A Simple Guide to Legal Professions - Part 1

English: Statesmen No. 616: Sir J Rigby QC MP. Caption read "Mr Solicitor". (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many of those who do not work in the legal professions here in the UK often use the terms lawyer and solicitor interchangeably without every truly understanding the distinction between the two concepts. One might refer to their divorce lawyer and/or their divorce solicitor when describing the same role. This two part article therefore aims to clarify what the actual distinction is between the two titles as well as explain how the concepts of barristers and attorneys fit into the equation. The first instalment focuses on lawyers and solicitors in particular.

Lawyer
The term lawyer is a generic name for a legal professional. In the UK the term is retained for this use to describe any individual that is qualified to practise the law, although in Scotland it’s technical use is reserved for solicitors and advocates (see below) only, whilst in some other countries it can also be restricted to describe specific legal professions. All UK lawyers fall into the two general categories of legal professional, solicitors or barristers/advocates.

The responsibilities of a lawyer can include advocacy (legal representation/argument) in courts or administrative hearings, criminal prosecutions or defence representation, the drafting of court documents, providing advice during legal proceedings or within the day-to-day operations of an organisation, conducting legal negotiations, the agreeing and drawing up of contracts, conveyancing (facilitating property transactions) and probate work (administering the estate of deceased individuals). Depending on the type of lawyer and the responsibilities they have they can operate as individual practitioners, within legal partnerships or as in-house employees within businesses or organisations.

Solicitor
A British solicitor is, therefore, a type of lawyer. Solicitors can cover a broad range of the practise areas mentioned above, but in general the distinction with barristers is made on the fact that solicitors primarily deal with litigation rather than advocacy (the realm of barristers). That is they liaise directly with their clients, providing advice, preparing documentation, processing their instructions and making court applications for example. A solicitor also has the capacity to act as a client’s attorney in that they can legally represent client in legal proceedings and carry out litigation on their behalf. Acting in their stead they have the authority to perform tasks such as the signing of documents or performing negotiations with opposing parties and their legal representation.

Solicitors can however take on advocacy roles in the lower courts (i.e., Coroner, County, Magistrate, Sheriff & Tribunal Courts). What’s more, since the 1990s, the boundaries of distinction with barristers have been blurred further with the introduction of the role of a solicitor advocate who is also permitted to represent a client in the higher courts - previously a privilege reserved for barristers only. The relatively new solicitor advocate role is granted based upon specific qualifications and training and the nature and extent of their previous roles and experience within the profession.

The second instalment of this article provides further explanation as to the idea of advocacy and how that relates to the role of barristers, as well as the concept of an attorney in the UK legal system.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012
To find out more about the services offered by law firms and their professionals you can visit Clinical Negligence Solicitors London.