Lawyer

A lawyer or attorney is a person who practices law, as an advocate, attorney at law, barrister, barrister-at-law, bar-at-law, canonist, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, legal executive, or public servant preparing, interpreting and applying the law, but not as a paralegal or charter executive secretary.^[1] 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 hire lawyers to perform legal services. The role of the lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions.^[2][3]

Terminology Of Lawyer

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. Some jurisdictions have two types of lawyers, barrister and solicitors, while others fuse the two. A barrister is a lawyer who specializes in higher court appearances. A solicitor is a lawyer who is trained to prepare cases and give advice on legal subjects and can represent people in lower courts. Both barristers and solicitors have gone through law school, and completed the requisite practical training. However, in jurisdictions where there is a split-profession, only barristers are admitted as members of their respective bar associations.

• In New Zealand, a person can only call themselves a lawyer if they have been admitted to the bar and enrolled as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand. A Barrister is usually the term used to refer to a lawyer that frequents Court, or a Court lawyer.
• In Australia, the word "lawyer" can be used to refer to both barristers and solicitors (whether in private practice or practicing as corporate in-house counsel), and whoever is admitted as a lawyer of the Supreme Court of a state or territory.
• In Canada, the word "lawyer" only refers to individuals who have been called to the bar or, in Quebec, have qualified as civil law notaries. Common law lawyers in Canada are formally and properly called "barristers and solicitors", but should not be referred to as "attorneys", since that term has a different meaning in Canadian usage, being a person appointed under a power of attorney. However, in Quebec, civil law advocates (or avocats in French) often call themselves "attorney" and sometimes "barrister and solicitor" in English, and all lawyers in Quebec, or lawyers in the rest of Canada when practising in French, are addressed with the honorific title, "Me." or "Maître".
• In England and Wales, "lawyer" is used to refer to persons who provide reserved and unreserved legal activities and includes practitioners such as barristers, attorneys, solicitors, registered foreign lawyers, patent attorneys, trademark attorneys, licensed conveyancers, public notaries, commissioners for oaths, immigration advisers and claims management services. The Legal Services Act 2007 defines the "legal activities" that may only be performed by a person who is entitled to do so pursuant to the Act. "Lawyer" is not a protected title.
• In South Africa, the profession is divided into "advocates" and "attorneys", having comparable descriptions to "barristers" and “solicitors" in the UK. Advocates spend one year under pupillage and attorneys spend two years under Articles of Clerkship before being admitted in the High Court to the role of advocates or attorneys as the case may be. "Lawyer" is a generic term referring to anyone qualified in law, however, its use is not widespread, especially not within the profession. "Legal practitioner" has gained limited usage with the introduction of the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014, under which the functions of attorneys and advocates overlap and are less distinct. This is not prevalent, however. "Legal advisor" is commonly used to describe in-house or corporate advisors.
• In Pakistan, the term "Advocate" is used instead of lawyer in the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973.
• In India, the term "lawyer" is often commonly used, but the official term is "advocate" as prescribed under the Advocates Act, 1961.^[4]
• 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^[5] or paralegals.^[6] In fact, there are statutory and regulatory restrictions on non-lawyers like paralegals practicing law.^[7]
• Other nations tend to have comparable terms for the analogous concept.