The profession of a lawyer the word lawyer

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, government lawyer, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, legal executive, or public servant — with each role having different functions and privileges.[1] 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.[2][3]

Lawyer

Helena Normanton.jpg

Helena Normanton in English court dress, c. 1950
Occupation
Names Attorney, advocate, barrister, counsel, counsellor, solicitor, legal executive

Activity sectors

 Law, business
Description
Competencies Analytical skills
Critical thinking
Law
Legal research
Legal writing
Legal ethics

Education required

 Professional requirements

Fields of
employment

 Courts, government, law firms, NGOs, legal aid, corporations

Related jobs

 Barrister, Solicitor, Legislator, Judge, Jurist, Advocate, Attorney, Legal executive, Prosecutor, Law clerk, Law professor, Civil law notary, Magistrate, Politician

TerminologyEdit

Different legal jurisdictions have different requirements in the determination of who is recognized as being a lawyer. As a result, the meaning of the term «lawyer» may vary from place to place.

Some jurisdictions have two types of lawyers, barrister and solicitors, while others fuse the two. A barrister (also known as an advocate or counselor in some jurisdictions) is a lawyer who typically specializes in arguing before courts, particularly in higher courts. A solicitor (or attorney) is a lawyer who is trained to prepare cases and give advice on legal subjects. Depending on jurisdiction, solicitors can also represent people in lower courts but do not ordinarily have rights of audience in higher courts. Both solicitors and barristers are trained in law. However, in jurisdictions where there is a split profession, only barristers are admitted as members of a bar association.

The distinction between barristers and solicitors originated in the English legal system, but many countries which have adopted English law have eliminated the distinction. Countries such as New Zealand, Canada (with the exception of Quebec, which practices civil law), India, Pakistan, and the US have adopted a fused profession, where all lawyers have the privileges of both barristers and solicitors.[4]

Some fused-profession jurisdictions use one term to describe lawyers generally. For example, the US lawyers are typically referred to as «attorneys»,[5] while Indian and Pakistani lawyers are known as «advocates». Other fused jurisdictions use terms such as «barrister and solicitor» or «attorney and counselor» to describe lawyers in general.

Nonetheless, the terminology of «barrister» and «solicitor» may still be applied to lawyers who deal in the specific kinds of work barristers and solicitors generally do. In countries like the US, however, the term «trial lawyer» typically describes the work of a lawyer who specialises primarily in arguing cases.

Nonetheless, in countries like England, Wales, Australia, and South Africa, the distinction between barristers and solicitors remain. Additionally, England and Wales has a number of other classifications of lawyers, which include registered foreign lawyers, patent attorneys, trademark attorneys, licensed conveyancers, public notaries, commissioners for oaths, immigration advisers and chartered legal executives. Under the English Legal Services Act 2007, «lawyer» is not a protected title. In other jurisdictions, like the United States, there are strict restrictions on who may call themselves a lawyer, with paralegals and patent agents generally disallowed.[6][7][5]

ResponsibilitiesEdit

In most countries, particularly civil law countries, there has been a tradition of giving many legal tasks to a variety of civil law notaries, clerks, and scriveners.[8][9] These countries do not have «lawyers» in the American sense, insofar as that term refers to a single type of general-purpose legal services provider;[10] rather, their legal professions consist of a large number of different kinds of law-trained persons, known as jurists, some of whom are advocates who are licensed to practice in the courts.[11][12][13] It is difficult to formulate accurate generalizations that cover all the countries with multiple legal professions because each country has traditionally had its own peculiar method of dividing up legal work among all its different types of legal professionals.[14]

Notably, England, the mother of the common law jurisdictions, emerged from the Middle Ages with similar complexity in its legal professions, but then evolved by the 19th century to a single division between barristers and solicitors. An equivalent division developed between advocates and procurators in some civil law countries; these two types did not always monopolize the practice of law, in that they coexisted with civil law notaries.[15][16][17]

Several countries that originally had two or more legal professions have since fused or united their professions into a single type of lawyer.[18][19][20][21] Most countries in this category are common law countries, though France, a civil law country, merged its jurists in 1990 and 1991 in response to Anglo-American competition.[22] In countries with fused professions, a lawyer is usually permitted to carry out all or nearly all the responsibilities listed below.

Oral argument in the courtsEdit

Arguing a client’s case before a judge or jury in a court of law is the traditional province of the barrister in England and Australia,[23] and of advocates in some civil law jurisdictions.[24] However, the boundary between barristers and solicitors has evolved. In England today, the barrister monopoly covers only appellate courts, and barristers must compete directly with solicitors in many trial courts.[25] In countries like the United States, which have fused legal professions, there are trial lawyers who specialize in trying cases in court, but trial lawyers do not have a legal monopoly like barristers. In some countries, litigants have the option of arguing pro se, or on their own behalf. It is common for litigants to appear unrepresented before certain courts like small claims courts; indeed, many such courts do not allow lawyers to speak for their clients, in an effort to save money for all participants in a small case.[26] In other countries, like Venezuela, no one may appear before a judge unless represented by a lawyer.[27] The advantage of the latter regime is that lawyers are familiar with the court’s customs and procedures, and make the legal system more efficient for all involved. Unrepresented parties often damage their own credibility or slow the court down as a result of their inexperience.[28][29]

Research and drafting of court papersEdit

Often, lawyers brief a court in writing on the issues in a case before the issues can be orally argued. They may have to perform extensive research into relevant facts. Also, they draft legal papers and prepare for an oral argument.

In England, the usual division of labor is that a solicitor will obtain the facts of the case from the client and then brief a barrister (usually in writing).[30] The barrister then researches and drafts the necessary court pleadings (which will be filed and served by the solicitor) and orally argues the case.[31]

In Spain, the procurator merely signs and presents the papers to the court, but it is the advocate who drafts the papers and argues the case.[32]

In some countries, like Japan, a scrivener or clerk may fill out court forms and draft simple papers for laypersons who cannot afford or do not need attorneys, and advise them on how to manage and argue their own cases.[33]

Advocacy (written and oral) in administrative hearingsEdit

In most developed countries, the legislature has granted original jurisdiction over highly technical matters to executive branch administrative agencies which oversee such things. As a result, some lawyers have become specialists in administrative law. In a few countries, there is a special category of jurists with a monopoly over this form of advocacy; for example, France formerly had conseils juridiques (who were merged into the main legal profession in 1991).[34] In other countries, like the United States, lawyers have been effectively barred by statute from certain types of administrative hearings in order to preserve their informality.[35]

Client intake and counseling (with regard to pending litigation)Edit

An important aspect of a lawyer’s job is developing and managing relationships with clients (or the client’s employees, if the lawyer works in-house for a Government as a government Lawyer or corporation as a private lawyer). The client-lawyer relationship is explained in six steps. First, the relationship begins with an intake interview where the lawyer gets to know the client personally. The second step is discovering the facts of the client’s case. Thirdly is clarifying what the client wants to accomplish. The fourth step is where the lawyer shapes the client’s expectations as to what actually can be accomplished. The second to last step begins to develop various claims or defenses for the client. Lastly, the lawyer explains her or his fees to the client.[36][37]

In England, only solicitors were traditionally in direct contact with the client.[38] The solicitor retained a barrister if one was necessary and acted as an intermediary between the barrister and the client.[39] In most cases barristers were obliged, under what is known as the «cab rank rule», to accept instructions for a case in an area in which they held themselves out as practicing, at a court at which they normally appeared and at their usual rates.[40][41]

Legal adviceEdit

Legal advice is the application of abstract principles of law to the concrete facts of the client’s case to advise the client about what they should do next. In many countries, only a properly licensed lawyer may provide legal advice to clients for good consideration, even if no lawsuit is contemplated or is in progress.[42][43][44] Therefore, even conveyancers and corporate in-house counsel must first get a license to practice, though they may actually spend very little of their careers in court. Failure to obey such a rule is the crime of the unauthorized practice of law.[45]

In other countries, jurists who hold law degrees are allowed to provide legal advice to individuals or to corporations, and it is irrelevant if they lack a license and cannot appear in court.[46][47] Some countries go further; in England and Wales, there is no general prohibition on the giving of legal advice.[48] Singapore does not have any admission requirements for in-house counsel.[49] Sometimes civil law notaries are allowed to give legal advice, as in Belgium.[50]

In many countries, non-jurist accountants may provide what is technically legal advice in tax and accounting matters.[51]

Protecting intellectual propertyEdit

In virtually all countries, patents, trademarks, industrial designs and other forms of intellectual property must be formally registered with a government agency in order to receive maximum protection under the law. The division of such work among lawyers, licensed non-lawyer jurists/agents, and ordinary clerks or scriveners varies greatly from one country to the next.[33][52]

The trend in industrialized countries since the 1970s has been to greatly restrict the role of clerks and scriveners in patent and trademark work, and to require these functions to be performed only by lawyers or other licensed agents. This ensures that all work product in such cases receives the full protection of attorney-client privilege.

In the United States, for example, the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) may not speak with anyone but the applicant’s attorney about pending applications, and all documents filed in connection with a pending application are automatically accorded attorney-client privilege. The European Patent Office has a similar policy.

In contrast, many countries in the world do not recognize attorney-client privilege for work product related to intellectual property, or have only very limited recognition of the privilege. These countries include China, Japan, Korea, much of Southeast Asia, and most of Latin America. As a result, great care must be taken in these countries to protect intellectual property, as any work product related to a pending application may be disclosed to the public.

Many companies choose to file their applications in the United States or Europe first, and then file for protection in other countries where attorney-client privilege is not recognized. This allows them to keep their work product confidential while they are still in the process of perfecting their invention or design.[53]

Negotiating and drafting contractsEdit

In some countries, the negotiating and drafting of contracts is considered to be similar to the provision of legal advice, so that it is subject to the licensing requirement explained above.[54] In others, jurists or notaries may negotiate or draft contracts.[55]

Lawyers in some civil law countries traditionally deprecated «transactional law» or «business law» as beneath them. French law firms developed transactional departments only in the 1990s when they started to lose business to international firms based in the United States and the United Kingdom (where solicitors have always done transactional work).[56]

ConveyancingEdit

Conveyancing is the drafting of the documents necessary for the transfer of real property, such as deeds and mortgages. In some jurisdictions, all real estate transactions must be carried out by a lawyer (or a solicitor where that distinction still exists).[57] Such a monopoly is quite valuable from the lawyer’s point of view; historically, conveyancing accounted for about half of English solicitors’ income (though this has since changed),[58] and a 1978 study showed that conveyancing «accounts for as much as 80 percent of solicitor-client contact in New South Wales.»[59] In most common law jurisdictions outside of the United States, this monopoly arose from an 1804 law[60] that was introduced by William Pitt the Younger as a quid pro quo for the raising of fees on the certification of legal professionals such as barristers, solicitors, attorneys, and notaries.[61]

In others, the use of a lawyer is optional and banks, title companies, or realtors may be used instead.[62] In some civil law jurisdictions, real estate transactions are handled by civil law notaries.[63] In England and Wales a special class of legal professionals–the licensed conveyancer–is also allowed to carry out conveyancing services for reward.[64]

Carrying out the intent of the deceasedEdit

In many countries, only lawyers have the legal authority to draft wills, trusts, and any other documents that ensure the efficient disposition of a person’s property after death. In some civil law countries, this responsibility is handled by civil law notaries.[55]

In the United States, the estates of the deceased must generally be administered by a court through probate. American lawyers have a profitable monopoly on dispensing advice about probate law (which has been heavily criticized).[65]

Prosecution and defense of criminal suspectsEdit

In many civil law countries, prosecutors are trained and employed as part of the judiciary; they are law-trained jurists, but may not necessarily be lawyers in the sense that the word is used in the common law world.[66] In common law countries, prosecutors are usually lawyers holding regular licenses who simply happen to work for the government office that files criminal charges against suspects. Criminal defense lawyers specialize in the defense of those charged with any crimes.[67]

EducationEdit

The educational prerequisites for becoming a lawyer vary greatly from country to country. In some countries, law is taught by a faculty of law, which is a department of a university’s general undergraduate college.[68] Law students in those countries pursue a Master or Bachelor of Laws degree. In some countries it is common or even required for students to earn another bachelor’s degree at the same time. It is often followed by a series of advanced examinations, apprenticeships, and additional coursework at special government institutes.[69]

In other countries, particularly the UK and US, law is primarily taught at law schools.[70] In America, the American Bar Association decides which law schools to approve and thereby which ones are deemed most respectable.[71] In England and Wales,[72] the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) must be taken to have the right to work and be named as a barrister. Students who decide to pursue a non-law subject at degree level can instead study the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) after their degrees, before beginning the Legal Practice Course (LPC) or BPTC. In the United States[73] and countries following the American model, (such as Canada[74] with the exception of the province of Quebec) law schools are graduate/professional schools where a bachelor’s degree is a prerequisite for admission. Most law schools are part of universities but a few are independent institutions. Law schools in the United States[75] and Canada (with the exception of McGill University) award graduating students a J.D. (Juris Doctor/Doctor of Jurisprudence) (as opposed to the Bachelor of Laws) as the practitioner’s law degree. Many schools also offer post-doctoral law degrees such as the LL.M (Legum Magister/Master of Laws), or the S.J.D. (Scientiae Juridicae Doctor/Doctor of Juridical Science) for students interested in advancing their research knowledge and credentials in a specific area of law.[76]

The methods and quality of legal education vary widely. Some countries require extensive clinical training in the form of apprenticeships or special clinical courses.[77] Others, like Venezuela, do not.[78] A few countries prefer to teach through assigned readings of judicial opinions (the casebook method) followed by intense in-class cross-examination by the professor (the Socratic method).[79][80] Many others have only lectures on highly abstract legal doctrines, which forces young lawyers to figure out how to actually think and write like a lawyer at their first apprenticeship (or job).[81][82][83] Depending upon the country, a typical class size could range from five students in a seminar to five hundred in a giant lecture room. In the United States, law schools maintain small class sizes, and as such, grant admissions on a more limited and competitive basis.[84]

Some countries, particularly industrialized ones, have a traditional preference for full-time law programs,[85] while in developing countries, students often work full- or part-time to pay the tuition and fees of their part-time law programs.[86][87]

Law schools in developing countries share several common problems, such as an over reliance on practicing judges and lawyers who treat teaching as a part-time hobby (and a concomitant scarcity of full-time law professors);[88][89] incompetent faculty with questionable credentials;[90] and textbooks that lag behind the current state of the law by two or three decades.[88][91]

Earning the right to practice lawEdit

Some jurisdictions grant a «diploma privilege» to certain institutions, so that merely earning a degree or credential from those institutions is the primary qualification for practicing law.[92] Mexico allows anyone with a law degree to practice law.[93] However, in a large number of countries, a law student must pass a bar examination (or a series of such examinations) before receiving a license to practice.[92][94][95] In a handful of U.S. states, one may become an attorney (a so-called country lawyer) by simply «reading law» and passing the bar examination, without having to attend law school first (although very few people actually become lawyers that way).[96]

Some countries require a formal apprenticeship with an experienced practitioner, while others do not.[97] For example, in South Africa it is required that in addition to obtaining an LL.B degree that person has to complete a year of pupillage under an experienced Advocate and have to be admitted to the bar to practice as an Advocate. Holders of an LL.B must have completed two years of clerkship under a principal Attorney (known as Articles) and passed all four board exams to be admitted as an «Attorney» and refer to themselves as such. A few jurisdictions still allow an apprenticeship in place of any kind of formal legal education (though the number of persons who actually become lawyers that way is increasingly rare).[98]

Some countries, such as Singapore, do not have any admission requirements for in-house counsel.[49]

Career structureEdit

The career structure of lawyers varies widely from one country to the next.

Common law/civil lawEdit

In most common law countries, especially those with fused professions, lawyers have many options over the course of their careers. Besides private practice, they can become a prosecutor, government counsel, corporate in-house counsel, administrative law judge, judge, arbitrator, or law professor.[99] There are also many non-legal jobs for which legal training is good preparation, such as politician, corporate executive, government administrator, investment banker, entrepreneur, or journalist.[100] In developing countries like India, a large majority of law students never actually practice, but simply use their law degree as a foundation for careers in other fields.[101]

In most civil law countries, lawyers generally structure their legal education around their chosen specialty; the boundaries between different types of lawyers are carefully defined and hard to cross.[102] After one earns a law degree, career mobility may be severely constrained.[103] For example, unlike their American counterparts,[104] it is difficult for German judges to leave the bench and become advocates in private practice.[105] Another interesting example is France, where for much of the 20th century, all judiciary officials were graduates of an elite professional school for judges. Although the French judiciary has begun experimenting with the Anglo-American model of appointing judges from accomplished advocates, the few advocates who have actually joined the bench this way are looked down upon by their colleagues who have taken the traditional route to judicial office.[106]

In a few civil law countries, such as Sweden,[107] the legal profession is not rigorously bifurcated and everyone within it can easily change roles and arenas.

SpecializationEdit

In many countries, lawyers are general practitioners who represent clients in a broad field of legal matters.[108] In others, there has been a tendency since the start of the 20th century for lawyers to specialize early in their careers.[109][110]

In countries where specialization is prevalent, many lawyers specialize in representing one side in one particular area of the law; thus, it is common in the United States to hear of plaintiffs’ personal injury attorneys.[111][112] Texas offers attorneys the opportunity to receive a board certification through the state’s Texas Board of Legal Specialization. To be board certified, attorney applicants undergo a rigorous examination in one of 24 areas of practice offered by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Only those attorneys who are «board certified» are permitted to use the word «specialize» in any publicly accessible materials such as a website or television commercial. See Texas Rule 7.02(a)(6).[113]

OrganizationsEdit

Lawyers in private practice generally work in specialized businesses known as law firms,[114] with the exception of English barristers. The vast majority of law firms worldwide are small businesses that range in size from 1 to 10 lawyers.[115] The United States, with its large number of firms with more than 50 lawyers, is an exception.[116] The United Kingdom and Australia are also exceptions, as the UK, Australia and the U.S. are now home to several firms with more than 1,000 lawyers after a wave of mergers in the late 1990s.

Notably, barristers in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some states in Australia do not work in «law firms». Those who offer their services to members of the general public—as opposed to those working «in-house» — are required to be self-employed.[117] Most work in groupings known as «sets» or «chambers», where some administrative and marketing costs are shared. An important effect of this different organizational structure is that there is no conflict of interest where barristers in the same chambers work for opposing sides in a case, and in some specialized chambers this is commonplace. Where lawyer will decide to work is largely down to the remuneration that they will receive. Trainee lawyer salaries vary widely throughout the UK, with their location having a big impact on their pay.[118]

Some large businesses employ their own legal staff in a legal department, e.g. the BBC’s Legal Team in the UK,[119] and Molson Coors in Canada.[120] Other organizations buy in legal services from outside companies.[121]

Professional associations and regulationEdit

Mandatory licensing and membership in professional organizationsEdit

In some jurisdictions, either the judiciary[122] or the Ministry of Justice[123] directly supervises the admission, licensing, and regulation of lawyers.

Other jurisdictions, by statute, tradition, or court order, have granted such powers to a professional association which all lawyers must belong to.[124] In the U.S., such associations are known as mandatory, integrated, or unified bar associations. In the Commonwealth of Nations, similar organizations are known as Inns of Court, bar councils or law societies.[125] In civil law countries, comparable organizations are known as Orders of Advocates,[126] Chambers of Advocates,[127] Colleges of Advocates,[128] Faculties of Advocates,[129] or similar names. Generally, a nonmember caught practicing law may be liable for the crime of unauthorized practice of law.[130]

In common law countries with divided legal professions, barristers traditionally belong to the bar council (or an Inn of Court) and solicitors belong to the law society. In the English-speaking world, the largest mandatory professional association of lawyers is the State Bar of California, with 230,000 members.

Some countries admit and regulate lawyers at the national level, so that a lawyer, once licensed, can argue cases in any court in the land. This is common in small countries like New Zealand, Japan, and Belgium.[131] Others, especially those with federal governments, tend to regulate lawyers at the state or provincial level; this is the case in the United States,[132] Canada,[133] Australia,[134] and Switzerland,[135] to name a few. Brazil is the most well-known federal government that regulates lawyers at the national level.[136]

Some countries, like Italy, regulate lawyers at the regional level,[137] and a few, like Belgium, even regulate them at the local level (that is, they are licensed and regulated by the local equivalent of bar associations but can advocate in courts nationwide).[138] In Germany, lawyers are admitted to regional bars and may appear for clients before all courts nationwide with the exception of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof or BGH); oddly, securing admission to the BGH’s bar limits a lawyer’s practice solely to the supreme federal courts and the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany.[139]

Generally, geographic limitations can be troublesome for a lawyer who discovers that his client’s cause requires him to litigate in a court beyond the normal geographic scope of his license. Although most courts have special pro hac vice rules for such occasions, the lawyer will still have to deal with a different set of professional responsibility rules, as well as the possibility of other differences in substantive and procedural law.

Some countries grant licenses to non-resident lawyers, who may then appear regularly on behalf of foreign clients. Others require all lawyers to live in the jurisdiction or to even hold national citizenship as a prerequisite for receiving a license to practice. But the trend in industrialized countries since the 1970s has been to abolish citizenship and residency restrictions. For example, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a citizenship requirement on equality rights grounds in 1989,[140] and similarly, American citizenship and residency requirements were struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 and 1985, respectively.[141] The European Court of Justice made similar decisions in 1974 and 1977 striking down citizenship restrictions in Belgium and France.[142]

Who regulates lawyersEdit

A key difference among countries is whether lawyers should be regulated solely by an independent judiciary and its subordinate institutions (a self-regulating legal profession),[143] or whether lawyers should be subject to supervision by the Ministry of Justice in the executive branch.

In most civil law countries, the government has traditionally exercised tight control over the legal profession in order to ensure a steady supply of loyal judges and bureaucrats. That is, lawyers were expected first and foremost to serve the state, and the availability of counsel for private litigants was an afterthought.[144] Even in civil law countries like Norway which have partially self-regulating professions, the Ministry of Justice is the sole issuer of licenses, and makes its own independent re-evaluation of a lawyer’s fitness to practice after a lawyer has been expelled from the Advocates’ Association.[123] Brazil is an unusual exception in that its national Order of Advocates has become a fully self-regulating institution (with direct control over licensing) and has successfully resisted government attempts to place it under the control of the Ministry of Labor.[145][146]

Of all the civil law countries, Communist countries historically went the farthest towards total state control, with all Communist lawyers forced to practice in collectives by the mid-1950s.[147][148] China is a prime example: technically, the People’s Republic of China did not have lawyers, and instead had only poorly trained, state-employed «legal workers,» prior to the enactment of a comprehensive reform package in 1996 by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.[149]

In contrast, common law lawyers have traditionally regulated themselves through institutions where the influence of non-lawyers, if any, was weak and indirect (despite nominal state control).[150] Such institutions have been traditionally dominated by private practitioners who opposed strong state control of the profession on the grounds that it would endanger the ability of lawyers to zealously and competently advocate their clients’ causes in the adversarial system of justice.[151]

However, the concept of the self-regulating profession has been criticized as a sham which serves to legitimize the professional monopoly while protecting the profession from public scrutiny.[152] Disciplinary mechanisms have been astonishingly ineffective, and penalties have been light or nonexistent.[153][154][155]

Voluntary associationsEdit

Lawyers are always free to form voluntary associations of their own, apart from any licensing or mandatory membership that may be required by the laws of their jurisdiction. Like their mandatory counterparts, such organizations may exist at all geographic levels.[93][156] In American English, such associations are known as voluntary bar associations.[157] The largest voluntary professional association of lawyers in the English-speaking world is the American Bar Association.

In some countries, like France and Italy, lawyers have also formed trade unions.[158]

Cultural perceptionEdit

A British political cartoon showing a barrister and a solicitor throwing black paint at a woman sitting at the feet of a statue representing Justice

Hostility towards the legal profession is a widespread phenomenon. For example, William Shakespeare famously wrote, «The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers» in Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2. The legal profession was abolished in Prussia in 1780 and in France in 1789, though both countries eventually realized that their judicial systems could not function efficiently without lawyers.[159] Complaints about too many lawyers were common in both England and the United States in the 1840s,[160][161] Germany in the 1910s,[162] and in Australia,[163] Canada,[164] the United States,[165][166][167] and Scotland[168] in the 1980s.

Public distrust of lawyers reached record heights in the United States after the Watergate scandal.[167][169] In the aftermath of Watergate, legal self-help books became popular among those who wished to solve their legal problems without having to deal with lawyers.[170] Lawyer jokes (already a perennial favorite) also soared in popularity in English-speaking North America as a result of Watergate.[171] In 1989, American legal self-help publisher Nolo Press published a 171-page compilation of negative anecdotes about lawyers from throughout human history.[172]

In Adventures in Law and Justice (2003), legal researcher Bryan Horrigan dedicated a chapter to «Myths, Fictions, and Realities» about law and illustrated the perennial criticism of lawyers as «amoral […] guns for hire»[173] with a quote from Ambrose Bierce’s satirical The Devil’s Dictionary (1911) that summarized the noun as: «LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.»[174]

More generally, in Legal Ethics: A Comparative Study (2004), law professor Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. with Angelo Dondi briefly examined the «regulations attempting to suppress lawyer misconduct» and noted that their similarity around the world was paralleled by a «remarkable consistency» in certain «persistent grievances» about lawyers that transcends both time and locale, from the Bible to medieval England to dynastic China.[175] The authors then generalized these common complaints about lawyers as being classified into five «general categories» as follows:

  • abuse of litigation in various ways, including using dilatory tactics and false evidence and making frivolous arguments to the courts
  • preparation of false documentation, such as false deeds, contracts, or wills
  • deceiving clients and other persons and misappropriating property
  • procrastination in dealings with clients
  • charging excessive fees[176]

Some studies have shown that suicide rates among lawyers may be as much as six times higher than the average population, and commentators suggest that the low opinion the public has of lawyers, combined with their own high ideals of justice, which in practice they may see denied, increase the depression rates of those in this profession.[177][178] Additionally, lawyers are twice as likely to suffer from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.[179]

CompensationEdit

In the United States, lawyers typically earn between $45,000 and $160,000 per year, although earnings vary by age, experience, and practice setting.[180][181][182][183]
Solo practitioners typically earn less than lawyers in corporate law firms but more than those working for state or local government.

Lawyers are paid for their work in a variety of ways. In private practice, they may work for an hourly fee according to a billable hour structure,[184] a contingency fee[185] (usually in cases involving personal injury), or a lump sum payment if the matter is straightforward. Normally, most lawyers negotiate a written fee agreement up front and may require a non-refundable retainer in advance. Recent studies suggest that when lawyers charge a fixed-fee rather than billing by the hour, they work less hard on behalf of clients and client get worse outcomes.[186][187] In many countries there are fee-shifting arrangements by which the loser must pay the winner’s fees and costs; the United States is the major exception,[188] although in turn, its legislators have carved out many exceptions to the so-called «American Rule» of no fee shifting.

Lawyers working directly on the payroll of governments, nonprofits, and corporations usually earn a regular annual salary.[189] In many countries, with the notable exception of Germany,[190] lawyers can also volunteer their labor in the service of worthy causes through an arrangement called pro bono (short for pro bono publico, «for the common good»).[191] Traditionally such work was performed on behalf of the poor, but in some countries it has now expanded to many other causes such as the environment.

In some countries, there are legal aid lawyers who specialize in providing legal services to the indigent.[192][193] France and Spain even have formal fee structures by which lawyers are compensated by the government for legal aid cases on a per-case basis.[194] A similar system, though not as extensive or generous, operates in Australia, Canada, and South Africa.[195]

In other countries, legal aid specialists are practically nonexistent. This may be because non-lawyers are allowed to provide such services; in both Italy and Belgium, trade unions and political parties provide what can be characterized as legal aid services.[196] Some legal aid in Belgium is also provided by young lawyer apprentices subsidized by local bar associations (known as the pro deo system), as well as consumer protection nonprofit organizations and Public Assistance Agencies subsidized by local governments.[197] In Germany, mandatory fee structures have enabled widespread implementation of affordable legal expense insurance.[198]

HistoryEdit

16th-century painting of a civil law notary, by Flemish painter Quentin Massys. A civil law notary is roughly analogous to a common law solicitor, except that, unlike solicitors, civil law notaries do not practice litigation to any degree.

Ancient GreeceEdit

The earliest people who could be described as «lawyers» were probably the orators of ancient Athens (see History of Athens). However, Athenian orators faced serious structural obstacles. First, there was a rule that individuals were supposed to plead their own cases, which was soon bypassed by the increasing tendency of individuals to ask a «friend» for assistance.[199] However, around the middle of the fourth century, the Athenians disposed of the perfunctory request for a friend.[200] Second, a more serious obstacle, which the Athenian orators never completely overcame, was the rule that no one could take a fee to plead the cause of another. This law was widely disregarded in practice, but was never abolished, which meant that orators could never present themselves as legal professionals or experts.[201] They had to uphold the legal fiction that they were merely an ordinary citizen generously helping out a friend for free, and thus they could never organize into a real profession—with professional associations and titles and all the other pomp and circumstance—like their modern counterparts.[202] Therefore, if one narrows the definition to those men who could practice the legal profession openly and legally, then the first lawyers would have to be the orators of ancient Rome.[203]

Ancient RomeEdit

A law enacted in 204 BC barred Roman advocates from taking fees, but the law was widely ignored.[204] The ban on fees was abolished by Emperor Claudius, who legalized advocacy as a profession and allowed the Roman advocates to become the first lawyers who could practice openly—but he also imposed a fee ceiling of 10,000 sesterces.[205] This was apparently not much money; the Satires of Juvenal complained that there was no money in working as an advocate.[206]

Like their Greek contemporaries, early Roman advocates were trained in rhetoric, not law, and the judges before whom they argued were also not law-trained.[207] But very early on, unlike Athens, Rome developed a class of specialists who were learned in the law, known as jurisconsults (iuris consulti).[208] Jurisconsults were wealthy amateurs who dabbled in law as an intellectual hobby; they did not make their primary living from it.[208] They gave legal opinions (responsa) on legal issues to all comers (a practice known as publice respondere).[209] Roman judges and governors would routinely consult with an advisory panel of jurisconsults before rendering a decision, and advocates and ordinary people also went to jurisconsults for legal opinions.[208] Thus, the Romans were the first to have a class of people who spent their days thinking about legal problems, and this is why their law became so «precise, detailed, and technical.»[208]

During the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire, jurisconsults and advocates were unregulated, since the former were amateurs and the latter were technically illegal.[210] Any citizen could call himself an advocate or a legal expert, though whether people believed him would depend upon his personal reputation. This changed once Claudius legalized the legal profession. By the start of the Byzantine Empire, the legal profession had become well-established, heavily regulated, and highly stratified.[211] The centralization and bureaucratization of the profession was apparently gradual at first, but accelerated during the reign of Emperor Hadrian.[212] At the same time, the jurisconsults went into decline during the imperial period.[213]

In the words of Fritz Schulz, «by the fourth century things had changed in the eastern Empire: advocates now were really lawyers.»[214] For example, by the fourth century, advocates had to be enrolled on the bar of a court to argue before it, they could only be attached to one court at a time, and there were restrictions (which came and went depending upon who was emperor) on how many advocates could be enrolled at a particular court.[215] By the 380s, advocates were studying law in addition to rhetoric (thus reducing the need for a separate class of jurisconsults); in 460, Emperor Leo imposed a requirement that new advocates seeking admission had to produce testimonials from their teachers; and by the sixth century, a regular course of legal study lasting about four years was required for admission.[216] Claudius’s fee ceiling lasted all the way into the Byzantine period, though by then it was measured at 100 solidi.[217] It was widely evaded, either through demands for maintenance and expenses or a sub rosa barter transaction.[217] The latter was cause for disbarment.[217]

The notaries (tabelliones) appeared in the late Roman Empire. Like their modern-day descendants, the civil law notaries, they were responsible for drafting wills, conveyances, and contracts.[218] They were ubiquitous and most villages had one.[218] In Roman times, notaries were widely considered to be inferior to advocates and jury consults.

Middle AgesEdit

King James I overseeing a medieval court, from an illustrated manuscript of a legal code

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the onset of the Early Middle Ages, the legal profession of Western Europe collapsed. As James Brundage has explained: «[by 1140], no one in Western Europe could properly be described as a professional lawyer or a professional canonist in anything like the modern sense of the term ‘professional.’ «[219] However, from 1150 (when Decretum Gratiani was compiled) onward, a small but increasing number of men became experts in canon law but only in furtherance of other occupational goals, such as serving the Catholic Church as priests.[220] From 1190 to 1230, however, there was a crucial shift in which some men began to practice canon law as a lifelong profession in itself.[221]

The legal profession’s return was marked by the renewed efforts of church and state to regulate it. In 1231, two French councils mandated that lawyers had to swear an oath of admission before practicing before the bishop’s courts in their regions, and a similar oath was promulgated by the papal legate in London in 1237.[222] During the same decade, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Frederick II, the king of the Kingdom of Sicily, imposed a similar oath in his civil courts.[223] By 1250, the nucleus of a new legal profession had clearly formed.[224] The new trend towards professionalization culminated in a controversial proposal at the Second Council of Lyon in 1275 that all ecclesiastical courts should require an oath of admission.[225] Although not adopted by the council, it was highly influential in many such courts throughout Europe.[225] The civil courts in England also joined the trend towards professionalization; in 1275 a statute was enacted that prescribed punishment for professional lawyers guilty of deceit,[226] and in 1280 the mayor’s court of the city of London promulgated regulations concerning admission procedures, including the administering of an oath.[227] And in 1345, the French crown promulgated a royal ordinance which set forth 24 rules governing advocates, of which 12 were integrated into the oath to be taken by them.[228]

The French medieval oaths were widely influential and of enduring importance; for example, they directly influenced the structure of the advocates’ oath adopted by the Canton of Geneva in 1816.[229] In turn, the 1816 Geneva oath served as the inspiration for the attorney’s oath drafted by David Dudley Field as Section 511 of the proposed New York Code of Civil Procedure of 1848, which was the first attempt in the United States at a comprehensive statement of a lawyer’s professional duties.[229]

TitlesEdit

Generally speaking, the modern practice is for lawyers to avoid use of any title, although formal practice varies across the world.

Historically lawyers in most European countries were addressed with the title of doctor, and countries outside of Europe have generally followed the practice of the European country which had policy influence through colonization. The first university degrees, starting with the law school of the University of Bologna (or glossators) in the 11th century, were all law degrees and doctorates.[230] Degrees in other fields did not start until the 13th century, but the doctor continued to be the only degree offered at many of the old universities until the 20th century. Therefore, in many of the southern European countries, including Portugal, Italy and Malta, lawyers have traditionally been addressed as «doctor,» a practice, which was transferred to many countries in South America and Macau. The term «doctor» has since fallen into disuse, although it is still a legal title in Italy and in use in many countries outside of Europe.[231]

In French- (France, Quebec, Belgium, Luxembourg, French-speaking area of Switzerland) and Dutch-speaking countries (Netherlands, Belgium), legal professionals are addressed as Maître …, abbreviated to Me … (in French) or Meester …, abbreviated to mr. … (in Dutch).

The title of doctor has never been used to address lawyers in England or other common law countries (with the exception of the United States). This is because until 1846 lawyers in England were not required to have a university degree and were trained by other attorneys by apprenticeship or in the Inns of Court.[232] Since law degrees started to become a requirement for lawyers in England, the degree awarded has been the undergraduate LL.B. In South Africa holders of a LL.B, who have completed a year of pupillage and have been admitted to the bar may use the title «Advocate», abbreviated to «Adv» in written correspondence. Holders of an LL.B who have completed two years of clerkship with a principal Attorney and passed all four board exams may be admitted as an «Attorney» and refer to themselves as such. Likewise, Italian law graduates who have qualified for the bar use the title «Avvocato», abbreviated in «Avv.»

Even though most lawyers in the United States do not use any titles, the law degree in that country is the Juris Doctor, a professional doctorate degree,[233] and some J.D. holders in the United States use the title of «Doctor» in professional[234] and academic situations.

In countries where holders of the first law degree traditionally use the title of doctor (e.g. Peru, Brazil, Macau, Portugal, Argentina), J.D. holders who are attorneys will often use the title of doctor as well.[235] It is common for English-language male lawyers to use the honorific suffix «Esq.» (for «Esquire»). In the United States the style is also used by female lawyers.

In many Asian countries, holders of the Juris Doctor degree are also called «博士» (doctor).[236]

In the Philippines and Filipino communities overseas, lawyers who are either Filipino or naturalized-citizen expatriates at work there, especially those who also profess other jobs at the same time, are addressed and introduced as either Attorney or Counselor (especially in courts), rather than Sir/Madam in speech or Mr./Mrs./Ms. (G./Gng./Bb. in Filipino) before surnames. That word is used either in itself or before the given name or surname.

See alsoEdit

  • Ambulance chasing
  • Association of Pension Lawyers
  • Avocats Sans Frontières
  • Cause lawyer
  • Corporate lawyer
  • Court dress
  • Fiduciary
  • Ghost lawyer
  • Law broker
  • Lawyer-supported mediation
  • Legalese
  • List of jurists
  • Notary public
  • Privilege of the predecessors
  • Public defender
  • Rules lawyer
  • Shyster
  • Sole practitioner (lawyer)
  • St. Ivo of Kermartin (patron saint of lawyers)
  • Trainee solicitor

NotesEdit

  1. ^ Henry Campbell Black, Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th ed. (St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1979), 799.
  2. ^ Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. & Angelo Dondi, Legal Ethics: A Comparative Study (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8047-4882-9), 20–23.
  3. ^ John Henry Merryman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Europe and Latin America, 3rd ed. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007),102–103.
  4. ^ Advocates Act, 1961 Archived 2008-08-19 at the Wayback Machine, s. 2.
  5. ^ a b «Rule 5.5: Unauthorized Practice of Law; Multijurisdictional Practice of Law». American Bar Association. Archived from the original on 2015-06-02. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  6. ^ Carl W. Battle, The Patent Guide: A Friendly Guide to Protecting and Profiting from Patents (New York: Allworth Press, 1997), 49.
  7. ^ David G. Cooper and Michael J. Gibson, Introduction to Paralegal Studies, 2nd ed.(Clifton Park: Thomson Delmar Learning, 1998), 4.
  8. ^ Richard L. Abel, «Lawyers in the Civil Law World,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 1–53 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 4.
  9. ^ Merryman, 105–109.
  10. ^ Walter O. Weyrauch, The Personality of Lawyers (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), 27.
  11. ^ Jon T. Johnsen, «The Professionalization of Legal Counseling in Norway,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 54–123 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 91.
  12. ^ Kahei Rokumoto, «The Present State of Japanese Practicing Attorneys: On the Way to Full Professionalization?» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 160–199 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 164.
  13. ^ Merryman, 105.
  14. ^ Hazard, 21–33.
  15. ^ Benoit Bastard and Laura Cardia-Vonèche, «The Lawyers of Geneva: an Analysis of Change in the Legal Profession,» trans. by Richard L. Abel, in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 295–335 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 297.
  16. ^ Carlos Viladás Jene, «The Legal Profession in Spain: An Understudied but Booming Occupation,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 369–379 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 369.
  17. ^ Vittorio Olgiati and Valerio Pocar, «The Italian Legal Profession: An Institutional Dilemma,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 336–368 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 338.
  18. ^ Bastard, 299, and Hazard, 45.
  19. ^ Harry W. Arthurs, Richard Weisman, and Frederick H. Zemans, «Canadian Lawyers: A Peculiar Professionalism,» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 123–185 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 124.
  20. ^ David Weisbrot, «The Australian Legal Profession: From Provincial Family Firms to Multinationals,» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 244–317 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 250.
  21. ^ Georgina Murray, «New Zealand Lawyers: From Colonial GPs to the Servants of Capital,» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 318–368 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 324.
  22. ^ Anne Boigeol, «The Rise of Lawyers in France,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, 185–219 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 208.
  23. ^ «What is a Barrister?». Archived from the original on 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  24. ^ Hazard, 30–32.
  25. ^ Richard L. Abel, The Legal Profession in England and Wales (London: Basil Blackwell, 1989), 116.
  26. ^ See, e.g., Cal. Code. Civ. Proc. § 116.530 Archived 2009-08-09 at the Wayback Machine (preventing attorneys from appearing in small claims court except as parties or witnesses).
  27. ^ Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, «The Venezuelan Legal Profession: Lawyers in an Inegalitarian Society,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 380–399 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 387.
  28. ^ Gordon Kent, «Lawyerless Litigants: Is Justice Being Served?» Edmonton Journal, 27 January 2002, A1.
  29. ^ Alan Feuer, «Lawyering by Laymen: More Litigants Are Taking a Do-It-Yourself Tack,» The New York Times, 22 January 2001, B1.
  30. ^ Fiona Boyle, Several Capps, Philip Plowden, Clare Sandford, A Practical Guide to Lawyering Skills, 3rd ed. (London: Cavendish Publishing, 2005), 47–50.
  31. ^ See Abel, England and Wales, 56 and 141.
  32. ^ Jene, 369.
  33. ^ a b Rokumoto, 164.
  34. ^ Anne Boigeol, «The French Bar: The Difficulties of Unifying a Divided Profession,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 258–294 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 263; and Boigeol, «The Rise of Lawyers,» 206.
  35. ^ Richard L. Abel, American Lawyers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 132. See, e.g., Hines v. Lowrey, 305 U.S. 85 (1938) (upholding limitation on attorneys’ fees in veterans’ benefits cases to $10); Walters v. National Ass’n of Radiation Survivors, 473 U.S. 305 (1985) (same).
  36. ^ Paul J. Zwier & Anthony J. Bocchini, Fact Investigation: A Practical Guide to Interviewing, Counseling, and Case Theory Development (Louisville, CO: National Institute for Trial Advocacy, 2000), 13–44.
  37. ^ John H. Freeman, Client Management for Solicitors (London: Cavendish Publishing Ltd., 1997), 266–274.
  38. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 1 and 141.
  39. ^ J. R. Spencer and Richard M. Jackson, Jackson’s Machinery of Justice, 8th ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 336.
  40. ^ R.E. Megarry, Lawyer and Litigant in England (London: Stevens and Sons, 1962), 32.
  41. ^ Maureen Paton, «Cab-rank exits,» The Times, 9 October 2001, 1. This brief article explains the uneasy tension between solicitors and barristers, and the loopholes that have developed. For example, a barrister need not accept a case if the fee is too low or the barrister is just too busy.
  42. ^ Arthurs, 125; Johnsen, 74; and Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuelan Legal Profession,» 387.
  43. ^ Erhard Blankenburg and Ulrike Schultz, «German Advocates: A Highly Regulated Profession,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 124–159 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 124.
  44. ^ Joaquim Falcão, «Lawyers in Brazil,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 400–442 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 401.
  45. ^ Justine Fischer and Dorothy H. Lackmann, Unauthorized Practice Handbook: A Compilation of Statutes, Cases, and Commentary on the Unauthorized Practice of Law (Buffalo: William S. Hein Company, 1990), 30–35.
  46. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 185; Bastard, 318.
  47. ^ Kees Schuyt, «The Rise of Lawyers in the Dutch Welfare State,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 200–224 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 201.
  48. ^ Stephen J. McGarry, Multidisciplinary Practices and Partnerships: Lawyers, Consultants, and Clients, § 1.06[1] (New York: Law Journal Press, 2002), 1–29.
  49. ^ a b Holland & Marie (26 November 2018). «HMLegal – Your Outsourced, In-House Counsel Solution». Holland & Marie. Archived from the original on 10 August 2019. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  50. ^ Luc Huyse, «Legal Experts in Belgium,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 225–257 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 227.
  51. ^ Murray, 325; and Rokumoto, 164.
  52. ^ Lee Rousso, «Japan’s New Patent Attorney Law Breaches Barrier Between The ‘Legal’ And ‘Quasi-Legal’ Professions: Integrity Of Japanese Patent Practice At Risk?» 10 Pac. Rim L. & Poly 781, 783–790 (2001).
  53. ^ Faber J. «Attorney Efficient | Lawyer Blog». Retrieved 2022-05-04.
  54. ^ Arthurs, 125; and Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuelan Legal Profession,» 387.
  55. ^ a b Huyse, 227.
  56. ^ Boigeol, «The Rise of Lawyers,» 206.
  57. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 176; Hazard, 90–93; Murray, 325; and Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuelan Legal Profession,» 387.
  58. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 177.
  59. ^ Weisbrot, 292.
  60. ^ s. 14 Stamp Act 1804
  61. ^ Brian Abel-Smith and Robert Stevens, Lawyers and the Courts: A Sociological Study of the English Legal System, 1750–1965 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), 23.
  62. ^ Weisbrot, 251.
  63. ^ Arthurs, 125; Huyse, 227; and Schuyt, 201.
  64. ^ Simon Domberger and Avrom Sherr, «The Impact of Competition on Pricing and Quality of Legal Services,» in The Regulatory Challenge, eds. Matthew Bishop, John Kay, Colin Mayer, 119–137 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 121–122.
  65. ^ Ralph Warner & Stephen Elias, Fed Up with the Legal System: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It (Berkeley: Nolo Press, 1994), 11.
  66. ^ Hazard, 34–35; Huyse, 227; Merryman, 105, and Schuyt, 201.
  67. ^ Larry J. Siegel and Joseph J. Senna, Introduction to Criminal Justice, 10th ed. (Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005), 311–325.
  68. ^ Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, «Latin Legal Cultures in the Age of Globalization,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, 1–19 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 6.
  69. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 45–59; Rokumoto, 165; and Schuyt, 204.
  70. ^ «Thinking About Law School?» (PDF). Law School Admission Council. 11 March 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  71. ^ «ABA-Approved Law Schools». American Bar Association. Archived from the original on 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  72. ^ «The Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC)». Chambers Student. Archived from the original on 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  73. ^ Wayne L. Anderson and Marilyn J. Headrick, The Legal Profession: Is it for you? (Cincinnati: Thomson Executive Press, 1996), 52–53.
  74. ^ Anonymous, «Careers in the legal profession offer a variety of opportunities: While we may not think about it often, the legal system affects us every day,» The Telegram, 14 April 2004, D8.
  75. ^ «ABA-Approved Law Schools». ABA. American Bar Association. Archived from the original on 22 November 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  76. ^ Christen Civiletto Carey and Kristen David Adams, The Practice of Law School: Getting In and Making the Most of Your Legal Education (New York: ALM Publishing, 2003), 525.
  77. ^ Hazard, 127–129; Merryman, 103; and Olgiati, 345.
  78. ^ Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuelan Legal Profession,» 384.
  79. ^ Robert H. Miller, Law School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience, By Students, for Students (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000), 25–27.
  80. ^ Anderson, 4–10.
  81. ^ Blankenburg, 132; Friedman and Pérez-Perdomo, 6; Hazard, 124–128; and Olgiati, 345.
  82. ^ Sergio Lopez-Ayllon and Hector Fix-Fierro, » ‘Faraway, So Close!’ The Rule of Law and Legal Change in Mexico: 1970–2000,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, 285–351 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 324.
  83. ^ Herbert Hausmaninger, «Austrian Legal Education,» 43 S. Tex. L. Rev. 387, 388 and 400 (2002).
  84. ^ Miller, 42–60.
  85. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 57; Miller, 25; and Murray, 337.
  86. ^ Falcão, 410.
  87. ^ J.S. Gandhi, «Past and Present: A Sociological Portrait of the Indian Legal Profession,» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 369–382 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 375.
  88. ^ a b Lopez-Ayllon, 324.
  89. ^ Eliane Botelho Junqueira, «Brazil: The Road of Conflict Bound for Total Justice,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, 64–107 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 89.
  90. ^ Junqueira, 89.
  91. ^ Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuela, 1958–1999: The Legal System in an Impaired Democracy,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Perez-Perdomo, 414–478 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 459. For example, a 1997 study found that not a single law school in Venezuela had bothered to integrate any part of the Convention on Children’s Rights into its curriculum, even though Venezuela had signed the treaty in 1990 and subsequently modified its domestic laws to bring them into compliance. Rather than embark on curriculum reform, Venezuelan law schools now offer special postgraduate courses so that recent graduates can bring their legal knowledge up-to-date with current law.
  92. ^ a b Abel, American Lawyers, 62.
  93. ^ a b Lopez-Ayllon, 330.
  94. ^ Hazard, 127, 129, & 133; Miller, 335–341.
  95. ^ Alan A. Paterson, «The Legal Profession in Scotland: An Endangered Species or a Problem Case for Market Theory?» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 76–122 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 89.
  96. ^ G. Jeffrey MacDonald, «The self-made lawyer: Not every attorney goes to law school,» The Christian Science Monitor, 3 June 2003, 13.
  97. ^ Hazard, 129 & 133.
  98. ^ Weisbrot, 266.
  99. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 167–175; Abel, England and Wales, 214; Arthurs, 131; Gandhi, 374; Merryman, 102, and Weisbrot, 277.
  100. ^ Anderson, 124–131.
  101. ^ Gandhi, 374.
  102. ^ In general, see, Legomsky, Stephen H. (1990) Specialized Justice: Courts, Administrative Tribunals, and a Cross-National Theory of Specialization Oxford University Press, New York, ISBN 978-0-19-825429-4
  103. ^ Merryman, 102–105.
  104. ^ Although it is common for former American judges to return to private practice, it is highly controversial for them to suggest that they still retain any judicial powers (for example, by wearing judicial robes in advertisements). Brad McElhinny, «Workman criticized for using robe in ad: Group files State Bar complaint about the way former justice seeks clients,» Charleston Daily Mail, 3 February 2005, 1A.
  105. ^ Blankenburg, 133.
  106. ^ Boigeol, «The Rise of Lawyers,» 202.
  107. ^ Bernard Michael Ortwein II, «The Swedish Legal System: An Introduction,» 13 Ind. Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 405, 440–445 (2003).
  108. ^ Hazard, 39–43; Olgiati, 353.
  109. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 122.
  110. ^ Michael H. Trotter, Profit and the Practice of Law: What’s Happened to the Legal Profession (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1997), 50.
  111. ^ Herbert M. Kritzer, «The fracturing legal profession: the case of plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyers,» 8 Int’l J. Legal Prof. 225, 228–231 (2001).
  112. ^ Information for lawyers – Penalista para hurto Archived 2015-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
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  114. ^ Anderson, 111–117.
  115. ^ Hazard, 39.
  116. ^ Junqueira, 92. According to this source, as of 2003, there were 901 law firms with more than 50 lawyers in the United States.
  117. ^ Gary Slapper and David Kelly, The English Legal System, 7th ed. (London: Cavendish Publishing Ltd., 2004), 550.
  118. ^ «The Highest Paying Jobs for Lawyers». Oxbridge Law Tutors. Archived from the original on 2022-02-20. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  119. ^ BBC, Corporate Services: Legal, accessed 15 March 2023
  120. ^ Sobowale, J., BECOMING AN IN-HOUSE LAWYER, Canadian Bar Association, published 1 January 2015, accessed 15 March 2023
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  122. ^ Weisbrot, 264.
  123. ^ a b Johnsen, 86.
  124. ^ Boigeol, «The French Bar,» 271; Merryman, 106, and Junqueira, 89.
  125. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 127 and 243–249; Arthurs, 135; and Weisbrot, 279.
  126. ^ Bastard, 295; and Falcão, 401.
  127. ^ Blankenburg, 139.
  128. ^ Jene, 370.
  129. ^ Paterson, 79.
  130. ^ Arthurs, 143.
  131. ^ Murray, 339; Rokumoto, 163; and Schuyt, 207.
  132. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 116.
  133. ^ Arthurs, 139.
  134. ^ Weisbrot, 244.
  135. ^ Bastard, 299.
  136. ^ Falcão, 404.
  137. ^ Olgiati, 343.
  138. ^ Huyse, 239.
  139. ^ Howard D. Fisher, The German Legal System and Legal Language, 3rd ed. (London: Routledge Cavendish, 2002), 208–209.
  140. ^ Andrews v Law Society of British Columbia [1989] 1 SCR 143.
  141. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 68.
  142. ^ Mary C. Daly, «Ethical and Liability Issues in International Legal Practice,» in Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, vol. 17, eds. Dennis Campbell and Susan Cotter, 223–268 (London: Kluwer Law International, 1995), 233.
  143. ^ For a classic explanation of the self-regulating legal profession, see the Preamble Archived 2008-12-19 at the Wayback Machine to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, ¶¶ 10–13.
  144. ^ Abel, Civil Law World, 10; Johnsen, 70; Olgiati, 339; and Rokumoto, 161.
  145. ^ Falcão, 423.
  146. ^ Maria da Gloria Bonelli, «Lawyers’ Associations and the Brazilian State, 1843–1997,» 28 Law & Soc. Inquiry 1045, 1065 (2003).
  147. ^ Kandis Scott, «Decollectivization and Democracy: Current Law Practice in Romania,» 36 Geo. Wash. Int’l L. Rev. 817, 820. (2004).
  148. ^ Timothy J. Tyler, «Judging the Past: Germany’s Post-Unification Lawyers’ Admissions Review Law,» 29 Tex. Int’l L.J. 457, 472 (1994).
  149. ^ Michael J. Moser, «Globalization and Legal Services in China: Current Status and Future Directions,» in The Internationalization of the Practice of Law, eds. Jens I. Drolhammer and Michael Pfeifer, 127–136 (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2001), 128–129.
  150. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 142–143; Abel, England and Wales, 29; and Arthurs, 148.
  151. ^ Arthurs, 138; and Weisbrot, 281.
  152. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 246–247.
  153. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 147; Abel, England and Wales, 135 and 250; Arthurs, 146; Hazard, 135; Paterson, 104; and Weisbrot, 284.
  154. ^ Richard L. Abel, English Lawyers Between Market and State: The Politics of Professionalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 374–375.
  155. ^ William T. Gallagher, «Ideologies of Professionalism and the Politics of Self-Regulation in the California State Bar,» 22 Pepp. L. Rev. 485, 490–491 (1995).
  156. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 132–133.
  157. ^ Arthurs, 141.
  158. ^ Boigeol, «The French Bar,» 274; and Olgiati, 344.
  159. ^ Blankenburg, 126; and Boigeol, «The French Bar,» 272.
  160. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 37.
  161. ^ Gerald W. Gawalt, «Sources of Anti-Lawyer Sentiment in Massachusetts, 1740–1840,» in Essays in Nineteenth-Century American Legal History, ed. Wythe Holt, 624–648 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976), 624–625. According to this source, the strong anti-lawyer sentiment of the period was rather ironic, since lawyers were actually so scarce in the American colonies that a 1715 Massachusetts law forbade litigants from retaining two lawyers because of the risk of depriving one’s opponent of counsel.
  162. ^ Blankenburg, 127.
  163. ^ Weisbrot, 246.
  164. ^ Arthurs, 128.
  165. ^ Marc Galanter, «Predators and Parasites: Lawyer-Bashing and Civil Justice, » 28 Ga. L. Rev. 633, 644–648 (1994).
  166. ^ Stephen D. Easton, «Fewer Lawyers? Try Getting Your Day in Court,» Wall Street Journal, 27 November 1984, 1. This article rebuts the common complaint of too many lawyers in the U.S. by pointing out that it is virtually impossible for a plaintiff to prevail in the vast majority of countries with less lawyers, like Japan, because there are simply not enough lawyers or judges to go around. Even wrongful death cases with clear evidence of fault can drag on for decades in Japan. Thus, any reduction in the number of lawyers would result in reduced enforcement of individual rights.
  167. ^ a b Gerry Spence, With Justice For None: Destroying An American Myth (New York: Times Books, 1989), 27–40
  168. ^ Paterson, 76.
  169. ^ Jerold Auerbach, Unequal Justice: Lawyers and Social Change in Modern America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 301.
  170. ^ For examples of legal self-help books written by lawyers which concede that the profession has a bad image, see Mark H. McCormack, The Terrible Truth About Lawyers (New York: Beech Tree Books, 1987), 11; Kenneth Menendez, Taming the Lawyers (Santa Monica, CA, Merritt Publishing, 1996), 2; and Stuart Kahan and Robert M. Cavallo, Do I Really Need A Lawyer? (Radnor, PA: Chilton Book Company, 1979), 2.
  171. ^ Gayle White, «So, a lawyer, a skunk and a catfish walk into a bar…: No shortage of jokes,» National Post, 27 May 2006, FW8.
  172. ^ Andrew Roth & Jonathan Roth, Devil’s Advocates: The Unnatural History of Lawyers (Berkeley: Nolo Press, 1989), ix.
  173. ^ Bryan Horrigan, «Myths, Fictions, and Realities» (chap. 2), in Adventures in Law and Justice: Exploring Big Legal Questions in Everyday Life, Law at Large, 55–82 (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2003, ISBN 0-86840-572-8), 55 & 62–66. Bierce is quoted p. 64 Archived 2016-04-15 at the Wayback Machine.
  174. ^ Ambrose Bierce, «Lawyer» Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine, in The Devil’s Dictionary (1911), electronic entry at Dict.org. Also found quoted in many legal books.
  175. ^ Hazard, 60 Archived 2016-04-15 at the Wayback Machine.
  176. ^ Hazard, 60.
  177. ^ «June, Daniel, «Increase of Kentucky Lawyer Suicides Exposes the Unique Stresses of the Profession»«. Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2013-06-04.
  178. ^ «Seven Reasons Why Practicing Law Might Be More Stressful Than Spending 18 Months in a POW Camp». BCGSearch.com. 2015-05-11. Archived from the original on 2017-07-03. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
  179. ^ Murray, Bob (2017-01-04). «Dealing with depression». Archived from the original on 2017-01-05. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  180. ^ United States Census Bureau, American Community Survey
  181. ^ United States Census Bureau, Current Population Survey Archived 2017-01-10 at the Wayback Machine
  182. ^ United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics Archived 2006-05-07 at the Wayback Machine
  183. ^ «After the JD II» (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
  184. ^ Anderson, 111–112.
  185. ^ Herbert M. Kritzer, Risks, Reputations, and Rewards: Contingency Fee Legal Practice in the United States (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), 258–259. According to this source, contingency fees (or de facto equivalents) are allowed, as of 2004, in Canada, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, the Dominican Republic, Greece, France, Brazil, Japan, and the United States.
  186. ^ Schwall, Benjamin (2015-06-25). «High-Powered Attorney Incentives: A Look at the New Indigent Defense System in South Carolina». Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. SSRN 2623202.
  187. ^ «Research – Amanda Y. Agan». sites.google.com. Archived from the original on 2016-09-25. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  188. ^ See Fleischmann Distilling Corp. v. Maier Brewing Co., 386 U.S. 714 (1967) (reviewing history of the American Rule).
  189. ^ Anderson, 120–121.
  190. ^ Matthias Kilian and Francis Regan, «Legal expenses insurance and legal aid—two sides of the same coin? The experience from Germany and Sweden,» 11 Int’l J. Legal Prof. 233, 239 (2004). According to this article, pro bono arrangements are illegal in Germany.
  191. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 129–130.
  192. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 133.
  193. ^ Arthurs, 161; Murray, 342; Pérez-Perdomo, 392; Schuyt, 211; and Weisbrot, 288.
  194. ^ Boigeol, «The French Bar,» 280; and Jene, 376.
  195. ^ «We provide professional legal advice and representation to those who can’t afford it». Legal Aid South Africa. Archived from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  196. ^ Olgiati, 354, and Huyse, 240.
  197. ^ Huyse, 240–241.
  198. ^ Blankenburg, 143.
  199. ^ Robert J. Bonner, Lawyers and Litigants in Ancient Athens: The Genesis of the Legal Profession (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1927), 202.
  200. ^ Bonner, 204.
  201. ^ Bonner, 206.
  202. ^ Bonner, 208–209.
  203. ^ Hazard, 18.
  204. ^ John A. Crook, Law and Life of Ancient Rome (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967), 90.
  205. ^ Crook, 90. Crook cites Tacitus, Annals VI, 5 and 7 for this point. For more information about the complex political affair that forced Emperor Claudius to decide this issue, see The Annals of Tacitus, Book VI (Franklin Center, PA: The Franklin Library, 1982), 208.
  206. ^ Crook, 91.
  207. ^ Crook, 87.
  208. ^ a b c d Crook, 88.
  209. ^ Crook, 89.
  210. ^ Crook, 90.
  211. ^ A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284–602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey, vol. 1 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), 507.
  212. ^ Fritz Schulz, History of Roman Legal Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1946), 113.
  213. ^ Schulz, 113.
  214. ^ Schulz, 268.
  215. ^ Jones, 508–510.
  216. ^ Jones, 512–513.
  217. ^ a b c Jones, 511.
  218. ^ a b Jones, 515.
  219. ^ James A. Brundage, «The Rise of the Professional Jurist in the Thirteenth Century,» 20 Syracuse J. Int’l L. & Com. 185 (1994).
  220. ^ Brundage, 185–186.
  221. ^ Brundage, 186–187.
  222. ^ Brundage, 188.
  223. ^ Brundage, 188–189.
  224. ^ Brundage, 190.
  225. ^ a b Brundage, 189.
  226. ^ Statute of Westminster 1275, ch. 29.
  227. ^ John Hamilton Baker, An Introduction to British Legal History, 3rd ed. (London: Butterworths, 1990), 179.
  228. ^ Lucien Karpik, French Lawyers: A Study in Collective Action, 1274 to 1994 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 21.
  229. ^ a b Carol Rice Andrews, Standards of Conduct for Lawyers: An 800-Year Evolution Archived 2020-07-09 at the Wayback Machine, 57 SMU L. Rev. 1385 (2004).
  230. ^ Herbermann, et al. (1915). Catholic Encyclopedia Archived 2017-08-04 at the Wayback Machine. New York: Encyclopedia Press. Accessed May 26, 2008. García y García, A. (1992). «The Faculties of Law Archived 2016-01-03 at the Wayback Machine,» A History of the University in Europe, London: Cambridge University Press. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  231. ^ Regio Decreto 4 giugno 1938, n.1269 Archived 2009-08-09 at the Wayback Machine, Art. 48. (in Italian). Accessed February 10, 2009.
  232. ^ Stein, R. (1981). The Path of Legal Education from Edward to Langdell: A History of Insular Reaction Archived 2021-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Pace University School of Law Faculty Publications, 1981, 57 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 429, pp. 430, 432, 434, 436
  233. ^ Association of American Universities Data Exchange. Glossary of Terms for Graduate Education Archived 2009-03-04 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed May 26, 2008; National Science Foundation (2006). NSF.gov Archived 2016-03-08 at the Wayback Machine «Time to Degree of U.S. Research Doctorate Recipients», «Info brief, Science Resource Statistics» NSF 06-312, 2006, p. 7. (under «Data notes» mentions that the J.D. is a professional doctorate); San Diego County Bar Association (1969). «Ethics Opinion 1969-5». Accessed May 26, 2008. (under «other references» discusses differences between academic and professional doctorate, and statement that the J.D. is a professional doctorate); University of Utah (2006). University of Utah – The Graduate School – Graduate Handbook Archived 2008-06-26 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed May 28, 2008. (the J.D. degree is listed under doctorate degrees); German Federal Ministry of Education. «U.S. Higher Education / Evaluation of the Almanac Chronicle of Higher Education» Archived 2008-04-13 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed May 26, 2008. (report by the German Federal Ministry of Education analysing the Chronicle of Higher Education from the U.S. and stating that the J.D. is a professional doctorate); Encyclopædia Britannica. (2002). «Encyclopædia Britannica», 3:962:1a. (the J.D. is listed among other doctorate degrees).
  234. ^ American Bar Association. Model Code of Professional Responsibility Archived 2017-08-30 at the Wayback Machine, Disciplinary Rule 2–102(E). Cornell University Law School, LLI. Accessed February 10, 2009. Peter H. Geraghty. Abanet.org Archived 2008-07-08 at the Wayback Machine, «Are There Any Doctors Or Associates In the House?» American Bar Association, 2007.
  235. ^ Florida Bar News.In Italy J.D. holders use the title of Dottore, but lawyers who have qualified for the bar only use the style Avvocato. Debate over ‘doctor of law’ title continues Archived 2009-08-04 at the Wayback Machine. Florida Bar Association, July 1, 2006.
  236. ^ Google Translate; The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. (2001). Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, Beijing.; Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (Chinese-English). (2006). Pearson Education, Hong Kong, 2006.

External linksEdit

Wikiquote has quotations related to Lawyer.

Look up lawyer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Источник

  2. Какие
    требования предъявляют к квалификации
    юриста в современном обществе?
    Прочитайте и переведите текст.

  3. The Profession of Lawyers

  4. The
    word «lawyer»
    describes a person who practices law, who has
    become officially qualified to act in certain legal matters because
    of
    examinations he has taken and professional experience he has gained.
    Most countries have different groups of lawyers who each take
    a particular kind of examination in order to qualify to do
    par­ticular
    jobs. In Japan, a lawyer must decide whether he wants to take
    examination to become an attorney,
    a
    public prosecutor or a judge.

  5. A
    distinctive feature of the legal profession in England is that it is
    divided into two groups: barristers
    and
    solicitors.
    Barristers
    are lawyers
    who specialize in arguing
    cases     in
    front of a judge and have an
    exclusive right to be heard, the right
    of audience    1,
    in
    all law courts
    in England, even in the highest courts. They are not paid di­rectly
    by clients, but are employed by solicitors. Judges are usually
    chosen
    from the most senior barristers, and once appointed they cannot
    continue to practice as barristers. Solicitors are lawyers who do
    much of the initial preparation for cases. They prepare legal
    documents
    (e.g. wills, sale of land or buildings), advise clients on legal
    matters, and speak on
    their behalf    2
    in
    lower courts. In other words,
    a barrister spends most of his time either in a courtroom or
    preparing
    his arguments for the court and a solicitor spends most of his time
    in an office giving advice to clients and making investiga­tions.
    Many people in England believe the distinction between bar­risters
    and solicitors should be eliminated, as it has already happened in
    Australia.

  6. In
    both the United States and other industrialized countries, lawyers
    are becoming more and more specialized. Working in small firms,
    lawyers now tend to restrict themselves to certain kinds of work
    and lawyers working in large law firms or employed in the law
    departments
    of a large commercial enterprise work on highly spe­cific
    areas of law.

  7. How
    to enter the profession of lawyers? Lawyers are subject to
    standardized
    examination and other controls to regulate their com-

  8. 418

  9. petence.
    In some countries in order to practice as a lawyer it is nec­essary
    to obtain a university degree in law. However, in others, a degree
    may be insufficient; professional examinations must be passed.
    In Britain, the main requirement is to have passed the Bar Final
    examination (for barristers) or the Law Society Final exami­nation
    (for solicitors). Someone with a university degree in a sub­ject
    other than law needs first to take a preparatory course. Someone
    without a degree at all may also prepare for the final ex­amination,
    but this will take several years. In most countries, law­yers
    would say that the time they spent studying for their law finals was
    one of the worst period of their life. This is because an enor­mous
    number of procedural rules covering a wide area of law must be
    memorized. In Japan, where there are relatively few lawyers, the
    examinations
    are supposed to be particularly hard: less than 5
    per­cent
    of candidates pass.

  10. A
    solicitor in England must then spend two years as an articled
    clerk3,
    during
    which time his work is closely supervised by an ex­perienced
    solicitor, and then he must take further courses. A bar­rister
    spends a similar year serving as a pupil
    under
    an experienced barrister.

  11. In
    most countries, once a lawyer is fully qualified he receives a
    certificate
    proving his right to sell his service. There are also insur­ance
    provisions so that if a lawyer is ever successfully sued by a
    cli­ent
    for professional incompetence, there will be funds available to
    enable
    him to pay damages. Even if a lawyer is very competent, he must
    take care not to break the many rules of procedure and ethics set
    by the body which regulates his profession. In England, the body
    regulating the conduct of solicitors is the Law Society. There is
    also a Solicitor’s Disciplinary Tribunal with the power to
    suspend     or
    even disqualify a solicitor.

  12. In
    most legal systems, conversations between a lawyer and his client
    are privileged:
    the
    client should know that what he says will not
    be passed on to someone else without his permission. In theory, it
    could pose difficult ethical problems for a lawyer. For instance,
    what
    should he do in a criminal case if he believes his client guilty? In
    any case, it is the prosecution’s job to prove guilt, not the
    de­fence’s
    to prove innocence. A lawyer could therefore defend his cli­ent
    simply by trying to point out weaknesses in the prosecution case.

  13. Notes to the Text

  1. the
    right of audience —
    право выступать в суде

  2. on
    their behalf —
    от их имени

  1. 419

  2. 3.
    articled
    clerk     —
    служащий конторы солиситора, выпол­няющий
    свою работу в порядке платы за обучение
    профессии     солиситора

  3. Упражнение
    1.     Составьте
    словосочетания глаголов из колонки А
    и суще­ствительных
    из колонки В.

  4. А В

  1. enter a.
    advice

  2. prepare/
    prepare for b. a degree in law

  3. become с
    time

  4. gain d.
    a problem

  5. give e.
    examinations

  6. argue f.
    a job

  7. pose g.
    on one’s behalf

  8. speak h.
    a profession

  9. get/
    obtain     i.
    guilt/ innocence

  1. prove j.
    a case

  2. take/
    pass     k.
    experience

  3. do 1.
    arguments,
    documents/ the final exam

  4. spend m.
    a lawyer

  1. Упражнение
    2.     Назовите
    5 словосочетаний со словами law
    и
    legal.

  2. Упражнение
    3.
    Заполните пропуски.

  3. 1.
    …
    is
    a general term for a member of the legal profession, e.g.     a
    judge, barrister, solicitor, law teacher, etc.     2.
    The
    common pur­pose of a barrister and a solicitor is to provide
    professional service and advice on legal    …
    3.     Barrister
    is a lawyer who can speak and     …
    a
    case in one of the higher courts.     4.
    Attorneys
    are persons who are     legally
    allowed to act on     …
    of
    someone else.     5.
    Solicitors
    may now     have
    a right of… in certain courts.     6.
    At
    present a solicitor may     choose
    any     …
    to
    advise his client or to appear for the client in     court.
    7.
    …
    is
    a clerk who has passed the examination to become a     solicitor
    but has to work in a solicitor’s office for some years to     learn
    the law.     8.…
    means
    protected by privilege, e.g. a letter from a     client
    to his lawyer.     9.
    Jurors
    are members of a     …
    10.     Jurist
    is an ex­    pert
    in     …
    11.
    Jurisprudence
    is science and philosophy of human     …

  4. Упражнение
    4.     Заполните
    пропуски следующими словами: legal,
    legally,     legalize,
    legalization.

  5. 1.
    To
    …
    is
    to make something legal.     2.
    To
    sue means to take     …
    action
    against someone in a civil court.     3.
    The
    directors of large     commercial
    enterprises are     …
    responsible.
    4.
    The
    …
    of
    labour rela­    tions
    is reflected in the law of employment.

  6. 420

  7. Упражнение
    5.     Заполните
    пропуски синонимами или словами,
    близкими по
    значению.

  1. higher
    in authority

  2. remove

  3. limit

  4. need
    /
    require

  5. hand
    /
    give
    to smb. else

  6. show
    /
    direct
    attention to

  7. some

  8. discuss
    /
    debate

  9. rule
    /
    order

  10. not
    general

  11. control
    systematically

  12. think

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Источник

What Is A Lawyer?

Looking for information about lawyers?

What are the essential elements you should know!

Keep reading as we have gathered exactly the information that you need!

Let’s dig into our legal profession knowledge!

Are you ready?

Let’s get started!

What Is A Lawyer 

A lawyer (also referred to as an attorney) is a legal professional licensed to practice law, represent individuals and companies in court and provide legal advice.

Lawyers are trained in the field of law, have a good understanding of various legal concepts, and are proficient at interpreting the terms of statutes, regulations, ordinances, rulings, or other legal documents.

In many jurisdictions, a person cannot be referred to as a “lawyer”, “counsel”, “attorney-at-law”, or any other similar terms without having a license to practice law issued by the state authorities.

Although there’s a historical nuance between the term “lawyer” and “attorney”, for the purpose of this post, we will assume that they both mean the same thing.

You can read our post Attorney vs Lawyer to learn more on the nuances.

Lawyers, in general, have two main duties:

  • Represent clients in court
  • Provide legal advice to clients 

The attorneys that represent clients in court are involved in the area of litigation and dispute resolution.

The legal professionals dedicated to providing legal advice may be lawyers in law firms in the areas of commercial transactions, M&A, labor, or other areas of law that will not require them to step into a courtroom.

Lawyer Definition

What is the meaning of lawyer?

According to Dictionary.com, the definition of lawyer is:

A person whose profession is to represent clients in a court of law or to advise or act for clients in other legal matters.

In other words, a lawyer is:

  • A legal trained in law 
  • Representing clients in court
  • Legally advising individuals or companies 

Said differently, a lawyer is a person who is formally trained in law and licensed by the state to prepare, manage, and prosecute legal actions, to act on another’s behalf, or to provide legal advice and counselling to others in different areas of the law.

Lawyer Responsibilities

Lawyers can have a wide range of responsibilities. 

In most cases, when people think of lawyers, they think of how lawyers are portrayed in television shows and movies where they are generally depicted pleading in a courtroom.

Although this can be the case, the real responsibilities of a lawyer are much broader.

A lawyer in court has the responsibility to represent his or her client in the best possible way to either defend against a legal action or to enforce a legal right.

Attorneys are also responsible for researching the law, reading statutes, regulations, decrees and other legal documents to find the legal basis to advise their clients.

In addition to court representation and research, lawyers need to have excellent writing and document drafting skills.

Whether a lawyer is drafting a pleading document, a contract, or legal notice, a lawyer must have excellent written skills to clearly convey the right “legal” message.

Most of the time, lawyers spend their time in an office setting either researching the law, investigating facts, writing legal papers, meeting with their clients, speaking with the opposing parties, or preparing a case.

To sum up the lawyer responsibilities, here is a short list of what a lawyer may be required to do on the job:

  • Present oral arguments to the court, judge, or jury 
  • Research the law
  • Draft legal documents
  • Provide legal advice 
  • Negotiate settlements 

Legal Areas of Practice

Lawyers can practice law in many “areas” or “fields” of law.

In today’s world, every aspect of our lives in society is regulated by laws and regulations.

It is not possible for one single attorney to have a solid grasp of many areas of law and remain up-to-date in all such areas.

As a result, lawyers tend to “specialize” or focus on specific areas of the law to better serve their clients.

Here are some areas that a lawyer may specialize in:

  • Administrative law
  • Advertising law
  • Antitrust law
  • Business law
  • Constitutional law
  • Construction law
  • Consumer law
  • Contract law 
  • Copyright law
  • Criminal law
  • Defamation law 
  • Employment law
  • Estate law
  • Health care law 
  • Insurance law 
  • Intellectual property law 
  • Maritime law 
  • Medical malpractice law 
  • Mergers and acquisitions 
  • Oil and gas law
  • Patent law
  • Personal injury law 
  • Procedural law 
  • Real estate law 
  • Securities law
  • Sports law 
  • Tax law
  • Tort law 
  • Transportation law 

This list is certainly not exhaustive but gives you a good idea of the different areas of law an attorney may choose to focus his or her practice on.

Lawyers that focus on one specific area of law or a very specific type of law are considered “specialized lawyers” whereas those who do not have a specific focus and tend to have a more general practice are considered “general practice lawyers”.

How To Become A Lawyer

Every jurisdiction may have its unique requirements for an individual to become a lawyer and pursue a legal career.

In the United States, to become a lawyer, a student must go to law school to understand how the laws and the legal system works.

Every state has adopted its standards with respect to the admission of a law student as a lawyer.

Typically, a person looking to practice law or become a legal professional must complete the following steps:

  • Obtain a bachelor degree in the field of law from an American Bar Association accredited law school
  • Successfully pass the bar exam 
  • Successfully pass a character and fitness review 
  • Take an oath to support the laws and the constitution 

Once these steps are completed, the individuals will receive a license to practice law from the highest court in the state.

Where A Lawyer Can Practice Law

When a person is admitted to the Bar Association in his or her jurisdiction, the attorney becomes legally authorized to provide legal advice to the residents of that jurisdiction.

For example, an attorney licensed to practice law in New York can advise New York clients or represent clients before the courts in New York.

In other words, a New York licensed attorney cannot automatically represent a client in Florida or in any other state.

In some states, there are some exceptions to this rule.

Sometimes, an out-of-state lawyer is authorized to perform specific legal tasks in another state provided that he or she is a lawyer in good standing and the highest court of the state approves them.

When out-of-state lawyers are admitted by another state, we refer to this as the lawyer appearing “pro hac vice” meaning “for this one particular occasion”.

Every jurisdiction has its requirements with respect to the territory in which lawyers may lawfully advise and represent clients.

The rule of thumb is that the attorney can advise or represent clients in the same jurisdiction as where he or she is licensed.

Other Terms For “Lawyer”

Legal professionals can be referred to using different terms.

The most common terms used to refer to a professional trained in law in the United States are “lawyer” or “attorney”.

However, there are other terms that may be used more commonly in other jurisdictions.

Here is a short list of other terms that may be used to refer to a lawyer:

  • Advocate
  • Attorney
  • Attorney at law 
  • Bar at law 
  • Barrister
  • Barrister at law 
  • Canon lawyer
  • Canonist 
  • Counsel
  • Counselor 
  • Esquire 
  • Jurist 
  • Lawyer
  • Legist 
  • Pleader 
  • Solicitor

Who Is An Attorney Takeaways 

So, looking for attorney information?

Want to know how to define “lawyer”?

Let’s look at a summary of our findings.

Lawyer Meaning

  • Lawyers are legal professionals trained in the field of law providing legal advice to clients or representing them in court
  • Law professionals can choose to focus their practice in a different area of law such as personal injury, real estate, contracts, intellectual property, civil rights, or other 
  • To become a lawyer in the United States, a student must obtain a bachelor’s degree in law, pass the bar exams, pass a character and fitness review, take an oath of office, and receive a license from the highest state court 
  • Typically, a lawyer can represent a client in the same jurisdiction as where he or she has been licensed or provide legal advice on the laws of that jurisdiction 

General counsel 
In-house counsel 
Legal assistant 
Legal clerk
Legal executive 
Notary public 
Paralegal
Pro hac vice 
Public servant
Scriveners 
Trial lawyer
Types of lawyers

Editorial Staffhttps://lawyer.zone

Hello Nation! I’m a lawyer and passionate about law. I’ve practiced law in a boutique law firm, worked in a multi-national organization and as in-house counsel. I’ve been around the block! On this blog, I provide you with golden nuggets of information about lawyers, attorneys, the law and legal theories. Enjoy!

Источник

«Lawyers» redirects here. For the television series, see The Lawyers.

Lawyer

Honoré Daumier 018.jpg
19th century painting of lawyers,
by French artist Honoré Daumier
Occupation
Names Attorney, counselor (counsel), solicitor, barrister, advocate
Activity sectors Law, business
Description
Competencies Analytical skills
Critical thinking skills
Knowledge of the law
Proficiency in legal research and legal writing
Education required see Professional requirements

A lawyer, according to Black’s Law Dictionary, is «a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law.»[1] Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political and social authority, and deliver justice. Working as a lawyer involves the practical application of abstract legal theories and knowledge to solve specific individualized problems, or to advance the interests of those who retain (i.e., hire) lawyers to perform legal services.

The role of the lawyer varies significantly across legal jurisdictions, and so it can be treated here in only the most general terms.[2][3] More information is available in country-specific articles (see below).[clarification needed]

Contents

  • 1 Terminology
  • 2 Responsibilities
    • 2.1 Oral argument in the courts
    • 2.2 Research and drafting of court papers
    • 2.3 Advocacy (written and oral) in administrative hearings
    • 2.4 Client intake and counseling (with regard to pending litigation)
    • 2.5 Legal advice
    • 2.6 Protecting intellectual property
    • 2.7 Negotiating and drafting contracts
    • 2.8 Conveyancing
    • 2.9 Carrying out the intent of the deceased
    • 2.10 Prosecution and defense of criminal suspects
  • 3 Education
    • 3.1 Earning the right to practice law
  • 4 Career structure
    • 4.1 Common law/civil law
    • 4.2 Specialization
    • 4.3 Organization
  • 5 Professional associations and regulation
    • 5.1 Mandatory licensing and membership in professional organizations
    • 5.2 Who regulates lawyers
    • 5.3 Voluntary associations of lawyers
  • 6 Cultural perception of lawyers
  • 7 Compensation
  • 8 History
    • 8.1 Ancient Greece
    • 8.2 Early Ancient Rome
    • 8.3 Late Ancient Rome
    • 8.4 Middle Ages
  • 9 Titles
  • 10 See also
  • 11 Notes
  • 12 External links

Terminology

In practice, legal jurisdictions exercise their right to determine who is recognized as being a lawyer; as a result, the meaning of the term «lawyer» may vary from place to place.[4]

  • In Australia the word «lawyer» is used to refer to both barristers and solicitors (whether in private practice or practising as corporate in-house counsel).
  • In Canada, the word «lawyer» only refers to individuals who have been called to the bar or have qualified as civil law notaries in the province of Quebec. Common law lawyers in Canada may also be known as «barristers and solicitors», but should not be referred to as «attorneys», since that term has a different meaning in Canadian usage. However, in Quebec, civil law advocates (or avocats in French) often call themselves «attorney» and sometimes «barrister and solicitor».
  • In England and Wales, «lawyer» is used loosely to refer to a broad variety of law-trained persons. It includes practitioners such as barristers, solicitors, legal executives and licensed conveyancers, ; and people who are involved with the law but do not practise it on behalf of individual clients, such as judges, court clerks, and drafters of legislation.
  • In India, the term «lawyer» is often colloquially used, but the official term is «advocate» as prescribed under the Advocates Act, 1961.[5]
  • In Scotland, the word «lawyer» refers to a more specific group of legally trained people. It specifically includes advocates and solicitors. In a generic sense, it may also include judges and law-trained support staff.
  • In the United States, the term generally refers to attorneys who may practice law; it is never used to refer to patent agents[6] or paralegals.[7]
  • Other nations tend to have comparable terms for the analogous concept.

Responsibilities

In most countries, particularly civil law countries, there has been a tradition of giving many legal tasks to a variety of civil law notaries, clerks, and scriveners.[8][9] These countries do not have «lawyers» in the American sense, insofar as that term refers to a single type of general-purpose legal services provider;[10] rather, their legal professions consist of a large number of different kinds of law-trained persons, known as jurists, of which only some are advocates who are licensed to practice in the courts.[11][12][13] It is difficult to formulate accurate generalizations that cover all the countries with multiple legal professions, because each country has traditionally had its own peculiar method of dividing up legal work among all its different types of legal professionals.[14]

Notably, England, the mother of the common law jurisdictions, emerged from the Dark Ages with similar complexity in its legal professions, but then evolved by the 19th century to a single dichotomy between barristers and solicitors. An equivalent dichotomy developed between advocates and procurators in some civil law countries, though these two types did not always monopolize the practice of law as much as barristers and solicitors, in that they always coexisted with civil law notaries.[15][16][17]

Several countries that originally had two or more legal professions have since fused or united their professions into a single type of lawyer.[18][19][20][21] Most countries in this category are common law countries, though France, a civil law country, merged together its jurists in 1990 and 1991 in response to Anglo-American competition.[22] In countries with fused professions, a lawyer is usually permitted to carry out all or nearly all the responsibilities listed below.

Oral argument in the courts

Arguing a client’s case before a judge or jury in a court of law is the traditional province of the barrister in England, and of advocates in some civil law jurisdictions.[23] However, the boundary between barristers and solicitors has evolved. In England today, the barrister monopoly covers only appellate courts, and barristers must compete directly with solicitors in many trial courts.[24] In countries like the United States that have fused legal professions, there are trial lawyers who specialize in trying cases in court, but trial lawyers do not have a de jure monopoly like barristers. In some countries, litigants have the option of arguing pro se, or on their own behalf. It is common for litigants to appear unrepresented before certain courts like small claims courts; indeed, many such courts do not allow lawyers to speak for their clients, in an effort to save money for all participants in a small case.[25] In other countries, like Venezuela, no one may appear before a judge unless represented by a lawyer.[26] The advantage of the latter regime is that lawyers are familiar with the court’s customs and procedures, and make the legal system more efficient for all involved. Unrepresented parties often damage their own credibility or slow the court down as a result of their inexperience.[27][28]

Research and drafting of court papers

Often, lawyers brief a court in writing on the issues in a case before the issues can be orally argued. They may have to perform extensive research into relevant facts and law while drafting legal papers and preparing for oral argument.

In England, the usual division of labour is that a solicitor will obtain the facts of the case from the client and then brief a barrister (usually in writing).[29] The barrister then researches and drafts the necessary court pleadings (which will be filed and served by the solicitor) and orally argues the case.[30]

In Spain, the procurator merely signs and presents the papers to the court, but it is the advocate who drafts the papers and argues the case.[31]

In some countries, like Japan, a scrivener or clerk may fill out court forms and draft simple papers for lay persons who cannot afford or do not need attorneys, and advise them on how to manage and argue their own cases.[32]

Advocacy (written and oral) in administrative hearings

In most developed countries, the legislature has granted original jurisdiction over highly technical matters to executive branch administrative agencies which oversee such things. As a result, some lawyers have become specialists in administrative law. In a few countries, there is a special category of jurists with a monopoly over this form of advocacy; for example, France formerly had conseils juridiques (who were merged into the main legal profession in 1991).[33] In other countries, like the United States, lawyers have been effectively barred by statute from certain types of administrative hearings in order to preserve their informality.[34]

Client intake and counseling (with regard to pending litigation)

An important aspect of a lawyer’s job is developing and managing relationships with clients (or the client’s employees, if the lawyer works in-house for a government or corporation). The client-lawyer relationship often begins with an intake interview where the lawyer gets to know the client personally, discovers the facts of the client’s case, clarifies what the client wants to accomplish, shapes the client’s expectations as to what actually can be accomplished, begins to develop various claims or defenses, and explains his or her fees to the client.[35][36]

In England, only solicitors were traditionally in direct contact with the client.[37] The solicitor retained a barrister if one was necessary and acted as an intermediary between the barrister and the client.[38] In most cases a barrister would be obliged, under what is known as the «cab rank rule», to accept instructions for a case in an area in which they held themselves out as practising, at a court at which they normally appeared and at their usual rates.[39][40]

Legal advice

Main article: Legal advice

Legal advice is the application of abstract principles of law to the concrete facts of the client’s case in order to advise the client about what they should do next. In many countries, only a properly licensed lawyer may provide legal advice to clients for good consideration, even if no lawsuit is contemplated or is in progress.[41][42][43] Therefore, even conveyancers and corporate in-house counsel must first get a license to practice, though they may actually spend very little of their careers in court. Failure to obey such a rule is the crime of unauthorized practice of law.[44]

In other countries, jurists who hold law degrees are allowed to provide legal advice to individuals or to corporations, and it is irrelevant if they lack a license and cannot appear in court.[45][46] Some countries go further; in England and Wales, there is no general prohibition on the giving of legal advice.[47] Sometimes civil law notaries are allowed to give legal advice, as in Belgium.[48] In many countries, non-jurist accountants may provide what is technically legal advice in tax and accounting matters.[49]

Protecting intellectual property

In virtually all countries, patents, trademarks, industrial designs and other forms of intellectual property must be formally registered with a government agency in order to receive maximum protection under the law. The division of such work among lawyers, licensed non-lawyer jurists/agents, and ordinary clerks or scriveners varies greatly from one country to the next.[32][50]

Negotiating and drafting contracts

In some countries, the negotiating and drafting of contracts is considered to be similar to the provision of legal advice, so that it is subject to the licensing requirement explained above.[51] In others, jurists or notaries may negotiate or draft contracts.[52]

Lawyers in some civil law countries traditionally deprecated «transactional law» or «business law» as beneath them. French law firms developed transactional departments only in the 1990s when they started to lose business to international firms based in the United States and the United Kingdom (where solicitors have always done transactional work).[53]

Conveyancing

Conveyancing is the drafting of the documents necessary for the transfer of real property, such as deeds and mortgages. In some jurisdictions, all real estate transactions must be carried out by a lawyer (or a solicitor where that distinction still exists).[54] Such a monopoly is quite valuable from the lawyer’s point of view; historically, conveyancing accounted for about half of English solicitors’ income (though this has since changed),[55] and a 1978 study showed that conveyancing «accounts for as much as 80 percent of solicitor-client contact in New South Wales.»[56] In most common law jurisdictions outside of the United States, this monopoly arose from an 1804 law[57] that was introduced by William Pitt the Younger as a quid pro quo for the raising of fees on the certification of legal professionals such as barristers, solicitors, attorneys and notaries.[58]

In others, the use of a lawyer is optional and banks, title companies, or realtors may be used instead.[59] In some civil law jurisdictions, real estate transactions are handled by civil law notaries.[60] In England and Wales a special class of legal professional–the licensed conveyancer–is also allowed to carry out conveyancing services for reward.[61]

Carrying out the intent of the deceased

In many countries, only lawyers have the legal authority to draft wills, trusts, and any other documents that ensure the efficient disposition of a person’s property after death. In some civil law countries this responsibility is handled by civil law notaries.[52]

In the United States, the estates of the deceased must generally be administered by a court through probate. American lawyers have a profitable monopoly on dispensing advice about probate law (which has been heavily criticized).[62]

Prosecution and defense of criminal suspects

In many civil law countries, prosecutors are trained and employed as part of the judiciary; they are law-trained jurists, but may not necessarily be lawyers in the sense that the word is used in the common law world.[63] In common law countries, prosecutors are usually lawyers holding regular licenses who simply happen to work for the government office that files criminal charges against suspects. Criminal defense lawyers specialize in the defense of those charged with any crimes.[64]

Education

The educational prerequisites to becoming a lawyer vary greatly from country to country. In some countries, law is taught by a faculty of law, which is a department of a university’s general undergraduate college.[65] Law students in those countries pursue a Master or Bachelor of Laws degree. In some countries it is common or even required for students to earn another bachelor’s degree at the same time. Nor is the LL.B the sole obstacle; it is often followed by a series of advanced examinations, apprenticeships, and additional coursework at special government institutes.[66]

In other countries, particularly the United States, law is primarily taught at law schools. In the United States[67] and countries following the American model, (such as Canada[68] with the exception of the province of Quebec) law schools are graduate/professional schools where a bachelor’s degree is a prerequisite for admission. Most law schools are part of universities but a few are independent institutions. Law schools in the United States (and many in Canada and elsewhere) award graduating students a J.D. (Juris Doctor/Doctor of Jurisprudence) (as opposed to the Bachelor of Laws) as the practitioner’s law degree. Many schools also offer post-doctoral law degrees such as the LL.M (Legum Magister/Master of Laws), or the S.J.D. (Scientiae Juridicae Doctor/Doctor of Juridical Science) for students interested in advancing their research knowledge and credentials in a specific area of law.[69]

The methods and quality of legal education vary widely. Some countries require extensive clinical training in the form of apprenticeships or special clinical courses.[70] Others, like Venezuela, do not.[71] A few countries prefer to teach through assigned readings of judicial opinions (the casebook method) followed by intense in-class cross-examination by the professor (the Socratic method).[72][73] Many others have only lectures on highly abstract legal doctrines, which forces young lawyers to figure out how to actually think and write like a lawyer at their first apprenticeship (or job).[74][75][76] Depending upon the country, a typical class size could range from five students in a seminar to five hundred in a giant lecture room. In the United States, law schools maintain small class sizes, and as such, grant admissions on a more limited and competitive basis.[77]

Some countries, particularly industrialized ones, have a traditional preference for full-time law programs,[78] while in developing countries, students often work full- or part-time to pay the tuition and fees of their part-time law programs.[79][80]

Law schools in developing countries share several common problems, such as an overreliance on practicing judges and lawyers who treat teaching as a part-time hobby (and a concomitant scarcity of full-time law professors);[81][82] incompetent faculty with questionable credentials;[83] and textbooks that lag behind the current state of the law by two or three decades.[81][84]

Earning the right to practice law

Main article: Admission to practice law

Some jurisdictions grant a «diploma privilege» to certain institutions, so that merely earning a degree or credential from those institutions is the primary qualification for practicing law.[85] Mexico allows anyone with a law degree to practice law.[86] However, in a large number of countries, a law student must pass a bar examination (or a series of such examinations) before receiving a license to practice.[85][87][88] In a handful of U.S. states, one may become an attorney (a so-called country lawyer) by simply «reading law» and passing the bar examination, without having to attend law school first (although very few people actually become lawyers that way).[89] In other states, the bar examination can be very challenging, such as in California where only 42.3% of applicants passed the examination administered in February 2011.[90]

Some countries require a formal apprenticeship with an experienced practitioner, while others do not.[91] For example, a few jurisdictions still allow an apprenticeship in place of any kind of formal legal education (though the number of persons who actually become lawyers that way is increasingly rare).[92]

Career structure

The career structure of lawyers varies widely from one country to the next.

Common law/civil law

In most common law countries, especially those with fused professions, lawyers have many options over the course of their careers. Besides private practice, they can become a prosecutor, government counsel, corporate in-house counsel, administrative law judge, judge, arbitrator, law professor, or politician.[93] There are also many non-legal jobs which legal training is good preparation for, such as corporate executive, government administrator, investment banker, entrepreneur, or journalist.[94] In developing countries like India, a large majority of law students never actually practice, but simply use their law degree as a foundation for careers in other fields.[95]

In most civil law countries, lawyers generally structure their legal education around their chosen specialty; the boundaries between different types of lawyers are carefully defined and hard to cross.[96] After one earns a law degree, career mobility may be severely constrained.[97] This is not the case in Germany, where all lawyers pass the same kind of training and examination which qualifies them to work in any legal profession, as judges, prosecutors, government officials or private law practitioners. Another interesting example is France, where for much of the 20th century, all judiciary officials were graduates of an elite professional school for judges. Although the French judiciary has begun experimenting with the Anglo-American model of appointing judges from accomplished advocates, the few advocates who have actually joined the bench this way are looked down upon by their colleagues who have taken the traditional route to judicial office.[98]

In a few civil law countries, such as Sweden,[99] the legal profession is not rigorously bifurcated and everyone within it can easily change roles and arenas.

Specialization

In many countries, lawyers are general practitioners who will take almost any kind of case that walks in the door.[100] In others, there has been a tendency since the start of the 20th century for lawyers to specialize early in their careers.[101][102] In countries where specialization is prevalent, many lawyers specialize in representing one side in one particular area of the law; thus, it is common in the United States to hear of plaintiffs’ personal injury attorneys.[103]

Organization

Lawyers in private practice generally work in specialized businesses known as law firms,[104] with the exception of English barristers. The vast majority of law firms worldwide are small businesses that range in size from 1 to 10 lawyers.[105] The United States, with its large number of firms with more than 50 lawyers, is an exception.[106] The United Kingdom and Australia are also exceptions, as the UK, Australia and the U.S. are now home to several firms with more than 1,000 lawyers after a wave of mergers in the late 1990s.

Notably, barristers in England and Wales and some states in Australia do not work in «law firms». Those who offer their services to the general public—as opposed to those working «in house»—are required to be self-employed.[107] Most work in groupings known as «sets» or «chambers», where some administrative and marketing costs are shared. An important effect of this different organizational structure is that there is no conflict of interest where barristers in the same chambers work for opposing sides in a case, and in some specialised chambers this is commonplace.

Professional associations and regulation

Mandatory licensing and membership in professional organizations

In some jurisdictions, either the judiciary[108] or the Ministry of Justice[109] directly supervises the admission, licensing, and regulation of lawyers.

Other jurisdictions, by statute, tradition, or court order, have granted such powers to a professional association which all lawyers must belong to.[110] In the U.S., such associations are known as mandatory, integrated, or unified bar associations. In the Commonwealth of Nations, similar organizations are known as Inns of Court, bar councils or law societies.[111] In civil law countries, comparable organizations are known as Orders of Advocates,[112] Chambers of Advocates,[113] Colleges of Advocates,[114] Faculties of Advocates,[115] or similar names. Generally, a nonmember caught practicing law may be liable for the crime of unauthorized practice of law.[116]

In common law countries with divided legal professions, barristers traditionally belong to the bar council (or an Inn of Court) and solicitors belong to the law society. In the English-speaking world, the largest mandatory professional association of lawyers is the State Bar of California, with 200,000 members.

Some countries admit and regulate lawyers at the national level, so that a lawyer, once licensed, can argue cases in any court in the land. This is common in small countries like New Zealand, Japan, and Belgium.[117] Others, especially those with federal governments, tend to regulate lawyers at the state or provincial level; this is the case in the United States,[118] Canada,[119] Australia,[120] and Switzerland,[121] to name a few. Brazil is the most well-known federal government that regulates lawyers at the national level.[122]

Some countries, like Italy, regulate lawyers at the regional level,[123] and a few, like Belgium, even regulate them at the local level (that is, they are licensed and regulated by the local equivalent of bar associations but can advocate in courts nationwide).[124] In Germany, lawyers are admitted to regional bars and may appear for clients before all courts nationwide with the exception of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof or BGH); oddly, securing admission to the BGH’s bar limits a lawyer’s practice solely to the supreme federal courts and the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany.[125]

Generally, geographic limitations can be troublesome for a lawyer who discovers that his client’s cause requires him to litigate in a court beyond the normal geographic scope of his license. Although most courts have special pro hac vice rules for such occasions, the lawyer will still have to deal with a different set of professional responsibility rules, as well as the possibility of other differences in substantive and procedural law.

Some countries grant licenses to non-resident lawyers, who may then appear regularly on behalf of foreign clients. Others require all lawyers to live in the jurisdiction or to even hold national citizenship as a prerequisite for receiving a license to practice. But the trend in industrialized countries since the 1970s has been to abolish citizenship and residency restrictions. For example, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down a citizenship requirement on equality rights grounds in 1989,[126] and similarly, American citizenship and residency requirements were struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 and 1985, respectively.[127] The European Court of Justice made similar decisions in 1974 and 1977 striking down citizenship restrictions in Belgium and France.[128]

Who regulates lawyers

A key difference among countries is whether lawyers should be regulated solely by an independent judiciary and its subordinate institutions (a self-regulating legal profession),[129] or whether lawyers should be subject to supervision by the Ministry of Justice in the executive branch.

In most civil law countries, the government has traditionally exercised tight control over the legal profession in order to ensure a steady supply of loyal judges and bureaucrats. That is, lawyers were expected first and foremost to serve the state, and the availability of counsel for private litigants was an afterthought.[130] Even in civil law countries like Norway which have partially self-regulating professions, the Ministry of Justice is the sole issuer of licenses, and makes its own independent re-evaluation of a lawyer’s fitness to practice after a lawyer has been expelled from the Advocates’ Association.[109] Brazil is an unusual exception in that its national Order of Advocates has become a fully self-regulating institution (with direct control over licensing) and has successfully resisted government attempts to place it under the control of the Ministry of Labor.[131][132]

Of all the civil law countries, Communist countries historically went the farthest towards total state control, with all Communist lawyers forced to practice in collectives by the mid-1950s.[133][134] China is a prime example: technically, the People’s Republic of China did not have lawyers, and instead had only poorly-trained, state-employed «legal workers,» prior to the enactment of a comprehensive reform package in 1996 by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.[135]

In contrast, common law lawyers have traditionally regulated themselves through institutions where the influence of non-lawyers, if any, was weak and indirect (despite nominal state control).[136] Such institutions have been traditionally dominated by private practitioners who opposed strong state control of the profession on the grounds that it would endanger the ability of lawyers to zealously and competently advocate their clients’ causes in the adversarial system of justice.[137]

However, the concept of the self-regulating profession has been criticized as a sham which serves to legitimize the professional monopoly while protecting the profession from public scrutiny.[138] Disciplinary mechanisms have been astonishingly ineffective, and penalties have been light or nonexistent.[139][140][141]

Voluntary associations of lawyers

Lawyers are always free to form voluntary associations of their own, apart from any licensing or mandatory membership that may be required by the laws of their jurisdiction. Like their mandatory counterparts, such organizations may exist at all geographic levels.[86][142] In American English, such associations are known as voluntary bar associations.[143] The largest voluntary professional association of lawyers in the English-speaking world is the American Bar Association.

In some countries, like France and Italy, lawyers have also formed trade unions.[144]

Cultural perception of lawyers

Hostility towards the legal profession is a widespread phenomenon. The legal profession was abolished in Prussia in 1780 and in France in 1789, though both countries eventually realized that their judicial systems could not function efficiently without lawyers.[145] Complaints about too many lawyers were common in both England and the United States in the 1840s,[146][147] Germany in the 1910s,[148] and in Australia,[149] Canada,[150] the United States,[151][152][153] and Scotland[154] in the 1980s.

Public distrust of lawyers reached record heights in the United States after the Watergate scandal.[153][155] In the aftermath of Watergate, legal self-help books became popular among those who wished to solve their legal problems without having to deal with lawyers.[156] Lawyer jokes (already a perennial favorite) also soared in popularity in English-speaking North America as a result of Watergate.[157] In 1989, American legal self-help publisher Nolo Press published a 171-page compilation of negative anecdotes about lawyers from throughout human history.[158]

In Adventures in Law and Justice (2003), legal researcher Bryan Horrigan dedicated a chapter to «Myths, Fictions, and Realities» about law and illustrated the perennial criticism of lawyers as «amoral […] guns for hire»[159] with a quote from Ambrose Bierce’s satirical The Devil’s Dictionary (1911) that summarized the noun as: «LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law.»[160]

More generally, in Legal Ethics: A Comparative Study (2004), law professor Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. with Angelo Dondi briefly examined the «regulations attempting to suppress lawyer misconduct» and noted that their similarity around the world was paralleled by a «remarkable consistency» in certain «persistant [sic?] grievances» about lawyers that transcends both time and locale, from the Bible to medieval England to dynastic China.[161] The authors then generalized these common complaints about lawyers as being classified into five «general categories» as follows:

“
  • abuse of litigation in various ways, including using dilatory tactics and false evidence and making frivolous arguments to the courts;
  • preparation of false documentation, such as false deeds, contracts, or wills;
  • deceiving clients and other persons and misappropriating property;
  • procrastination in dealings with clients; and
  • charging excessive fees.[162]
 ”

Compensation

Main article: Attorney’s fee

Lawyers are paid for their work in a variety of ways. In private practice, they may work for an hourly fee according to a billable hour structure,[163] a contingency fee[164] (usually in cases involving personal injury), or a lump sum payment if the matter is straightforward. Normally, most lawyers negotiate a written fee agreement up front and may require a non-refundable retainer in advance. In many countries there are fee-shifting arrangements by which the loser must pay the winner’s fees and costs; the United States is the major exception,[165] although in turn, its legislators have carved out many exceptions to the so-called «American Rule» of no fee shifting.

Lawyers working directly on the payroll of governments, nonprofits, and corporations usually earn a regular annual salary.[166] In many countries, with the notable exception of Germany,[167] lawyers can also volunteer their labor in the service of worthy causes through an arrangement called pro bono (short for pro bono publico, «for the common good»).[168] Traditionally such work was performed on behalf of the poor, but in some countries it has now expanded to many other causes such as the environment.

In some countries, there are legal aid lawyers who specialize in providing legal services to the indigent.[169][170] France and Spain even have formal fee structures by which lawyers are compensated by the government for legal aid cases on a per-case basis.[171] A similar system, though not as extensive or generous, operates in Australia, Canada, as well as South Africa.[citation needed]

In other countries, legal aid specialists are practically nonexistent. This may be because non-lawyers are allowed to provide such services; in both Italy and Belgium, trade unions and political parties provide what can be characterized as legal aid services.[172] Some legal aid in Belgium is also provided by young lawyer apprentices subsidized by local bar associations (known as the pro deo system), as well as consumer protection nonprofit organizations and Public Assistance Agencies subsidized by local governments.[173] In Germany, mandatory fee structures have enabled widespread implementation of affordable legal expense insurance.[174]

History

Main article: History of the legal profession

16th century painting of a civil law notary, by Flemish painter Quentin Massys. A civil law notary is roughly analogous to a common law solicitor, except that, unlike solicitors, civil law notaries do not practice litigation to any degree.

Ancient Greece

The earliest people who could be described as «lawyers» were probably the orators of ancient Athens (see History of Athens). However, Athenian orators faced serious structural obstacles. First, there was a rule that individuals were supposed to plead their own cases, which was soon bypassed by the increasing tendency of individuals to ask a «friend» for assistance.[175] However, around the middle of the fourth century, the Athenians disposed of the perfunctory request for a friend.[176] Second, a more serious obstacle, which the Athenian orators never completely overcame, was the rule that no one could take a fee to plead the cause of another. This law was widely disregarded in practice, but was never abolished, which meant that orators could never present themselves as legal professionals or experts.[177] They had to uphold the legal fiction that they were merely an ordinary citizen generously helping out a friend for free, and thus they could never organize into a real profession—with professional associations and titles and all the other pomp and circumstance—like their modern counterparts.[178] Therefore, if one narrows the definition to those men who could practice the legal profession openly and legally, then the first lawyers would have to be the orators of ancient Rome.[179]

Early Ancient Rome

A law enacted in 204 BC barred Roman advocates from taking fees, but the law was widely ignored.[180] The ban on fees was abolished by Emperor Claudius, who legalized advocacy as a profession and allowed the Roman advocates to become the first lawyers who could practice openly—but he also imposed a fee ceiling of 10,000 sesterces.[181] This was apparently not much money; the Satires of Juvenal complain that there was no money in working as an advocate.[182]

Like their Greek contemporaries, early Roman advocates were trained in rhetoric, not law, and the judges before whom they argued were also not law-trained.[183] But very early on, unlike Athens, Rome developed a class of specialists who were learned in the law, known as jurisconsults (iuris consulti).[184] Jurisconsults were wealthy amateurs who dabbled in law as an intellectual hobby; they did not make their primary living from it.[184] They gave legal opinions (responsa) on legal issues to all comers (a practice known as publice respondere).[185] Roman judges and governors would routinely consult with an advisory panel of jurisconsults before rendering a decision, and advocates and ordinary people also went to jurisconsults for legal opinions.[184] Thus, the Romans were the first to have a class of people who spent their days thinking about legal problems, and this is why their law became so «precise, detailed, and technical.»[184]

Late Ancient Rome

During the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire, jurisconsults and advocates were unregulated, since the former were amateurs and the latter were technically illegal.[186] Any citizen could call himself an advocate or a legal expert, though whether people believed him would depend upon his personal reputation. This changed once Claudius legalized the legal profession. By the start of the Byzantine Empire, the legal profession had become well-established, heavily regulated, and highly stratified.[187] The centralization and bureaucratization of the profession was apparently gradual at first, but accelerated during the reign of Emperor Hadrian.[188] At the same time, the jurisconsults went into decline during the imperial period.[189]

In the words of Fritz Schulz, «by the fourth century things had changed in the eastern Empire: advocates now were really lawyers.»[190] For example, by the fourth century, advocates had to be enrolled on the bar of a court to argue before it, they could only be attached to one court at a time, and there were restrictions (which came and went depending upon who was emperor) on how many advocates could be enrolled at a particular court.[191] By the 380s, advocates were studying law in addition to rhetoric (thus reducing the need for a separate class of jurisconsults); in 460, Emperor Leo imposed a requirement that new advocates seeking admission had to produce testimonials from their teachers; and by the sixth century, a regular course of legal study lasting about four years was required for admission.[192] Claudius’s fee ceiling lasted all the way into the Byzantine period, though by then it was measured at 100 solidi.[193] Of course, it was widely evaded, either through demands for maintenance and expenses or a sub rosa barter transaction.[193] The latter was cause for disbarment.[193]

The notaries (tabelliones) appeared in the late Roman Empire. Like their modern-day descendants, the civil law notaries, they were responsible for drafting wills, conveyances, and contracts.[194] They were ubiquitous and most villages had one.[194] In Roman times, notaries were widely considered to be inferior to advocates and jurisconsults.[194] Roman notaries were not law-trained; they were barely literate hacks who wrapped the simplest transactions in mountains of legal jargon, since they were paid by the line.[195]

Middle Ages

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the onset of the Early Middle Ages, the legal profession of Western Europe collapsed. As James Brundage has explained: «[by 1140], no one in Western Europe could properly be described as a professional lawyer or a professional canonist in anything like the modern sense of the term ‘professional.’ «[196] However, from 1150 onward, a small but increasing number of men became experts in canon law but only in furtherance of other occupational goals, such as serving the Roman Catholic Church as priests.[197] From 1190 to 1230, however, there was a crucial shift in which some men began to practice canon law as a lifelong profession in itself.[198]

The legal profession’s return was marked by the renewed efforts of church and state to regulate it. In 1231 two French councils mandated that lawyers had to swear an oath of admission before practicing before the bishop’s courts in their regions, and a similar oath was promulgated by the papal legate in London in 1237.[199] During the same decade, Frederick II, the emperor of the Kingdom of Sicily, imposed a similar oath in his civil courts.[200] By 1250 the nucleus of a new legal profession had clearly formed.[201] The new trend towards professionalization culminated in a controversial proposal at the Second Council of Lyon in 1275 that all ecclesiastical courts should require an oath of admission.[202] Although not adopted by the council, it was highly influential in many such courts throughout Europe.[202] The civil courts in England also joined the trend towards professionalization; in 1275 a statute was enacted that prescribed punishment for professional lawyers guilty of deceit, and in 1280 the mayor’s court of the city of London promulgated regulations concerning admission procedures, including the administering of an oath.[203]

Titles

Generally speaking, the modern practice is for lawyers to avoid use of any title, although formal practice varies across the world.

Historically lawyers in most European countries were addressed with the title of doctor, and countries outside of Europe have generally followed the practice of the European country which had policy influence through colonization. The first university degrees, starting with the law school of the University of Bologna (or glossators) in the 11th century, were all law degrees and doctorates.[204] Degrees in other fields did not start until the 13th century, but the doctor continued to be the only degree offered at many of the old universities until the 20th century. Therefore, in many of the southern European countries, including Portugal and Italy, lawyers have traditionally been addressed as “doctor,” a practice which was transferred to many countries in South America and Macau. The term «doctor» has since fallen into disuse, although it is still a legal title in Italy and in use in many countries outside of Europe.[205]

The title of doctor has never been used to address lawyers in England or other common law countries (with the exception of the United States). This is because until 1846 lawyers in England were not required to have a university degree and were trained by other attorneys by apprenticeship or in the Inns of Court.[206] Since law degrees started to become a requirement for lawyers in England, the degree awarded has been the undergraduate LL.B. In South Africa holders of a law degree who have completed a year of pupillage and have been admitted to the bar may use the title «Advocate», abbreviated to «Adv» in written correspondence.

Even though most lawyers in the United States do not use any titles, the law degree in that country is the Juris Doctor, a professional doctorate degree,[207] and some J.D. holders in the United States use the title of «Doctor» in professional[208] and academic situations.

In countries where holders of the first law degree traditionally use the title of doctor (e.g. Peru, Brazil, Macau, Portugal, Argentina, and Italy), J.D. holders who are attorneys will often use the title of doctor as well.[209] It is common for English-language male lawyers to use the honorific suffix «Esq.» (for «Esquire»). In the United States the style is also used by female lawyers.

In many Asian countries, the proper title for a lawyer is simply, «lawyer», but holders of the Juris Doctor degree are also called «博士» (doctor).[210]

See also

  • Advocate
  • Advokat
  • Ambulance chaser (derogatory)
  • Attorney at law
  • Avocats Sans Frontières
  • Barrister, pupil barrister
  • Corporate lawyer
  • Counsel
  • Court dress
  • Fiduciary
  • Law broker
  • Law firm
  • Legal Executive[211]
  • Legalese
  • Licensed Conveyancer[212]
  • List of jurists
  • Mountebank
  • Notary public
  • Practice of law
  • Privilege of the predecessors
  • Prosecutor
  • Public defender
  • Rules lawyer (derogatory)
  • Scrivener
  • Shyster (derogatory)
  • Solicitor, trainee solicitor
  • St. Ivo of Kermartin (patron saint of lawyers)

Notes

  1. ^ Henry Campbell Black, Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th ed. (St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1979), 799.
  2. ^ Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. & Angelo Dondi, Legal Ethics: A Comparative Study (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8047-4882-9), 20-23.
  3. ^ John Henry Merryman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Europe and Latin America, 3rd ed. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), 102-103.
  4. ^ Hazard, 22-23.
  5. ^ Advocates Act, 1961, s. 2.
  6. ^ Carl W. Battle, The Patent Guide: A Friendly Guide to Protecting and Profiting from Patents (New York: Allworth Press, 1997), 49.
  7. ^ David G. Cooper and Michael J. Gibson, Introduction to Paralegal Studies, 2nd ed.(Clifton Park: Thomson Delmar Learning, 1998), 4.
  8. ^ Richard L. Abel, «Lawyers in the Civil Law World,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 1-53 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 4.
  9. ^ Merryman, 105-109.
  10. ^ Walter O. Reyrauch, The Personality of Lawyers (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), 27.
  11. ^ Jon T. Johnsen, «The Professionalization of Legal Counseling in Norway,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 54-123 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 91.
  12. ^ Kahei Rokumoto, «The Present State of Japanese Practicing Attorneys: On the Way to Full Professionalization?» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 160-199 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 164.
  13. ^ Merryman, 105.
  14. ^ Hazard, 21-33.
  15. ^ Benoit Bastard and Laura Cardia-Vonèche, «The Lawyers of Geneva: an Analysis of Change in the Legal Profession,» trans. by Richard L. Abel, in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 295-335 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 297.
  16. ^ Carlos Viladás Jene, «The Legal Profession in Spain: An Understudied but Booming Occupation,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 369-379 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 369.
  17. ^ Vittorio Olgiati and Valerio Pocar, «The Italian Legal Profession: An Institutional Dilemma,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 336-368 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 338.
  18. ^ Bastard, 299, and Hazard, 45.
  19. ^ Harry W. Arthurs, Richard Weisman, and Frederick H. Zemans, «Canadian Lawyers: A Peculiar Professionalism,» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 123-185 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 124.
  20. ^ David Weisbrot, «The Australian Legal Profession: From Provincial Family Firms to Multinationals,» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 244-317 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 250.
  21. ^ Georgina Murray, «New Zealand Lawyers: From Colonial GPs to the Servants of Capital,» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 318-368 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 324.
  22. ^ Anne Boigeol, «The Rise of Lawyers in France,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, 185-219 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 208.
  23. ^ Hazard, 30-32.
  24. ^ Richard L. Abel, The Legal Profession in England and Wales (London: Basil Blackwell, 1989), 116.
  25. ^ See, e.g., Cal. Code. Civ. Proc. § 116.530 (preventing attorneys from appearing in small claims court except as parties or witnesses).
  26. ^ Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, «The Venezuelan Legal Profession: Lawyers in an Inegalitarian Society,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 380-399 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 387.
  27. ^ Gordon Kent, «Lawyerless Litigants: Is Justice Being Served?» Edmonton Journal, 27 January 2002, A1.
  28. ^ Alan Feuer, «Lawyering by Laymen: More Litigants Are Taking a Do-It-Yourself Tack,» New York Times, 22 January 2001, B1.
  29. ^ Fiona Boyle, Deveral Capps, Philip Plowden, Clare Sandford, A Practical Guide to Lawyering Skills, 3rd ed. (London: Cavendish Publishing, 2005), 47-50.
  30. ^ See Abel, England and Wales, 56 and 141.
  31. ^ Jene, 369.
  32. ^ a b Rokumoto, 164.
  33. ^ Anne Boigeol, «The French Bar: The Difficulties of Unifying a Divided Profession,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 258-294 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 263; and Boigeol, «The Rise of Lawyers,» 206.
  34. ^ Richard L. Abel, American Lawyers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 132. See, e.g., Hines v. Lowrey, 305 U.S. 85 (1938) (upholding limitation on attorneys’ fees in veterans’ benefits cases to $10); Walters v. National Ass’n of Radiation Survivors, 473 U.S. 305 (1985) (same).
  35. ^ Paul J. Zwier & Anthony J. Bocchini, Fact Investigation: A Practical Guide to Interviewing, Counseling, and Case Theory Development (Louisville, CO: National Institute for Trial Advocacy, 2000), 13-44.
  36. ^ John H. Freeman, Client Management for Solicitors (London: Cavendish Publishing Ltd., 1997), 266-274.
  37. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 1 and 141.
  38. ^ J. R. Spencer and Richard M. Jackson, Jackson’s Machinery of Justice, 8th ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 336.
  39. ^ R.E. Megarry, Lawyer and Litigant in England (London: Stevens and Sons, 1962), 32.
  40. ^ Maureen Paton, «Cab-rank exits,» The Times, 9 October 2001, 1. This brief article explains the uneasy tension between solicitors and barristers, and the loopholes that have developed. For example, a barrister need not accept a case if the fee is too low or the barrister is just too busy.
  41. ^ Arthurs, 125; Johnsen, 74; and Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuelan Legal Profession,» 387.
  42. ^ Erhard Blankenburg and Ulrike Schultz, «German Advocates: A Highly Regulated Profession,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 124-159 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 124.
  43. ^ Joaquim Falcão, «Lawyers in Brazil,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 400-442 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 401.
  44. ^ Justine Fischer and Dorothy H. Lackmann, Unauthorized Practice Handbook: A Compilation of Statutes, Cases, and Commentary on the Unauthorized Practice of Law (Buffalo: William S. Hein Company, 1990), 30-35.
  45. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 185; Bastard, 318.
  46. ^ Kees Schuyt, «The Rise of Lawyers in the Dutch Welfare State,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 200-224 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 201.
  47. ^ Stephen J. McGarry, Multidisciplinary Practices and Partnerships: Lawyers, Consultants, and Clients, § 1.06[1] (New York: Law Journal Press, 2002), 1-29.
  48. ^ Luc Huyse, «Legal Experts in Belgium,» in Lawyers in Society: The Civil Law World, vol. 2, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 225-257 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 227.
  49. ^ Murray, 325; and Rokumoto, 164.
  50. ^ Lee Rousso, «Japan’s New Patent Attorney Law Breaches Barrier Between The ‘Legal’ And ‘Quasi-Legal’ Professions: Integrity Of Japanese Patent Practice At Risk?» 10 Pac. Rim L. & Pol’y 781, 783-790 (2001).
  51. ^ Arthurs, 125; and Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuelan Legal Profession,» 387.
  52. ^ a b Huyse, 227.
  53. ^ Boigeol, «The Rise of Lawyers,» 206.
  54. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 176; Hazard, 90-93; Murray, 325; and Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuelan Legal Profession,» 387.
  55. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 177.
  56. ^ Weisbrot, 292.
  57. ^ s. 14 Stamp Act 1804
  58. ^ Brian Abel-Smith and Robert Stevens, Lawyers and the Courts: A Sociological Study of the English Legal System, 1750-1965 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), 23.
  59. ^ Weisbrot, 251.
  60. ^ Arthurs, 125; Huyse, 227; and Schuyt, 201.
  61. ^ Simon Domberger and Avrom Sherr, «The Impact of Competition on Pricing and Quality of Legal Services,» in The Regulatory Challenge, eds. Matthew Bishop, John Kay, Colin Mayer, 119-137 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 121-122.
  62. ^ Ralph Warner & Stephen Elias, Fed Up with the Legal System: What’s Wrong & How to Fix It (Berkeley: Nolo Press, 1994), 11.
  63. ^ Hazard, 34-35; Huyse, 227; Merryman, 105, and Schuyt, 201.
  64. ^ Larry J. Siegel and Joseph J. Senna, Introduction to Criminal Justice, 10th ed. (Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005), 311-325.
  65. ^ Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, «Latin Legal Cultures in the Age of Globalization,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, 1-19 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 6.
  66. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 45-59; Rokumoto, 165; and Schuyt, 204.
  67. ^ Wayne L. Anderson and Marilyn J. Headrick, The Legal Profession: Is it for you? (Cincinnati: Thomson Executive Press, 1996), 52-53.
  68. ^ Anonymous, «Careers in the legal profession offer a variety of opportunities: While we may not think about it often, the legal system affects us every day,» The Telegram, 14 April 2004, D8.
  69. ^ Christen Civiletto Carey and Kristen David Adams, The Practice of Law School: Getting In and Making the Most of Your Legal Education (New York: ALM Publishing, 2003), 525.
  70. ^ Hazard, 127-129; Merryman, 103; and Olgiati, 345.
  71. ^ Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuelan Legal Profession,» 384.
  72. ^ Robert H. Miller, Law School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience, By Students, for Students (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000), 25-27.
  73. ^ Anderson, 4-10.
  74. ^ Blankenburg, 132; Friedman and Pérez-Perdomo, 6; Hazard, 124-128; and Olgiati, 345.
  75. ^ Sergio Lopez-Ayllon and Hector Fix-Figaro, » ‘Faraway, So Close!’ The Rule of Law and Legal Change in Mexico: 1970-2000,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, 285-351 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 324.
  76. ^ Herbert Hausmaninger, «Austrian Legal Education,» 43 S. Tex. L. Rev. 387, 388 and 400 (2002).
  77. ^ Miller, 42-60.
  78. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 57; Miller, 25; and Murray, 337.
  79. ^ Falcão, 410.
  80. ^ J.S. Gandhi, «Past and Present: A Sociological Portrait of the Indian Legal Profession,» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 369-382 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 375.
  81. ^ a b Lopez-Ayllon, 324.
  82. ^ Eliane Botelho Junqueira, «Brazil: The Road of Conflict Bound for Total Justice,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, 64-107 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 89.
  83. ^ Junqueira, 89.
  84. ^ Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo, «Venezuela, 1958-1999: The Legal System in an Impaired Democracy,» in Legal Culture in the Age of Globalization: Latin America and Latin Europe, eds. Lawrence M. Friedman and Rogelio Perez-Perdomo, 414-478 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 459. For example, a 1997 study found that not a single law school in Venezuela had bothered to integrate any part of the Convention on Children’s Rights into its curriculum, even though Venezuela had signed the treaty in 1990 and subsequently modified its domestic laws to bring them into compliance. Rather than embark on curriculum reform, Venezuelan law schools now offer special postgraduate courses so that recent graduates can bring their legal knowledge up-to-date with current law.
  85. ^ a b Abel, American Lawyers, 62.
  86. ^ a b Lopez-Ayllon, 330.
  87. ^ Hazard, 127, 129, & 133; Miller, 335-341.
  88. ^ Alan A. Paterson, «The Legal Profession in Scotland: An Endangered Species or a Problem Case for Market Theory?» in Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World, vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 76-122 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 89.
  89. ^ G. Jeffrey MacDonald, «The self-made lawyer: Not every attorney goes to law school,» The Christian Science Monitor, 3 June 2003, 13.
  90. ^ https://www.calbar.ca.gov/AboutUs/News/201111.aspx
  91. ^ Hazard, 129 & 133.
  92. ^ Weisbrot, 266.
  93. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 167-175; Abel, England and Wales, 214; Arthurs, 131; Gandhi, 374; Merryman, 102, and Weisbrot, 277.
  94. ^ Anderson, 124-131.
  95. ^ Gandhi, 374.
  96. ^ In general, see, Legomsky, Stephen H. (1990) Specialized Justice: Courts, Administrative Tribunals, and a Cross-National Theory of Specialization Oxford University Press, New York, ISBN 978-0-19-825429-4
  97. ^ Merryman, 102-105.
  98. ^ Boigeol, «The Rise of Lawyers,» 202.
  99. ^ Bernard Michael Ortwein II, «The Swedish Legal System: An Introduction,» 13 Ind. Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 405, 440-445 (2003).
  100. ^ Hazard, 39-43; Olgiati, 353.
  101. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 122.
  102. ^ Michael H. Trotter, Profit and the Practice of Law: What’s Happened to the Legal Profession (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1997), 50.
  103. ^ Herbert M. Kritzer, «The fracturing legal profession: the case of plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyers,» 8 Int’l J. Legal Prof. 225, 228-231 (2001).
  104. ^ Anderson, 111-117.
  105. ^ Hazard, 39.
  106. ^ Junqueira, 92. According to this source, as of 2003, there were 901 law firms with more than 50 lawyers in the United States.
  107. ^ Gary Slapper and David Kelly, The English Legal System, 7th ed. (London: Cavendish Publishing Ltd., 2004), 550.
  108. ^ Weisbrot, 264.
  109. ^ a b Johnsen, 86.
  110. ^ Boigeol, “The French Bar,” 271; Merryman, 106, and Junqueira, 89.
  111. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 127 and 243-249; Arthurs, 135; and Weisbrot, 279.
  112. ^ Bastard, 295; and Falcão, 401.
  113. ^ Blankenburg, 139.
  114. ^ Jene, 370.
  115. ^ Paterson, 79.
  116. ^ Arthurs, 143.
  117. ^ Murray, 339; Rokumoto, 163; and Schuyt, 207.
  118. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 116.
  119. ^ Arthurs, 139.
  120. ^ Weisbrot, 244.
  121. ^ Bastard, 299.
  122. ^ Falcão, 404.
  123. ^ Olgiati, 343.
  124. ^ Huyse, 239.
  125. ^ Howard D. Fisher, The German Legal System and Legal Language, 3rd ed. (London: Routledge Cavendish, 2002), 208-209.
  126. ^ Andrews v. Law Society of British Columbia, [1989] 1 S.C.R. 143.
  127. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 68.
  128. ^ Mary C. Daly, «Ethical and Liability Issues in International Legal Practice,» in Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, vol. 17, eds. Dennis Campbell and Susan Cotter, 223-268 (London: Kluwer Law International, 1995), 233.
  129. ^ For a classic explanation of the self-regulating legal profession, see the Preamble to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, ¶¶ 10-13.
  130. ^ Abel, Civil Law World, 10; Johnsen, 70; Olgiati, 339; and Rokumoto, 161.
  131. ^ Falcão, 423.
  132. ^ Maria da Gloria Bonelli, «Lawyers’ Associations and the Brazilian State, 1843-1997,» 28 Law & Soc. Inquiry 1045, 1065 (2003).
  133. ^ Kandis Scott, «Decollectivization and Democracy: Current Law Practice in Romania,» 36 Geo. Wash. Int’l L. Rev. 817, 820. (2004).
  134. ^ Timothy J. Tyler, «Judging the Past: Germany’s Post-Unification Lawyers’ Admissions Review Law,» 29 Tex. Int’l L.J. 457, 472 (1994).
  135. ^ Michael J. Moser, «Globalization and Legal Services in China: Current Status and Future Directions,» in The Internationalization of the Practice of Law, eds. Jens I. Drolhammer and Michael Pfeifer, 127-136 (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2001), 128-129.
  136. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 142-143; Abel, England and Wales, 29; and Arthurs, 148.
  137. ^ Arthurs, 138; and Weisbrot, 281.
  138. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 246-247.
  139. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 147; Abel, England and Wales, 135 and 250; Arthurs, 146; Hazard, 135; Paterson, 104; and Weisbrot, 284.
  140. ^ Richard L. Abel, English Lawyers Between Market and State: The Politics of Professionalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 374-375.
  141. ^ William T. Gallagher, «Ideologies of Professionalism and the Politics of Self-Regulation in the California State Bar,» 22 Pepp. L. Rev. 485, 490-491 (1995).
  142. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 132-133.
  143. ^ Arthurs, 141.
  144. ^ Boigeol, “The French Bar,” 274; and Olgiati, 344.
  145. ^ Blankenburg, 126; and Boigeol, “The French Bar,” 272.
  146. ^ Abel, England and Wales, 37.
  147. ^ Gerald W. Gawalt, «Sources of Anti-Lawyer Sentiment in Massachusetts, 1740-1840,» in Essays in Nineteenth-Century American Legal History, ed. Wythe Holt, 624-648 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976), 624-625. According to this source, the strong anti-lawyer sentiment of the period was rather ironic, since lawyers were actually so scarce in the American colonies that a 1715 Massachusetts law forbade litigants from retaining two lawyers because of the risk of depriving one’s opponent of counsel.
  148. ^ Blankenburg, 127.
  149. ^ Weisbrot, 246.
  150. ^ Arthurs, 128.
  151. ^ Marc Galanter, «Predators and Parasites: Lawyer-Bashing and Civil Justice, » 28 Ga. L. Rev. 633, 644-648 (1994).
  152. ^ Stephen D. Easton, «Fewer Lawyers? Try Getting Your Day in Court,» Wall Street Journal, 27 November 1984, 1. This article rebuts the common complaint of too many lawyers in the U.S. by pointing out that it is virtually impossible for a plaintiff to prevail in the vast majority of countries with less lawyers, like Japan, because there are simply not enough lawyers or judges to go around. Even wrongful death cases with clear evidence of fault can drag on for decades in Japan. Thus, any reduction in the number of lawyers would result in reduced enforcement of individual rights.
  153. ^ a b Gerry Spence, With Justice For None: Destroying An American Myth (New York: Times Books, 1989), 27-40
  154. ^ Paterson, 76.
  155. ^ Jerold Auerbach, Unequal Justice: Lawyers and Social Change in Modern America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 301.
  156. ^ For examples of legal self-help books written by lawyers which concede that the profession has a bad image, see Mark H. McCormack, The Terrible Truth About Lawyers (New York: Beech Tree Books, 1987), 11; Kenneth Menendez, Taming the Lawyers (Santa Monica, CA, Merritt Publishing, 1996), 2; and Stuart Kahan and Robert M. Cavallo, Do I Really Need A Lawyer? (Radnor, PA: Chilton Book Company, 1979), 2.
  157. ^ Gayle White, «So, a lawyer, a skunk and a catfish walk into a bar…: No shortage of jokes,» National Post, 27 May 2006, FW8.
  158. ^ Andrew Roth & Jonathan Roth, Devil’s Advocates: The Unnatural History of Lawyers (Berkeley: Nolo Press, 1989), ix.
  159. ^ Bryan Horrigan, «Myths, Fictions, and Realities» (chap. 2), in Adventures in Law and Justice: Exploring Big Legal Questions in Everyday Life, Law at Large, 55–82 (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2003, ISBN 0-86840-572-8), 55 & 62–66. Bierce is quoted p. 64.
  160. ^ Ambrose Bierce, «Lawyer», in The Devil’s Dictionary (1911), electronic entry at Dict.org. Also found quoted in many legal books.
  161. ^ Hazard, 60.
  162. ^ Hazard, 60.
  163. ^ Anderson, 111-112.
  164. ^ Herbert M. Kritzer, Risks, Reputations, and Rewards: Contingency Fee Legal Practice in the United States (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004), 258-259. According to this source, contingency fees (or de facto equivalents) are allowed, as of 2004, in Canada, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, the Dominican Republic, Greece, France, Brazil, Japan, and, of course, the United States.
  165. ^ See Fleischmann Distilling Corp. v. Maier Brewing Co., 386 U.S. 714 (1967) (reviewing history of the American Rule).
  166. ^ Anderson, 120-121.
  167. ^ Matthias Kilian and Francis Regan, «Legal expenses insurance and legal aid—two sides of the same coin? The experience from Germany and Sweden,» 11 Int’l J. Legal Prof. 233, 239 (2004). According to this article, pro bono arrangements are illegal in Germany.
  168. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 129-130.
  169. ^ Abel, American Lawyers, 133.
  170. ^ Arthurs, 161; Murray, 342; Pérez-Perdomo, 392; Schuyt, 211; and Weisbrot, 288.
  171. ^ Boigeol, “The French Bar,” 280; and Jene, 376.
  172. ^ Olgiati, 354, and Huyse, 240.
  173. ^ Huyse, 240-241.
  174. ^ Blankenburg, 143.
  175. ^ Robert J. Bonner, Lawyers and Litigants in Ancient Athens: The Genesis of the Legal Profession (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1927), 202.
  176. ^ Bonner, 204.
  177. ^ Bonner, 206.
  178. ^ Bonner, 208-209.
  179. ^ Hazard, 18.
  180. ^ John A. Crook, Law and Life of Ancient Rome (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1967), 90.
  181. ^ Crook, 90. Crook cites Tacitus, Annals VI, 5 and 7 for this point. For more information about the complex political affair that forced Emperor Claudius to decide this issue, see The Annals of Tacitus, Book VI (Franklin Center, PA: The Franklin Library, 1982), 208.
  182. ^ Crook, 91.
  183. ^ Crook, 87.
  184. ^ a b c d Crook, 88.
  185. ^ Crook, 89.
  186. ^ Crook, 90.
  187. ^ A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative Survey, vol. 1 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), 507.
  188. ^ Fritz Schulz, History of Roman Legal Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1946), 113.
  189. ^ Schulz, 113.
  190. ^ Schulz, 268.
  191. ^ Jones, 508-510.
  192. ^ Jones, 512-513.
  193. ^ a b c Jones, 511.
  194. ^ a b c Jones, 515.
  195. ^ Jones, 516.
  196. ^ James A. Brundage, «The Rise of the Professional Jurist in the Thirteenth Century,» 20 Syracuse J. Int’l L. & Com. 185 (1994).
  197. ^ Brundage, 185-186.
  198. ^ Brundage, 186-187.
  199. ^ Brundage, 188.
  200. ^ Brundage, 188-189.
  201. ^ Brundage, 190.
  202. ^ a b Brundage, 189.
  203. ^ John Hamilton Baker, An Introduction to British Legal History, 3rd ed. (London: Butterworths, 1990), 179.
  204. ^ Herbermann, et al. (1915). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Encyclopedia Press. Accessed May 26, 2008. García y García, A. (1992). «The Faculties of Law,» A History of the University in Europe, London: Cambridge University Press. Accessed May 26, 2008.
  205. ^ Regio Decreto 4 giugno 1938, n.1269, Art. 48. (in Italian). Accessed February 10, 2009.
  206. ^ Stein, R. (1981). The Path of Legal Education from Edward to Langdell: A History of Insular Reaction, Pace University School of Law Faculty Publications, 1981, 57 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 429, pp. 430, 432, 434, 436
  207. ^ Association of American Universities Data Exchange. Glossary of Terms for Graduate Education. Accessed May 26, 2008; National Science Foundation (2006). NSF.gov «Time to Degree of U.S. Research Doctorate Recipients», «Info brief, Science Resource Statistics» NSF 06-312, 2006, p. 7. (under «Data notes» mentions that the J.D. is a professional doctorate); San Diego County Bar Association (1969). «Ethics Opinion 1969-5». Accessed May 26, 2008. (under «other references» discusses differences between academic and professional doctorate, and statement that the J.D. is a professional doctorate); University of Utah (2006). University of Utah – The Graduate School – Graduate Handbook. Accessed May 28, 2008. (the J.D. degree is listed under doctorate degrees); German Federal Ministry of Education. «U.S. Higher Education / Evaluation of the Almanac Chronicle of Higher Education». Accessed May 26, 2008. (report by the German Federal Ministry of Education analysing the Chronicle of Higher Education from the U.S. and stating that the J.D. is a professional doctorate); Encyclopedia Britannica. (2002). «Encyclopedia Britannica», 3:962:1a. (the J.D. is listed among other doctorate degrees).
  208. ^ American Bar Association. Model Code of Professional Responsibility, Disciplinary Rule 2-102(E). Cornell University Law School, LLI. Accessed February 10, 2009. Peter H. Geraghty. Abanet.org, «Are There Any Doctors Or Associates In the House?» American Bar Association, 2007.
  209. ^ Florida Bar News. Debate over ‘doctor of law’ title continues. Florida Bar Association, July 1, 2006.
  210. ^ Google Translate; The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary. (2002). Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, Beijing.; Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (Chinese-English). (2006). Pearson Education, Hong Kong, 2006.
  211. ^ Considered a lawyer in England and Wales
  212. ^ Considered a lawyer in England and Wales and Australia

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What is a lawyer?

A lawyer is a qualified legal professional. Specializations can be different: judge, lawyer, notary, prosecutor, bailiff, legal consultant, law enforcement officer, investigator, etc. The place of service and focus of activity determine the duties of a lawyer, but his work is always centered around the law. Representatives of this profession provide legal advice, research, collect and process information, protect and prosecute people, draft legal documents, draft laws, etc.

The origins of the profession date back to ancient Greece, when orators spoke on behalf of their friends or citizens at their request. They performed the role of legal advisers, but according to the then existing legislation, they were not entitled to any payment for their services. The first lawyers to receive remuneration for their work were ancient Romans. This happened around 204 BC when Emperor Claudius legalized this profession and lifted the ban on fees.

Salaries of a lawyer around the world

Country Min. salary/year Avg. salary/year Paralegal Judicial Secretary Prosecutor Judge
US 59,664 USD 122,952 USD 65,827 USD 56,194 USD 66,208 USD 240,000 USD
United Kingdom 25,041 USD 87,679 USD 28,809 USD 27,110 USD 75,153 USD 227,338 USD
Australia 28,498 USD 71,772 USD 38,070 USD 37,345 USD 55,408 USD 46,459 USD
Canada 38,423 USD 79,323 USD 38,416 USD 36,565 USD 58,305 USD 239,911 USD
Germany 43,764 USD 102,779 USD 40,414 USD 25,065 USD 126,283 USD 80,716 USD
France 48,140 USD 112,725 USD 52,269 USD 45,608 USD 94,015 USD 65,029 USD
Russian Federation 3,673 USD 8,570 USD 4,897 USD 2,449 USD 14,692 USD 36,729 USD
Czech Republic 30,386 USD 42,757 USD 25,768 USD 19,098 USD 46,120 USD 38,690 USD
China 46,833 USD 101,879 USD 38,620 USD 18,096 USD 101,879 USD 37,841 USD
Singapore 65,091 USD 141,620 USD 30,424 USD 32,174 USD 283,693 USD 72,395 USD

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Advantages of the lawyer profession

  • Relevance of the profession. Lawyers are needed always and everywhere. A wide range of activities is concentrated in their hands: lawyers develop legislation, carry out reforms, govern the state, decide the fate of people, protect victims and innocents, establish justice, accompany transactions, contracts, and much more. As long as there are legal states, lawyers will also have work to do.
  • A large number of career options. There is a wide range of career options and jobs for lawyers in both the private and public sectors. You can choose a quiet office job and become a notary, or find a job in a court — a place full of events and important decisions. Also, lawyers work in government agencies as civil servants. Having gained experience, you can go independent and become a private lawyer and either take on quieter civil cases or, go for serious criminal cases. If a lawyer is passionate about real estate, internal planning, or corporate law, then work can be found in a specific area in firms and enterprises.
  • Intellectual growth. Working as a lawyer is a daily mental work. Responsibilities include constantly reading documents, writing lawsuits, drafting speeches, developing strategies and lines of defense in courts, searching and processing large amounts of information. In addition, a lawyer must navigate endless amendments to laws and the political situation in the world and in the home country. In short, constant self-development, self-education, and work practice accompany a lawyer throughout the career.
  • Prestige and respect. The legal profession is automatically associated with a complex legal language, difficult studies, the ability to speak beautifully and professionally, as well as possession of secret and valuable knowledge. Therefore, society at the very least respects lawyers, and in some cases is terrified of them. People often try to make friends with lawyers, because it is always useful to have a friend or acquaintance in jurisprudence. After all, knowledge of the laws is important not only for a professional but also for all citizens living in a state governed by the rule of law.

Disadvantages of the lawyer profession

  • Career building. Due to high competition and a vague idea of ​​the career path, young lawyers are often lost and do not know where to go after graduation. Therefore, it is important to test your strength and train in different areas in order to determine the direction of your career, before you even graduate.
  • Difficulties in finding a job. Universities annually release thousands of young professionals to the labor market, which is already overcrowded with lawyers. Therefore, from the get-go it is difficult to find a job, not only because of a lack of experience but also because of the high competition among the same young graduates who are passionate about the profession. Moreover, enterprises are looking for already experienced professionals, which, despite a large number of lawyers, is a rare occurrence.
  • Constant stress. Responsibility for the fate of thousands of people lies on the shoulders of lawyers and judges. And when defending victims, a lawyer is faced with negativity at best and people’s grief at worst. All this leads to a lot of stress and anxiety. Therefore, a lawyer needs to be able to abstract and not take everything to heart. At the same time, it is important to keep a balance, otherwise, there is a risk of becoming cynical and cold, or becoming too sympathetic and burned out. Besides, the “habitats” of lawyers are not the most rosy — lawyers, judges, and prosecutors spend a lot of time in courts and prisons. As a result, depression, mental health problems, and suicides are increasingly common among professionals[1][2].

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Legal specializations

There are a large number of legal specializations: it can be anything from the law in the field of sports and entertainment to the protection of animal rights. The most common programs are jurisprudence, corporate, labor, and international law. Rarer but also promising programs could be:

  • Ecology and sustainable development field. Business development in the field of ecology, ethical products, and green building leads to high demand for lawyers of this specialization. Environmental requirements for business activities and insufficiently detailed regulation of this issue at the legislative level creates jobs for lawyers accompanying business and developing legislation.
  • Copyright law. The purpose of IP is to give people an incentive to make creative or scientific works that benefit society. The law guarantees profit from a work to its creators, and prevents the misappropriation of revenue and control over the proper use of the intellectual property.
  • Cyber law. Humanity has changed with the advent of the Internet and modern technology. Almost all spheres of life have migrated from paper and hard copies to virtual databases and websites. Consequently, relationships are now being built on the internet. The regulation of it at the legislative level is no longer the assumptions of the futurists, but long-term real practice. Illegal activity online is viewed as a criminal offense in many countries. This field is quite young and continues to develop, so the demand for highly specialized cyber law specialists is steadily growing.

A list of possible directions in jurisprudence can be found here. Descriptions of some of them, accepted abroad, are here.

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How to become a lawyer?

To become a lawyer you will need education. There is secondary legal education in colleges, but higher education in universities is preferable for a career and knowledge purposes. Jurisprudence refers to humanities and social sciences. Good lawyers are distinguished by intelligence and versatility. Therefore, a future lawyer needs to read a lot, be interested in the legislation of his country, follow the news and events at home and in the world. Sometimes a lawyer unexpectedly has to understand the legality of using lathes or what qualifies as smuggling of beauty products from China, so knowledge in a variety of areas does not hurt. Participation in debates is also useful to develop the ability to reasonably argue your case.

Specialized vocational law education

It is not really common for the countries to have a specialized secondary law education. In that case it is almost impossible to become a legalized lawyer after such education. The most feasible career would be a legal assistant or a paralegal. For example, there is no non-tertiary education in law in the USA, however elementary, secondary and high schools include law-related subjects in their curriculums.

However, many countries have developed VET (vocational education and training) education. For example, Australia has a lot of TAFE colleges that offer legal education. Graduates can find a job as paralegals, legal secretaries, legal services support officers, etc.

Higher law education

University studies are generally more difficult and demanding. Bachelor’s degree in law usually lasts for 4 years. Common disciplines in the specialty of jurisprudence: constitutional, civil, criminal, labor, financial, tax, land law, civil and criminal procedure, and others. Every year the subjects become more specialized and complicated. In universities, students can independently search for a place to undergo internships, or they can choose from the organizations offered by universities. As a rule, general subjects are studied for the first year or even a semester, and then students independently choose a specialization. Practice begins immediately after the 1st year, often at the initiative of students.

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Legal programs of the best foreign universities 2020

№QS subject ranking 2020 University Bachelor’s/year Country
1 Harvard University 65,875 USD USA
2 University of Oxford 34,176 USD United Kingdom
3 University of Cambridge 27,840 USD United Kingdom
4 Yale University 57,700 USD USA
5 Stanford University 21,450 USD United States
6 London School of Economics 27,018 USD United Kingdom
7 University of California at Berkeley 44,000 USD USA
8 Columbia University 72,352 USD USA
9 New York University 68,348 USD USA
10 University of Melbourne 30,116 USD Australia

Admission requirements

Requirements may vary depending on a country, university, and program. Most likely, you will need:

  • For bachelor’s — secondary education certificate, for master’s/PhD — bachelor’s / master’s degree (for some universities there are separate requirements for GPA);
  • Language certificate (English or local language). As a rule, higher language proficiency is required for law programs than for other specialties (C1, TOEFL or IELTS);
  • Motivation letter;
  • Letters of recommendation;
  • LSAT exam results (Law School Admission Test) in the USA, Canada and some universities in Australia;
  • Interview, resume, etc.

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What qualities does a lawyer need?

You can learn almost everything, but in order to build a successful career, it is desirable to have certain inclinations and qualities. The future lawyer will benefit greatly from the ability to persuade and speak beautifully, as well as skills in writing and thoughtful reading. Such qualities as thinking on your feet, persistence, clarity and consistency of logic, good memory, high sense of responsibility, nerves of steel, and stress resistance are very important. Students should be able to search and analyze information, be thorough and diligent. Often, applicants enter the Faculty of Law because they know how to argue well, but this, although a good quality, is not the most important thing. In addition, lawyers must have a sense of professional ethics, as the law requires confidentiality. In turn, such traits as absent-mindedness, gentleness, sensitivity, disorganization, and excessive emotionality can hinder a future lawyer.

It should be noted that the profession of a lawyer is not suitable for everyone. It is important to have almost all the necessary qualities, good preparation at the university, and the desire to become a successful lawyer and achieve professional success. Otherwise, it is possible to remain a consultant, civil servant, or paralegal without any hopes for promotion for a long time.

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Where do lawyers work?

Lawyers work in both the public and private sectors:

  • Almost every state structure accepts specialists with legal education: ministries, courts, government bodies;
  • Private employers: law firms, manufacturing companies, factories, banks, etc .;
  • Lawyers can work for themselves: notaries or private attorneys.

Many students want to become lawyers thinking that they will often go to court. This is a misconception, since most of the work takes place outside the courtroom — in the office, reading and analyzing documents and laws, especially at the initial stage.

Please, note that in many countries, it is impossible to become a lawyer right after graduation. To do that, you need to acquire additional qualifications. For more details, read our article about legal education abroad.

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Famous lawyers

Outstanding lawyers, famous for high-profile cases, enormous payouts, and remarkable charisma, have been many in the history of humanity.

One of them is the brilliant lawyer Fyodor Plevako. His court speeches are still being studied in law schools, and his name has become a household name. Crowds of people gathered to watch sessions with Plevako yet they always did not fit in the courtroom. All this was for the sake of the virtuoso oratorical talent and professionalism of a charismatic lawyer. Even the writer Chekhov admired the richness of his speech and the ability to accurately strike the heart with a word.

The United States has seen a plethora of phenomenal lawyers. In addition to numerous presidents with a legal background, one named Gloria Allred can be distinguished. The American lawyer is known for taking on high-profile and controversial cases involving the protection of women’s rights. In a four-decade legal career, Allred has dealt with civil claims related to sexual harassment, illegal dismissal, and discrimination against women during employment. Allred has represented numerous clients in celebrity lawsuits, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Boreanaz, Scott Lee Cohen, Anthony Weiner, Sasha Baron Cohen.

Another famous American lawyer is Robert Shapiro. In 1994, he was a member of the Dream Team of attorneys who successfully defended athlete OJ Simpson against charges of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. He also represented other celebrities such as Johnny Carson, Christian Brando, and members of the Kardashian family. He later co-founded LegalZoom and RightCounsel.com, appearing in their TV commercials.

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