LawyerThe Website Lawyer Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the
law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law."
Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government
of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, 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. | ||
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personnel 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. * In New Zealand and Australia the word "lawyer"
is used to refer to both barristers and solicitors (whether in private practice
or practising as corporate in-house counsel) but not people who do not practice
the law. * 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, "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. * 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 or paralegals. * 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. 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; 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. 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. 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. Several countries that originally had two or
more legal professions have since fused or united their professions into a single
type of lawyer. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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 conseil juridiques (who
were merged into the main legal profession in 1991). 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. 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. In England, only solicitors were traditionally
in direct contact with the client. The solicitor retained a barrister if one was
necessary and acted as an intermediary between the barrister and the client. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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) 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. 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 professionalthe
licensed conveyanceris also allowed to carry out conveyancing services for
reward. Carrying out the intent of the deceasedIn 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.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). 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. Legal 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. 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 some 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 the Science of Law) for students interested in advancing their knowledge and
credentials in a specific area of law. 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 do not, like Venezuela.[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). 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). 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.
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
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); incompetent faculty
with questionable credentials;[83] and textbooks that lag behind the current state
of the law by two or three decades. Earning the right to practice law 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 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). Some countries require a formal
apprenticeship with an experienced practitioner, while others do not. 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). Career structure U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is
a famous example of a lawyer-turned-politician. 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 always aspire
to becoming a prosecutor, government counsel, corporate in-house counsel, administrative
law judge, judge, arbitrator, law professor, or politician.[92] 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.[93]
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. 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. After one earns a law degree, career
mobility may be severely constrained.[95] For example, unlike their American counterparts,[96]
it is difficult for German judges to leave the bench and become advocates in private
practice.[97] Another interesting example is France, where for much of the 20th
century, all magistrates were graduates of an elite professional school for judges.
Although the French magistracy 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 magistracy.[98] In a few civil law countries,
such as Sweden,[ 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. Organization Law firm 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 publicas 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 or the Ministry of Justice
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. In civil law countries, comparable organizations
are known as Orders of Advocates,[112] Chambers of Advocates,[113] Colleges of
Advocates,[114] Faculties of Advocates, or similar names. Generally, a nonmember
caught practicing law may be liable for the crime of unauthorized practice of
law. 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. 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. Some countries, like Italy, regulate lawyers at the regional
level, 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. 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, ] and similarly, American citizenship and residency requirements were
struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 and 1985, respectively.
The European Court of Justice made similar decisions in 1974 and 1977 striking
down citizenship restrictions in Belgium and France. 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), 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. 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. 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. 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.
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). 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. 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.[ Disciplinary mechanisms have been astonishingly ineffective,
and penalties have been light or nonexistent. 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.[142][86] In American English, such associations are
known as voluntary bar associations. 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. 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 Germany in the 1910s,[148]
and in Australia,[149] Canada,[150] the United States, and Scotland[154] in the
1980s. Public distrust of lawyers reached record heights in the United States
after the Watergate scandal.[155][153] 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. 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." 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
grievances" about lawyers that transcends both time and locale, from the
Bible to medieval England to dynastic China. 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. 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,[162]
a contingency fee[163] (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,
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.[165] In many countries, with the notable exception of Germany, lawyers
can also volunteer their labor in the service of worthy causes through an arrangement
called pro bono (for the common good).[167] 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. 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. ] A similar system, though not as extensive
or generous, operates in Australia, Canada, as well as 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.[171]
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.
In Germany, mandatory fee structures have enabled widespread implementation of
affordable legal expense insurance. 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.[174] However, around the
middle of the fourth century, the Athenians disposed of the perfunctory request
for a friend.[175] 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.[176] 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 professionwith professional associations and
titles and all the other pomp and circumstancelike their modern counterparts.[177]
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. Early Ancient Rome A law enacted in 204 BC barred Roman advocates
from taking fees, but the law was widely ignored. 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 openlybut he also
imposed a fee ceiling of 10,000 sesterces.This was apparently not much money;
the Satires of Juvenal complain that there was no money in working as an advocate.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. But very
early on, unlike Athens, Rome developed a class of specialists who were learned
in the law, known as jurisconsults (iuris consulti). 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). 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.[183] 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." 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. 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.[186] The
centralization and bureaucratization of the profession was apparently gradual
at first, but accelerated during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. At the same time,
the jurisconsults went into decline during the imperial period. In the words of
Fritz Schulz, "by the fourth century things had changed in the eastern Empire:
advocates now were really lawyers." 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 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.[ Claudius's fee ceiling lasted all
the way into the Byzantine period, though by then it was measured at 100 solidi.
Of course, 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. They were ubiquitous and most villages had one. In Roman times,
notaries were widely considered to be inferior to advocates and jurisconsults.
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. Middle Ages After the fall of the western Empire and the onset of the
Dark 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.' " 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.
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. 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. During the same decade,
Frederick II, the emperor of the Kingdom of Sicily, imposed a similar oath in
his civil courts. By 1250 the nucleus of a new legal profession had clearly formed.
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.[ 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 deceit, and in 1280 the mayor's
court of the city of London promulgated regulations concerning admission procedures,
including the administering of an oath. 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 "modernization"
or "colonialization." 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. 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, Spain and Italy, lawyers have traditionally
been addressed as doctor, a practice which was transferred to many
countries in South America (including Macau in China) Because the law degrees
are no longer doctorate level degrees, the formal doctor title for
lawyers is either seen as archaic or incorrect, although it is still a legal title
in Italy and in use in many countries outside of Europe. 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. Since law degrees started to become
a requirement for lawyers in England, the degree awarded has been the undergraduate
LL.B. 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,
and some J.D. holders in the United States use the title of "Doctor"
in professional 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. It is not uncommon for English-language lawyers, especially
in the United States, to use the honorific suffix "Esq." (for "Esquire"),
irrespective of whether the lawyer is male or female. In many Asian countries,
the proper title for a lawyer is simply, "lawyer", but holders of the
Juris Doctor degree are also called "??" (doctor) Loans
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