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A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters.
The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the Jurisdiction and the legal system, as well as the lawyer's area of practice. In many jurisdictions, the legal profession is divided into various branches — including Barrister, Solicitor, Conveyancer, notaries, canonist — who perform different tasks related to the law.Henry Campbell Black, Black's Law Dictionary, 5th ed. (St. Paul: Thomson West, 1979), 799.
Historically, the role of lawyers can be traced back to ancient civilizations such as Greece and Rome. In modern times, the practice of law includes activities such as representing clients in criminal or civil court, advising on business transactions, protecting intellectual property, and ensuring compliance with laws and regulations.
Depending on the country, the education required to become a lawyer can range from completing an undergraduate law degree to undergoing postgraduate education and professional training. In many jurisdictions, passing a bar examination is also necessary before one can practice law.
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 upholding the rule of law, human rights, and the interests of the legal profession.Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr. & Angelo Dondi, Legal Ethics: A Comparative Study (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004, ), 20–23.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.
England, the mother of the common law jurisdictions, emerged from the Middle Ages with a complexity in its legal professions similar to that of civil law jurisdictions, but then evolved by the 19th century to a single division between and .Documents from Medieval and Early Modern England from the National Archives in London.[1] Publications of the Selden Society include a Year Books series and other volumes transcribing and translating the original manuscripts of early common law cases and law reports, each volume having its editor's scholarly introduction. Publications of the Selden SocietyOne history of the law before the Norman Conquest is Pollock and Maitland, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, .[3]
Several countries that originally had two or more legal professions have since Fused profession or united their professions into a single type of lawyer.Bastard, 299, and Hazard, 45.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.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.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. 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.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. In countries with fused professions, a lawyer is usually permitted to carry out all or nearly all the responsibilities listed below.
In some jurisdictions descended from the English common law tradition, including England and Wales, there are often two kinds of lawyers. A barrister (also known as an advocate or counselor) is a lawyer who typically specializes in arguing before courts, particularly in higher courts. A solicitor (or attorney) is a lawyer who prepares cases and gives advice on legal subjects. In some jurisdictions, solicitors also represent people in court. Fused professions, where lawyers have rights of both barristers and solicitors, have emerged in other former English common law jurisdictions, such as the United States, India, and Pakistan.
On the other hand, civil law jurisdictions do not have "lawyers" in terms of a single general-purpose legal services provider.Walter O. Weyrauch, The Personality of Lawyers (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), 27. Rather, their legal professions consist of a large number of different kinds of legally-trained persons, known as , some of whom are who are licensed to practice in the courts.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.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.Merryman, 105. In some civil law countries, a similar distinction to the common law tradition exists between advocates and Legal procurator.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.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.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.
Because each country has traditionally had its own method of dividing up legal work among its legal professionals, it has been difficult to formulate accurate generalizations that cover all the countries with multiple legal professions.Hazard, 21–33. Other kinds of legal practitioners include:
While some jurisdictions regulate the use of the title "lawyer", others do not.Carl W. Battle, The Patent Guide: A Friendly Guide to Protecting and Profiting from Patents (New York: Allworth Press, 1997), 49.David G. Cooper and Michael J. Gibson, Introduction to Paralegal Studies, 2nd ed.(Clifton Park: Thomson Delmar Learning, 1998), 4.
The title of doctor has traditionally not been used to address lawyers in England or other common law countries. Until 1846, lawyers in England were trained by apprenticeship or in the Inns of Court, with no undergraduate degree being required.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 Although the most common law degree in the United States is the Juris Doctor,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); Encyclopædia Britannica. (2002). "Encyclopædia Britannica", 3:962:1a. (the J.D. is listed among other doctorate degrees). most J.D. holders in the United States do not use the title "doctor".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 It is, however, common for lawyers in the United States to use the honorific suffix "Esq." (for "Esquire").
In French language (France, Quebec, Belgium, Luxembourg, French-speaking area of Switzerland) and Dutch language-speaking countries (Netherlands, Belgium), legal professionals are addressed as Maître ..., abbreviated to Me ... (in French) or Meester ..., abbreviated to mr. ... (in Dutch). In Poland, the title Mecenas is used to refer to advocates and attorneys at law, although as an informal title its status is not protected by law.
In South Africa and India, lawyers who have been admitted to the bar may use the title "Advocate", abbreviated to "Adv" in written correspondence. Lawyers who have completed two years of clerkship with a principal Attorney and passed all four board exams may be admitted as an "Attorney". Likewise, Italian law graduates who have qualified for the bar use the title "Avvocato", abbreviated in "Avv."
In some jurisdictions, there are specialist lawyers who have exclusive rights of audience before a court.Richard L. Abel, The Legal Profession in England and Wales (London: Basil Blackwell, 1989), 116. In others, particularly fused legal jurisdictions, there are lawyers who specialize in courtroom advocacy but who do not have a legal monopoly over the profession.
In some countries, litigants have the option of arguing on their own behalf.See, e.g., Cal. Code. Civ. Proc. § 116.530 (preventing attorneys from appearing in small claims court except as parties or witnesses). In other countries, like Venezuela, no one may appear before a judge unless represented by a lawyer.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. The advantage of the latter regime is that lawyers are familiar with the court's customs and procedures, making 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.Gordon Kent, "Lawyerless Litigants: Is Justice Being Served?" Edmonton Journal, 27 January 2002, A1.Alan Feuer, "Lawyering by Laymen: More Litigants Are Taking a Do-It-Yourself Tack", The New York Times, 22 January 2001, B1.
In split common law jurisdictions, 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.Fiona Boyle, Several Capps, Philip Plowden, Clare Sandford, A Practical Guide to Lawyering Skills, 3rd ed. (London: Cavendish Publishing, 2005), 47–50. The barrister then researches and drafts the necessary court pleadings, which will be filed and served by the solicitor, and orally argues the case.See Abel, England and Wales, 56 and 141.
In Spanish civil law, the procurator merely signs and presents the papers to the court, but it is the advocate who drafts the papers and argues the case.Jene, 369. In other civil law jurisdictions, 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.Rokumoto, 164.
In England, only solicitors were traditionally in direct contact with the client,Abel, England and Wales, 1 and 141. but barristers nowadays may apply for rights to liaise with clients directly. The solicitor retained a barrister if one was necessary and acted as an intermediary between the barrister and the client.J. R. Spencer and Richard M. Jackson, Jackson's Machinery of Justice, 8th ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 336. 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.R.E. Megarry, Lawyer and Litigant in England (London: Stevens and Sons, 1962), 32.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.
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.Abel, England and Wales, 185; Bastard, 318.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. Some countries go further; in England and Wales, there is no general prohibition on the giving of legal advice.Stephen J. McGarry, Multidisciplinary Practices and Partnerships: Lawyers, Consultants, and Clients, § 1.061 (New York: Law Journal Press, 2002), 1–29. Singapore does not have any admission requirements for in-house counsel. Sometimes civil law notaries are allowed to give legal advice, as in Belgium.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.
In many countries, non-jurist accountants may provide what is technically legal advice in tax and accounting matters.Murray, 325; and Rokumoto, 164.
In others, the use of a lawyer is optional and banks, title companies, or may be used instead.Weisbrot, 251. In some civil law jurisdictions, real estate transactions are handled by civil law notaries.Arthurs, 125; Huyse, 227; and Schuyt, 201. In England and Wales, a special class of legal professionals–the licensed conveyancer–is also allowed to carry out conveyancing services for reward.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.
In other jurisdictions, particularly the United States and Canada, law is taught at the graduate level following the completion of an unrelated bachelor's degree.Wayne L. Anderson and Marilyn J. Headrick, The Legal Profession: Is it for you? (Cincinnati: Thomson Executive Press, 1996), 52–53.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. In America, the Americans Bar Association decides which law schools to approve for the purposes of admission to the bar. Law schools in the United States and Canada award graduating students a J.D. (Juris Doctor) as a professional law degree. 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.G. Jeffrey MacDonald, "The self-made lawyer: Not every attorney goes to law school", The Christian Science Monitor, 3 June 2003, 13.
The methods and quality of legal education vary widely. Some countries require extensive clinical training in the form of apprenticeships or special clinical courses.Hazard, 127–129; Merryman, 103; and Olgiati, 345. Others, like Venezuela, do not.Pérez-Perdomo, "Venezuelan Legal Profession", 384. 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).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.Anderson, 4–10. Many others focus on theoretical aspects of law, leaving the professional and practical training of lawyers to apprenticeship and employment contexts.Blankenburg, 132; Friedman and Pérez-Perdomo, 6; Hazard, 124–128; and Olgiati, 345.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.Herbert Hausmaninger, "Austrian Legal Education", 43 S. Tex. L. Rev. 387, 388 and 400 (2002).
Some countries, particularly industrialized ones, have a traditional preference for full-time law programs,Abel, American Lawyers, 57; Miller, 25; and Murray, 337. while in developing countries, students often work full- or part-time to pay the tuition and fees of their part-time law programs.Falcão, 410.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. 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 commitment, a concomitant scarcity of full-time law professors),Lopez-Ayllon, 324.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. incompetent faculty with underqualified credentials,Junqueira, 89. and textbooks that lag behind the current state of the law.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.
Some countries require a formal apprenticeship with an experienced practitioner, while others do not.Hazard, 129 & 133. 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.Weisbrot, 266.
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.In general, see, Legomsky, Stephen H. (1990) Specialized Justice: Courts, Administrative Tribunals, and a Cross-National Theory of Specialization Oxford University Press, New York, After one earns a law degree, career mobility may be severely constrained.Merryman, 102–105. For example, unlike their Anglo-American counterparts,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, "Margaret 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. it is difficult for German judges to leave the bench and become advocates in private practice.Blankenburg, 133. Another interesting example is France, where for much of the 20th century, all judiciary officials were graduates of an elite professional school for judges.Boigeol, "The Rise of Lawyers", 202.
In a few civil law countries, such as Sweden,Bernard Michael Ortwein II, "The Swedish Legal System: An Introduction", 13 Ind. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 405, 440–445 (2003). the legal profession is not rigorously bifurcated and everyone within it can easily change roles and arenas.
Notably, in England, Wales, Ireland, 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 generally self-employed.Gary Slapper and David Kelly, The English Legal System, 7th ed. (London: Cavendish Publishing Ltd., 2004), 550. 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.
Some large businesses employ their own legal staff in a legal department.Sobowale, J., BECOMING AN IN-HOUSE LAWYER, Canadian Bar Association, published 1 January 2015, accessed 15 March 2023 Other organizations buy in legal services from outside companies.Charlson, J. and Chinyio, E., A case study of joint procurement and provision of legal services to a group of a universities in the Midlands, published in Smith, S.D and Ahiaga-Dagbui, D.D (eds), Procs 29th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2–4 September 2013, Reading, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 493-502, accessed 15 March 2023
Other jurisdictions, by statute, tradition, or court order, have granted such powers to a professional association which all lawyers must belong to.Boigeol, "The French Bar", 271; Merryman, 106, and Junqueira, 89. In the U.S., such associations are known as mandatory, integrated, or unified . In the Commonwealth of Nations, similar organizations are known as Inns of Court, or law society.Abel, England and Wales, 127 and 243–249; Arthurs, 135; and Weisbrot, 279. In civil law countries, comparable organizations are known as Orders of Advocates,Bastard, 295; and Falcão, 401. Chambers of Advocates,Blankenburg, 139. Colleges of Advocates,Jene, 370. Faculties of Advocates,Paterson, 79. or similar names. Generally, a nonmember caught practicing law may be liable for the crime of unauthorized practice of law.Arthurs, 143.
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 can be seen in countries including New Zealand, Japan, and Belgium.Murray, 339; Rokumoto, 163; and Schuyt, 207. Others, especially those with federal governments, tend to regulate lawyers at the state or provincial level; this is the case in the United States,Abel, American Lawyers, 116. Canada,Arthurs, 139. Australia,Weisbrot, 244. and Switzerland,Bastard, 299. to name a few. Brazil is the most well-known federal government that regulates lawyers at the national level.Falcão, 404.
Some countries, like Italy, regulate lawyers at the regional level,Olgiati, 343. 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).Huyse, 239. 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.Howard D. Fisher, The German Legal System and Legal Language, 3rd ed. (London: Routledge Cavendish, 2002), 208–209.
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, Andrews v Law Society of British Columbia 1989 1 SCR 143. and similarly, American citizenship and residency requirements were struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 and 1985, respectively.Abel, American Lawyers, 68. The European Court of Justice made similar decisions in 1974 and 1977 striking down citizenship restrictions in Belgium and France.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.
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.Abel, Civil Law World, 10; Johnsen, 70; Olgiati, 339; and Rokumoto, 161. 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. 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.Falcão, 423.Maria da Gloria Bonelli, "Lawyers' Associations and the Brazilian State, 1843–1997", 28 Law & Soc. Inquiry 1045, 1065 (2003).
Of all the civil law countries, Communism countries historically went the farthest towards total state control, with all communist lawyers forced to practice in collectives by the mid-1950s.Kandis Scott, "Decollectivization and Democracy: Current Law Practice in Romania", 36 Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev. 817, 820. (2004).Timothy J. Tyler, "Judging the Past: Germany's Post-Unification Lawyers' Admissions Review Law", 29 Tex. Int'l L.J. 457, 472 (1994). 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.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.
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.Abel, American Lawyers, 142–143; Abel, England and Wales, 29; and Arthurs, 148. 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.Arthurs, 138; and Weisbrot, 281. 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.Abel, American Lawyers, 246–247. In some jurisdictions, mechanisms have been astonishingly ineffective, and penalties have been light or nonexistent.Abel, American Lawyers, 147; Abel, England and Wales, 135 and 250; Arthurs, 146; Hazard, 135; Paterson, 104; and Weisbrot, 284.Richard L. Abel, English Lawyers Between Market and State: The Politics of Professionalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 374–375.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).
Public distrust of lawyers reached record heights in the United States after the Watergate scandal.Jerold Auerbach, Unequal Justice: Lawyers and Social Change in Modern America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), 301. 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.For examples of legal self-help books written by lawyers which concede that the profession has a bad image, see Mark 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. Lawyer jokes also soared in popularity in English language-speaking North America as a result of Watergate.Gayle White, "So, a lawyer, a skunk and a catfish walk into a bar...: No shortage of jokes", National Post, 27 May 2006, FW8.
In Adventures in Law and Justice, 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"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, ), 55 & 62–66. Bierce is quoted p. 64 . with a quote from Ambrose Bierce's satirical The Devil's Dictionary that summarized the noun as: "LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law."Ambrose Bierce, "Lawyer" , in The Devil's Dictionary (1911), electronic entry at Dict.org. Also found quoted in many legal books.
More generally, in Legal Ethics: A Comparative Study, 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.Hazard, 60 . The authors then generalized these common complaints about lawyers as being classified into five "general categories" as follows:
Some studies have shown that suicide rates among lawyers in certain jurisdictions 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. Additionally, lawyers are twice as likely to suffer from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.
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,Anderson, 111–112. a contingency fee,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. or a lump sum payment. Normally, most lawyers negotiate a written fee agreement up front and may require a non-refundable advance payment 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 clients get worse outcomes. 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,See Fleischmann Distilling Corp. v. Maier Brewing Co., (reviewing history of the American Rule). 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.Anderson, 120–121. In many countries, 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").Abel, American Lawyers, 129–130. Traditionally such work was performed on behalf of the poor, but in some countries it has now expanded to many other causes such as environmental law.
In some countries, there are legal aid lawyers who specialize in providing legal services to the indigent.Abel, American Lawyers, 133.Arthurs, 161; Murray, 342; Pérez-Perdomo, 392; Schuyt, 211; and Weisbrot, 288. 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.Boigeol, "The French Bar", 280; and Jene, 376. A similar system, though not as extensive or generous, operates in Australia, Canada, and South Africa.
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. 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.Huyse, 240–241. In Germany, mandatory fee structures have enabled widespread implementation of affordable legal expense insurance.Blankenburg, 143.
Like their Greek contemporaries, early Roman advocates were trained in rhetoric, not law, and the judges before whom they argued were also not legally trained.Crook, 87. But very early on, unlike Athens, Rome developed a class of specialists who were learned in the law, known as jurisconsults ( iuris consulti).Crook, 88. Jurisconsults were wealthy amateurs who dabbled in law as an intellectual hobby; they did not make their primary living from it. They gave legal opinions ( responsa) on legal issues to all comers (a practice known as publice respondere).Crook, 89. 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. 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 developed in a systematic and technical way.
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.Crook, 90. 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.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. The centralization and bureaucratization of the profession was apparently gradual at first, but accelerated during the reign of Emperor Hadrian.Fritz Schulz, History of Roman Legal Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1946), 113. At the same time, the jurisconsults went into decline during the imperial period.Schulz, 113.
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 on how many advocates could be enrolled at a particular court.Jones, 508–510. 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.Jones, 512–513. Claudius's fee ceiling lasted all the way into the Byzantine period, though by then it was measured at 100 solidi.Jones, 511. It was widely evaded, either through demands for maintenance and expenses or a sub rosa barter transaction. The latter was cause for disbarment.
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.Jones, 515. They were ubiquitous and most villages had one. In Roman times, notaries were widely considered to be inferior to advocates and jury consults.
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.Brundage, 188. 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.Brundage, 188–189. By 1250, the nucleus of a new legal profession had clearly formed.Brundage, 190. 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.Brundage, 189. Although not adopted by the council, it was highly influential in many such courts throughout Europe. 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 Deception,Statute of Westminster 1275, ch. 29. and in 1280 the mayor's court of the city of London promulgated regulations concerning admission procedures, including the administering of an oath.John Hamilton Baker, An Introduction to British Legal History, 3rd ed. (London: Butterworths, 1990), 179. 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.Lucien Karpik, French Lawyers: A Study in Collective Action, 1274 to 1994 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 21.
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.Carol Rice Andrews, Standards of Conduct for Lawyers: An 800-Year Evolution , 57 SMU L. Rev. 1385 (2004). 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.
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