1. THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN ENGLAND
Unit 6

2. What can lawyers do for their clients?

3. Preview Branches of the legal profession Solicitors: type of work
Solicitors’ professional organisation
Solicitors’ training
Barristers: type of work
Barristers’ professional organisation
Barristers’ training
Advantages and disadvantages of a split profession
Historical overview
Legal terms

4. Branches of the legal profession
Solicitors
Barristers

5. Solicitors
Provide members of the public – their clients – with skilled advice and representation in all legal matters

6. Instructions
Anyone who needs legal advice or have legal work done will go to a solicitor’s office and tell them what he requires – this is called giving a solicitor instructions

7. Solicitors Work on their own, or as partners with other solicitors
A solicitor’s practice: firm of solicitors

8. Type of work
Litigation: preparing cases to be tried in the civil or criminal courts
Commercial: legal advice in the field of business, drawing up contracts
Conveyancing: making all the legal arrangements for the buying and selling of land, houses, etc.

9. Type of work
Employment: assisting employees and employers in cases involving allegations of unfair dismissal, or claims for redundancy payments
Family: divorce, child care

10. Type of work
Immigration: representing foreign nationals, or those without any national status, who are claiming asylum, or permission to stay or work
Licencing: arranging to apply for licences
Probate: making wills for clients and making sure their wishes are carried out

11. Type of work
At one time, most solicitors – general practitioners who would refer to experts in particular fields of law
‘family solicitor’
Today: many solicitors specialise in only one or two fields of law

12. Type of work
Legal advisors
Also: provide detailed records of a case

13. Type of work
The public comes into contact with solicitors more than any other people who work in the law; this gives them a unique insight into how decisions of the courts are made

14. Legal advice
Solicitors must be able to explain what the law is and how a particular set of circumstances is affected by the law
Good knowledge of the law and sound common sense

15. Records
Solicitors must create or organise a record of what happens in a case, so that the case may be understood by barristers and judges

16. Records
The recording process starts when the solicitor first meets the client
Solicitor provides the client with information about what can and cannot be done, and how much it will cost

17. Records
Keeping note of all important meetings and telephone conversations relating to the case
Organising all case documents (essential when handling clients’ property and money)

18. Family or ‘High Street’ Solicitor
‘on call’ to deal with almost every aspect of legal life
Individual clients (crime, personal injury claims, family matters, employment and social security problems)
Other clients: estate agents, bank managers, accountants

19. Representation
Solicitors often appear in court as advocates, ‘pleading the causes’ of their clients
Solicitors present cases in the lower courts: magistrates’ courts and the county courts

20. Solicitor advocates
Allowed to appear in the Crown Court and High Court

21. Solicitors and barristers
Solicitors have direct contact with their clients, barristers do not
The solicitor’s relationship with a client – more personal

22. Solicitors and barristers
A client who needs the services of a barrister must go first to a solicitor, who will instruct, or brief the barrister
The solicitor will choose the barrister who is right for the case, and help prepare the case for court

23. The Law Society
The professional body that governs the solicitors’ branch of the legal profession
Responsible for the training of solicitors

24. The Law Society
Solicitors - ‘admitted to the Rolls’, which means their names will be entered on the roll (list) of solicitors permitted to practise
They must have a practising certificate issued by the Law Society
Cc. 97,300 solicitors

25. The Law Society
Makes rules as to how solicitors should look after their clients
Carries out spot-checks and audits
Disciplinary powers

26. Training A law degree – not essential
A student who does not graduate in law takes a conversion course conversion course, also called the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL/CPE)
1 year (full time) or 2 years (part-time)

27. Training of solicitors
Legal Practice Course (LPC), or Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice  : 1 year (full course) or 2 years (part-time);
aim: to equip trainee solicitors with the knowledge and skills to work in a solicitor’s office;
course-work, practical skills, written examinations

28. Training Training contracts involve work in a solicitor’s office
Trainees handle their own cases, see clients, and carry out the responsibilities of a solicitor under supervision;

29. Training
Professional skills course: subjects such as accounting, professional conduct, advocacy
Compulsory modules: Criminal Litigation, Business Law and Practice, Property Law and Practice, and Civil litigation
Elective modules: personal injury, family law, employment law, housing law, immigration law, probate, commercial law, welfare law and commercial property law

30. Barristers

31. Barristers
Barrister-at-Law; also known as counsel

32. Barristers When they qualify they are ‘called to the Bar’
dates from the days when each courtroom was fitted with a bar dividing the area used by the court from the general public. Only barristers were allowed to step up to the bar to plead their clients’ cases

33. Barristers
Litigation or ‘courtroom lawyers’ who actually conduct cases in court
Rights of audience (rights to appear) in any court (Crown Court, Hight Court, courts of appeal)

34. Barristers
Mostly specialise in just one or two aspects of litigation (only criminal cases, or one or more of the many types of civil case)
Some: spend their professional lives advising, and writing opinions at the request of solicitors in cases that involve difficult and complicated areas of the law

35. Barristers
Clients who need to go to court cannot see a barrister directly;
they can only arrange to be represented by a barrister or to take his advice by first going to a solicitor;
the solicitor will then instruct or brief the barrister to help the client

36. Barristers Unlike solicitors, barristers cannot work in partnerships
Self-employed
In-house lawyers

37. Barristers
Share offices known as barristers’ chambers, and have their work organised by the same manager, who is called a barrister’s clerk

38. Barrister’s clerk
Arranges court appearances and meetings between clients, solicitors, and barristers (conferences)
Negotiates barristers’ fees

39. Inns of Court Gray’s Inn (1370) Lincoln’s Inn (1422)
Inner Temple (1440)
Middle Temple (1404)

40. Gray’s Inn

41. Inns of Court
In order to become a barrister, students must pass all the necessary law exams;
they must also attend ‘qualifying sessions’ which include ‘dining in Hall’ and other educational activities

42. Dining in Hall
Eating a number of dinners in the Great Hall of an Inn of Court
Dates from the days when students received their legal education by attending lectures which were given while they were dining in Hall

43. Inns of Court
Each Inn has its own hall, common rooms, library, and church
It is run by a number of Masters of the Bench, or benchers (senior barristers and judges who belong to the Inn, who are elected to govern it)

44. Inns of Court
For centuries, the training institutions and professional societies for barristers

45. Call to the Bar
The ceremony that takes place in the Hall, at which newly qualified barristers are formally admitted and welcomed into the profession
When barristers first qualify they are known as ‘junior counsel’

46. Queen’s Counsel
After 10 years of experience, a junior counsel who produces work of a high standard, may be appointed by the Lord Chancellor to be ‘One of Her Majesty’s Counsel Learned in the Law’ : Queen’s Counsel (QC)
Becoming a QC: taking silk

47. Barristers
2004: 14,364 practising barristers in England and Wales, of whom 1,239 QCs

48. Type of work Advocacy – work in court
The art of advocacy – the art of persuasion

49. Principles of advocacy
‘A practising barrister must promote and protect fearlessly and by all proper and lawful means his client’s best interests without regard to his own interests or to any consequences to himself or to any other person’ (Barrister’s Code of Conduct)

50. Training Academic qualifications, practical training
Attending the Bar Professional Training Course: one year full time or two years part time
BPTC aims to give students the skills and required for a career at the Bar: advocacy, role-playing, exercises in drafting legal documents and writing opinions.

51. Course content Case work skills: Case preparation, Legal research
Written Skills:Opinion-writing (giving written advice on cases), Drafting (writing various types of documents required for litigation)
Interpersonal skills: Conference skills (interviewing clients), Negotiation, Advocacy (court or tribunal appearances)
Legal knowledge: Civil litigation and remedies, Criminal litigation and sentencing, Evidence, Professional ethics

52. Pupillage
Apprenticeship with an experienced barrister in a set of barristers’ chambers
6 months with one ‘pupil master’ and 6 with another, in order to gain a wider experience

53. Pupillage
During the first six months a young barrister is not allowed to appear in court on his own
During the second six months he may do so in ‘appropriate cases’ (less serious cases)

54. Tenancy
After completing a pupillage, the new barrister can apply to become a tenant in a set of chambers
Very difficult to be accepted

55. Tenancy
If accepted, the new tenant will use the chambers as a base, and will be ‘clerked’ from them
Tenants have to make a contribution towards the expenses of running the chambers

56. Bar Council The governing body for barristers
Issues a code of conduct to which all barristers are obliged to adhere
Regulates activities of barristers,
maintains standards within the Bar
Considers complaints against barristers

57. Training of barristers: summary
1. A law degree, e.g. a Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B.)
or conversion course known as a postgraduate Diploma in Law, or GDL
2. The student barrister then applies to join one of the Inns of Court to study for the Bar Professional Training Course, or BPTC
3. Pupillage

58. Advantages
Having an independent barrister reviewing a course of action gives the client a fresh and independent opinion from an expert in the field.
A barrister acts as a check on the solicitor conducting the trial; if it becomes apparent that the claim or defence has not been properly conducted by the solicitor prior to trial, the barrister can (and usually has a duty to) advise the client of a separate possible claim against the solicitor.
Having trials conducted by experienced specialist advocates makes for smoother,more professionally run trials.

59. Disadvantages A multiplicity of legal advisers leads to higher costs
As barristers are dependent upon solicitors for referrals of work, it is open to question how willing barristers are to criticise those who instruct them to the client.
Barristers are sometimes criticised for being "over-specialised" and not having sufficient general expertise outside of what can be highly specialised fields.

60. Historical development: The emergence of barristers
England saw the very early emergence of a centralised system of justice within the Royal Court
Common law courts supplanted local courts
A legal profession operating in the central courts – 13th century

61. Factors facilitating the development of the legal profession
The language of the court – Norman French
Geography – impossible to make all the necessary journeys from a litigant’s local estates to the Royal Court
Litigants required persons who could speak for them in court and attorneys for procedural purposes who could act on their behalf in their absence

62. Emergence of barristers
In late 13th c. The Common Bench judges decided who they would permit to appear as advocates – these persons began to form an elite which stood apart from other legal practitioners
14th c. they organised into a guild known as “order of serjeants at law”
Admission to the guild – conducted by the judges of the Common Bench

63. Education of barristers
13th c. – legal education available; texts of lectures and disputations survive
1280s students referred to as “apprentices of the bench”
14th c. apprentices began to live around the area of the four Inns of Court
15th c. The Inns of Court – collegiate establishments (the “Third University of England”)

64. The emergence of solicitors
15th c. solicitors – persons who helped clients through the legal labyrinth, instructing counsel on their behalf
In 16th c. solicitors were young barristers
Sufficient advocacy work to occupy the Bar, leaving preliminary interviews with clients and procedural matters to solicitors

65. Further Developments
17th c. – division of responsibility between solicitor and barrister
Rules preventing barristers from undertaking the work of solicitors and excluding solicitors from the Inns of Court

66. Status of solicitors
17th and 18th c. status of solicitors improved – legal advisors of the wealthy
1804 conveyancing monopoly
19th c. probate, divorce and Admiralty work
Rights of audience in County Courts (set up in 1846)

67. Training: summary Solicitors Barristers
Degree, if not in law then a Graduate Diploma in Law/Common Professional Examination
Legal Practice Course
Bar Professional Training Course
Training contract
Pupillage

68. Role: Summary Solicitors Barristers
Private practice in solicitors’firm
Self-employed in chambers
Wide variety of work
Mostly court work
Contracts, wills, conveyancing
Also write opinions and draft documents
Direct access by clients
Direct access limited to other professions, e.g. accountants

69. Advocacy rights: summary
Solicitors
Barristers
Advocacy certificate
Full rights

70. Supervision
Solicitors
Barristers
Law Society
Bar Council

71. Legal terms Barrister odvjetnik s pravom zastupanja pred svim sudovima
Solicitor
odvjetnik s pravom zastupanja pred nižim sudovima

72. Legal terms Instructions
Details of the case given by a client to a solicitor, or by a solicitor to a barrister

73. Legal terms
Client
A person who pays for a service carried out by a professional person such as a solicitor
A person who employs a solicitor to carry out legal business on his behalf; a solicitor’s client cannot consult a barrister directly but only through his solicitor; the solicitor is therefore the barrister’s client

74. Legal terms
Estate:
all the property that is owned by a person, especially a person who has recently died
Ostavinska masa, ostavina
Conveyancing:
drawing up a document which legally transfers property from a seller to a buyer
Sastavljanje dokumenta o prijenosu vlasništva

75. Legal terms
Brief:
details of a client’s case, prepared by a solicitor and given to the barrister who is going to argue the case in court
To brief a barrister
to give a barrister all the details of the case which he will argue in court

76. Legal terms Defamation:
act of injuring someone’s reputation by maliciously saying or writing things about them
Negligence:
the tort of acting carelessly towards others so as to cause harm, entitling the injured party to claim damages
Nehaj, nemar

77. Legal terms
To sue:
to start legal proceedings against someone to get compensation for a wrong
Damages:
money claimed by a claimant from a defendant as compensation for harm done
Liable:
legally responsible for something

78. Legal terms Pleadings:
documents setting out the claim of the claimant or the defence of the defendant, or giving the arguments which the two sides will use in proceedings
Iskazi parničkih stranaka, podnesci u građanskom postupku

79. Exercise: Legal professionals
Below is a list of tasks carried out by solicitors and barristers. Classify them:
advising clients on general legal issues, advising clients on specialist legal issues, advising on litigation, advising on tax matters, advocacy in all courts, advocacy in lower courts, commercial work, conveyancing of houses, dealing with commercial transactions, drafting of documents in connection with litigation, making wills, preparing cases, share and other property dealings

80. Solicitors Advising clients on general legal issues
Advising on tax matters
Advocacy in lower courts
Commercial work
Conveyancing of houses
Dealing with commercial transactions
Making wills
Preparing cases
Share and other property dealings

81. Barristers Advocacy in all courts
Advising clients on specialist legal issues
Advising on litigation
Drafting of documents in connection with litigation

82. Exercise 2: Legal training
Legal training for solicitors (who provide general legal advice to clients) and barristers (who present cases in the upper courts) is different. The following texts describe the stages in legal training, but they are mixed up. Put the steps into the correct category (Training for solicitors/Training for barristers) and order:

83. Exercise 2 1. PRACTICE AND CONTINUING EDUCATION
The next stage is to obtrain a ‘tenancy’: becoming an assistant to a practising barrister.
2. GETTING THE QUALIFICATIONS
The next step is to acquire some legal traiing specific to the work of a barrister.
3. DEVELOPING PRACTICAL SKILLS
Next the intending solicitor has to enter a two-year training contract with a firm of solicitors to gain practical experience in a variety of areas of law.

84. Exercise 2 4. GETTING THE TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE: PUPILLAGE
This is the ‘apprenticeship’ served by trainee barristers, who are known as pupils. It usually takes a year and consists of a mixture of assisting and observing experienced barristers, as well as more practical experience.
5. GETTING THE ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
The quickest and most common route to qualification is by means of a qualifying law degree.

85. Exercise 2 6. GETTING THE VOCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
You will have to undertake the Legal Practice Course, which is the professional training for solicitors. The course teaches the practical application of the law to the needs of clients.
7. GETTING THE ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
The first part of training to become a barrister is known as the academic stage, which provides a general theoretical introduction to the law.

86. Exercise 2 Training for solicitors 5, 6, 3 Training for barristers
7, 2, 4, 1

87. Exercise 3 VERB NOUN NOUN - PERSON partner trainee advise practice
partner
trainee
advise
practice
specialise

88. Exercise 4 Match the two parts of the definitions:
1. Someone who works for his or herself is
2. If you speak on behalf of clients in court, you
3. Non-professional clients are known as
4. Barristers working solely for a company are called
5. The governing authorities of barristers are
6. When a solicitor gives a barrister the details of a case, the barrister is
7. When you work as a barrister you

89. Exercise 4 A) provide representation B) lay clients
C) Self-employed/ a sole trader
D) instructed
E) in-house counsel
F) practise at the Bar
G) the Bar Council and the Inns of Court

90. Key 1c 2a 3b 4e 5g 6d 7f

91. Exercise 5
Complete the extracts from a trainee barrister describing her professional life using the following: advocacy, Bar Vocational Course, chambers, conversion course, document/pleading/opinion, exercise rights of audience, pupillage, pupil master, senior barrister, shadow

92. advocacy, Bar Vocational Course, chambers, conversion course, document/pleading/opinion, exercise rights of audience, pupillage, pupil master, senior barrister, shadow
I took a first degree in Modern History, then did the ____ ____ in law at City University, which was much harder. I then did the ____ _____ _____ at the Inns of Court School of Law.
Most days I’d expect to be present in ____from about 8.45 am to 7.00pm, working almost throughout in my ____ _____’s room. During that time I ____his professional life completely.

93. advocacy, Bar Vocational Course, chambers, conversion course, document/pleading/opinion, exercise rights of audience, pupillage, pupil master, senior barrister, shadow
I generally look at papers when they first come in. I’m expected to be able to suggest how the case might be approached. In a week I might draft a___, prepare notes for a conference with clients, comment on draft witness statements, and research legal points.
Although all ___ are for twelve months, if they think you have no prospect of finding a ____in the chambers, after six months you would be told discreetly.

94. ____ _____ _____ in court.
advocacy, Bar Vocational Course, chambers, conversion course, document/pleading/opinion, exercise rights of audience, pupillage, pupil master, senior barrister, shadow
Chambers runs ___training evenings to reduce the loss of opportunity to ____
____ _____ _____ in court.
When I’ve prectised for more than ten years, I’d be interested in being appointed as a _____ ______, with a specialist area such as employment law.

95. Key
I took a first degree in Modern History, then did the conversion course in law at City University, which was much harder. I then did the Bar Vocational Course at the Inns of Court Schoold of Law. Most days I’d expect to be present in chambers from about 8.45 am to 7.00pm, working almost throughout in my pupil master’s room. During that time I shadow his professional life completely.

96. Key
I generally look at papers when they first come in. I’m expected to be able to suggest how the case might be approached. In a week I might draft a pleading/opinion/document, prepare notes for a conference with clients, comment on draft witness statements, and research legal points.

97. Key
Although all pupillages are for twelve months, if they think you have no prospect of finding a tenancy in the chambers, after six months you would be told discreetly. Chambers runs advocacy training evenings to reduce the loss of opportunity to exercise rights of audience in court.

98. Key
When I’ve practised for more than ten years, I’d be interested in being appointed as a senior barrister, with a specialist area such as employment law.

99. Additional information
Barristers:
Solicitors:
International professional organisations