Legal profession

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Legal profession is a profession in which legal professionals study, develop and apply law. Usually, there is a requirement for someone choosing a career in law to first pass a bar examination after obtaining a law degree or some other form of legal education such as an apprenticeship in a law office.

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It is difficult to generalize about the structure of the profession, because

While in civil law countries there are usually distinct clearly defined career paths in law, such as judge, in common law jurisdictions there tends to be one legal profession, and it is not uncommon, for instance, that a requirement for a judge is several years of practising law privately.

Origins

In Ancient Athens, despite being the first centralized democracy, the profession of lawyer did not exist, there were only accusers and jurists in the courts, and trials lasted until the time of the clepsydra ended. The office of legal representative did not begin to exist until Ancient Rome, and with the arrival of the Middle Ages the profession went into decline until the Early modern age.

Judge

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Historically, this has been the first legal specialization. In civil law countries, this is often a lifelong career. In common law legal system, on the other hand, judges are recruited from practising lawyers.

Lawyer, advocate, attorney

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Practising law means advising and representing clients as a private practitioner or in a law firm. In most countries, law graduates need to undergo some sort of apprenticeship, membership in a professional organization and a licence.

The name for this profession is lawyer or attorney in most of the English-speaking world, and advocate in many other countries. The name for this profession in canon law is canonist or canon lawyer .

In civil law countries, but also some common law jurisdictions there is one Law society for all lawyers who want to provide services to the public. But in the United Kingdom and some of its former colonies, there are two quite separate kinds of lawyers providing legal services to the public.

Solicitor

Solicitors advise clients, draft contracts for them and represent them in lower courts of law.

Barrister

Barristers, also called counsels, are court specialists, who traditionally do not come into contact with their lay clients, but are instructed by solicitors. There is only about a 10% of barristers in most common law jurisdictions.

Prosecutor

The prosecutors are the lawyers who defend the state of the country. In USA, being a federation, has more than one state in which it is represented by an district attorney and his assistants who represent each of the state districts. In the Kingdom he is known as law officers of the Crown These are headed by a Attorney General, unless it's private.

Jurist

This term is rare and formal in English and can be used to refer to an expert on law, a legal scholar, or a judge. In other words, people who study, organize, teach, and thereby also create law, often working at universities, can be called jurists in formal English. In civil law countries, their role is greater because they draft codes, which are major laws that govern whole areas of law. In common law countries, the creation and interpretation of law has traditionally been the domain of judges.

Paralegal

A paralegal or legal assistant, according to one definition, is "a person, qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.” [1]

CILEX Lawyers

Like solicitors, CILEX [2] Lawyers advise clients, draft contracts for them and represent them in lower courts of law.

CILEX Lawyers will have taken a vocational route to qualification (the CILEX Professional Qualification - CPQ) and unlike solicitors are qualified to practise solely in their chosen area of specialism.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrister</span> Lawyer specialised in court representation in certain jurisdictions

A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the law and giving legal opinions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawyer</span> Practitioner of law

A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, solicitor, legal executive, or public servant — with each role having different functions and privileges. Working as a lawyer generally involves the practical application of abstract legal theories and knowledge to solve specific problems. Some lawyers also work primarily in advancing the interests of the law and legal profession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jurist</span> Legal scholar or academic, a professional who studies, teaches and develops law

A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the United Kingdom the term "jurist" is mostly used for legal academics, while in the United States the term may also be applied to a judge. With reference to Roman law, a "jurist" is a jurisconsult (iurisconsultus).

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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.

A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence. The word bar is derived from the old English/European custom of using a physical railing to separate the area in which court business is done from the viewing area for the general public.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paralegal</span> Paraprofessional who assists qualified lawyers in their legal work

A paralegal, also known as a legal assistant, or paralegal specialist is a legal professional who performs tasks that require knowledge of legal concepts but not the full expertise of a lawyer with a license to practice law. The market for paralegals is broad, including consultancies, companies that have legal departments or that perform legislative and regulatory compliance activities in areas such as environment, labor, intellectual property, zoning, and tax. Legal offices and public bodies also have many paralegals in support activities using other titles outside of the standard titles used in the profession. There is a diverse array of work experiences attainable within the paralegal field, ranging between internship, entry-level, associate, junior, mid-senior, and senior level positions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bar (law)</span> Legal profession as an institution

In law, the bar is the legal profession as an institution. The term is a metonym for the line that separates the parts of a courtroom reserved for spectators and those reserved for participants in a trial such as lawyers.

A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction.

Legal executives are a form of trained legal professional in certain jurisdictions. They often specialise in a particular area of law. The training that a Legal Executive undertakes usually includes both vocational training and academic qualifications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barristers in England and Wales</span> One of the two main categories of lawyer in England and Wales

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chartered Institute of Legal Executives</span> Professional body for Chartered Legal Executives in England and Wales

The CILEX is the professional body for over 20,000 paralegals, CILEX Lawyers and other legal professionals in England and Wales. It provides a cost-effective vocational route to qualification via the CILEX Professional Qualification (CPQ). the CPQ opens a route of entry for anyone who is looking to have a successful legal profession, whether they have a degree or equivalent qualification/experience or not.

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 Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is the regulatory body for solicitors in England and Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the legal profession</span> Aspect of history

The legal profession has its origins in ancient Greece and Rome. Although in Greece it was forbidden to take payment for pleading the cause of another, the rule was widely flouted. After the time of Claudius, lawyers could practise openly, although their remuneration was limited. A skilled and regulated profession developed gradually during the late Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire: advocates acquired more status, and a separate class of notaries (tabelliones) appeared.

Attorney at law or attorney-at-law, usually abbreviated in everyday speech to attorney, is the preferred term for a practising lawyer in certain jurisdictions, including South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and the United States. In Canada, it is used only in Quebec as the English term for avocat. The term has its roots in the verb to attorn, meaning to transfer one's rights and obligations to another.

The Legal profession in England and Wales is divided into two distinct branches under the legal system, those of solicitors and barristers. Other legal professions in England and Wales include acting as a judge, as the Attorney-General, as the Solicitor-General, or as the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Anton-Hermann Chroust was a German-American jurist, philosopher and historian, from 1946 to 1972, professor of law, philosophy, and history, at the University of Notre Dame. Chroust was best known for his 1965 book The Rise of the Legal Profession in America.

The history of the American legal profession covers the work, training, and professional activities of lawyers from the colonial era to the present. Lawyers grew increasingly powerful in the colonial era as experts in the English common law, which was adopted by the colonies. By the 21st century, over one million practitioners in the United States held law degrees, and many others served the legal system as justices of the peace, paralegals, marshalls, and other aides.

References

  1. "Current ABA Definition of Legal Assistant/Paralegal," American Bar Ass'n, at .
  2. "CILEX". Chartered Institute of Legal Executives.

Further reading