Hong Kong graduate diploma programme that allows students that did not take law as an undergraduate degree to "convert" to law, before going onto a professional qualification course and ultimately legal training.
An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are distinct practising certificates.
The City Law School is a law school in London, England, and it is one of the six schools of City, University of London. The law school traces its origins to the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL), which was founded in 1852. The ICSL became part of City in 2001, and it is now known as The City Law School. Until 1997, the ICSL had a monopoly on the provision of the Bar Vocational Course, the obligatory professional training for would-be barristers in England and Wales, before they commence pupillage.
A training contract is a compulsory period of practical training in a law firm for law graduates before they can qualify as a solicitor in the United Kingdom (UK), the Republic of Ireland, Australia or Hong Kong, or as an advocate and solicitor in Singapore. During the training period, the participant is known as a trainee solicitor or trainee lawyer. Since 2021 this has been replaced by Qualifying Work Experience in the UK.
BPP University Law School is a private, for-profit provider of professional and academic legal education in the United Kingdom and one of the founding schools of BPP University.
Legal education in Hong Kong generally refers to the education of lawyers before entry into practice.
The Bar Professional Training Course or BPTC is a postgraduate course which allows law graduates to be named and practise as barristers in England and Wales. The eight institutes that run the BPTC along with the four prestigious Inns of Court are often collectively referred to as Bar School. Until September 2010, it was known as the Bar Vocational Course, or BVC.
Westminster Law School (WLS) is the law school of the University of Westminster. Located at Little Titchfield Street near Regent Street in central London.
