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 Government Legal Department is the largest in-house legal organisation in the United Kingdom's Government Legal Profession.
The Attorney General of Ireland is a constitutional officer who is the legal adviser to the Government and is therefore the chief law officer of the State. The attorney general is not a member of the Government but does participate in cabinet meetings when invited and attends government meetings. The current attorney general is Rossa Fanning, SC.
The Law Officers are the senior legal advisors to His Majesty's Government and devolved executives of the United Kingdom. They are variously referred to as the Attorney General, Solicitor General or Advocate General depending on seniority and geography - though other terms are also in use, such as the Counsel General for Wales. Law Officers in these roles are distinguished by being political appointees, while also being bound by the duties of independence, justice and confidentiality among the other typical professional commitments of lawyers. These roles do not have any direct oversight of prosecutions nor do they directly lead or influence criminal investigations. This is a distinguishing factor between Law Officers and the State Attorneys General of the United States or US Attorney General.
The Government Legal Profession (GLP), formerly the Government Legal Service, is an umbrella group comprising around two thousand qualified lawyers working as civil servants in around thirty UK Government departments.
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.
Sir Paul Christopher Jenkins, KCB, QC (Hon), was a British barrister.
Dame Juliet Louise Wheldon DCB, QC was a British civil servant, latterly the legal adviser to Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England. From July 2000 until 2006 she was the first British woman to serve as Treasury Solicitor and Head of the Government Legal Service. In 2008 she was named as one of The Times Law 100.
Michael James Tomlinson-Mynors is a British politician serving as Solicitor General for England and Wales since September 2022. He served as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household from July to September 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Dorset and North Poole since 2015. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Deputy Chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) from 20 November 2016 until 19 March 2018.
Lucy Claire Frazer is a British politician and barrister serving as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since February 2023. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for South East Cambridgeshire since 2015.
Sir Jonathan Guy Jones is a British lawyer, appointed in March 2014 and serving until his resignation on 8 September 2020 as HM Procurator General, Treasury Solicitor and Head of the Government Legal Service, and so the Permanent Secretary of the Government Legal Department.
Peter James Reginald Fish CB is a former senior British government lawyer, who served from April 2014 to 2021 as the Director-General for Legal affairs at the Home Office. In each of his most recent three postings since 2009 he has immediately followed Jonathan Guy Jones, who now serves as HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor; first as the Director-General of the Attorney General's Office, then as Deputy Treasury Solicitor, and now at the Home Office.
Alfred Clive Lawrence, CBE, commonly known by his middle name, was a British barrister, who was HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor from 1923 until his death in 1926.
Sir Thomas James Barnes was an English lawyer, who served as HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor between 1934 and 1953.
Marilynne Morgan CB is a barrister and retired top civil servant. After studying history at Bedford College, London, she joined the Foreign Office, before being called by Middle Temple in 1972. She held a succession of posts in the government legal service, rising to be Director-General of the Law and Special Policy Group at the Department for Work and Pensions. In this role, she was one of the most senior civil servants reporting directly to the Permanent Secretary, in the largest UK government department with over 100,000 employees at the time.
Sir John Bilsland Bailey was a British solicitor and public servant.
Michael Lawrence Saunders, CB, QC was a British lawyer and public servant.
Dame Rowena Collins Rice,, the Honourable Mrs Justice Collins Rice, is a British High Court judge and former civil servant.
A permanent under-secretary of state, known informally as a permanent secretary, is the most senior civil servant of a ministry in the United Kingdom, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis. Similar offices, often employing different terms, exist in many other Westminster-style systems and in some other governments. In the United States, the equivalent position is a Deputy Secretary of an executive department, though British permanent secretaries are career civil servants.
