Legal Profession

A lawyer 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 government of a society to maintain stability
and justice. Working as a lawyer represents the practical application of legal theory and knowledge to solve
real problems or to advance the interests of those who retain (i.e., hire) lawyers for legal services.

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

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.

• 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) but not people who do not practice the law. 

• In Britain, "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 practice it on behalf of individual clients, such as judges, court clerks, and drafters of 
legislation. 

• 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 the United States of America, the term generally refers to attorneys who may practice law. 

• 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 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. However, the boundary between barristers and solicitors has gradually evolved over time. For
example, in England, the barrister monopoly covers only appellate courts, and barristers must compete
directly with solicitors in many trial courts. 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 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. In
other countries, like Venezuela, no one may appear before a judge unless represented by a lawyer. 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, a solicitor gets the facts of the case from the client and briefs a barrister in writing. The barrister
then researches, drafts, and files the necessary court pleadings, and orally argues the case.

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. 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.

In other countries, particularly the United States, law is primarily taught at law schools. In the United States
and countries following the American model, (such as Canada 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. However, like other
professional doctorates (including the M.D.), the J.D. is not the exact equivalent of the Ph.D., since it does
not require the submission of a full dissertation based on original research. 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. Others do not, like Venezuela. 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 students have a preference for full-time law programs, while others 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; and textbooks that lag behind the current
state of the law by two or three decades.

Earning the right 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. Mexico allows anyone with
a law degree to practice law. 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 by simply passing the bar examination, without having to attend law
school first (though 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. 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. 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. For example, unlike their American counterparts, it
is difficult for German judges to leave the bench and become advocates in private practice. 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.

Specialization

In many countries, lawyers are general practitioners who will take almost any kind of case that walks in the
door. In others, there has been a tendency since the start of the 20th century for lawyers to specialize early in
their careers. 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.