The difference between solicitors and barristers
Americans, particularly, are perplexed that we have 2 different types of lawyers practising in England. Here is an attempt to clarify.
The expression "solicitor" first came into being towards the end of the sixteenth century. There were two types of lawyers practising in the High Courts - attorneys and barristers. In the eighteenth century attorneys were prevented from joining the Inns of Court (the preserve of Barristers). The attorneys in retaliation formed the Society of Gentlemen Practisers in the Courts of Law and Equity. Included in the membership of the Society was a growing group of lawyers called solicitors. Solicitors were employed to solicit favourable decisions on behalf of litigants bogged down in the court process. The name "attorney" had acquired unpleasant connotations and went out of usage in England, in favour of the 'gentler' term: solicitor. The only relic of that is the Attorney General - the Government's Chief law officer.
A popular definition of the distinction between solicitors and barristers is that barristers do the court work and solicitors do the office work. In practice the major volume of court work is done by solicitors, and barristers do much "office" work.
Another way of putting the distinction between the two branches of the profession is to describe solicitors as the general practitioners of the legal profession - though even this will not remain true for long. More and more solicitors are becoming specialists. It is the solicitors who have the first and direct contact with their clients. Barristers are brought in as and when they are needed - by solicitors.
(Taken from part of a chapter I wrote for the Penguin Guide to the Law)
I am not very comfortable about the expression "solicitor". Click the link to see the piece I wrote about it in Solicitors Journal.
The expression "solicitor" first came into being towards the end of the sixteenth century. There were two types of lawyers practising in the High Courts - attorneys and barristers. In the eighteenth century attorneys were prevented from joining the Inns of Court (the preserve of Barristers). The attorneys in retaliation formed the Society of Gentlemen Practisers in the Courts of Law and Equity. Included in the membership of the Society was a growing group of lawyers called solicitors. Solicitors were employed to solicit favourable decisions on behalf of litigants bogged down in the court process. The name "attorney" had acquired unpleasant connotations and went out of usage in England, in favour of the 'gentler' term: solicitor. The only relic of that is the Attorney General - the Government's Chief law officer.
A popular definition of the distinction between solicitors and barristers is that barristers do the court work and solicitors do the office work. In practice the major volume of court work is done by solicitors, and barristers do much "office" work.
Another way of putting the distinction between the two branches of the profession is to describe solicitors as the general practitioners of the legal profession - though even this will not remain true for long. More and more solicitors are becoming specialists. It is the solicitors who have the first and direct contact with their clients. Barristers are brought in as and when they are needed - by solicitors.
(Taken from part of a chapter I wrote for the Penguin Guide to the Law)
I am not very comfortable about the expression "solicitor". Click the link to see the piece I wrote about it in Solicitors Journal.
