Specialists

While a single firm might offer a full range of services, increasingly, individual solicitors and firms are specializing in areas of law in which they are experts. This is particularly true of firms dealing with business clients, more often found in the major cities: their specialisms include banking law, entertainment law, corporate and commercial law, construction, trusts, environmental law, insurance, intellectual property, tax, competition, shipping and arbitration.

Employed Solicitors

About 10% of solicitors are employed either by local or central government, or by companies in commerce and industry, who have their own in-house legal departments. A further 1,2000 solicitors are employed full-time by the Crown Prosecution Service, a government agency which prosecutes in criminal cases on behalf of the police. Employed solicitors have equal professional status with those in private practice: they are subject to the same rules and are recognized as fully independent lawyers. They are simply regarded as having agreed to work for one client only, their employer.

The Role of the Law Society

The Law Society has a number of other roles. It represents solicitors in dealings with the Government and other bodies in such areas as promoting law reform and discussing new legislation; it guides solicitors by informing them of developments in law or in practice management, and publishes books, journals and manuals to help them; it promotes the solicitors’ profession and helps consumers of legal services find suitable solicitors. The Law Society supervises the training of solicitors at all stages. In order to fulfill all of its functions the Law Society employs about 650 staff.

Task 3. Read the text and give annotation of it in Ukrainian. Solicitors in Private Practice

Almost 90% of solicitor work in private practice, either as sole practitioners or in a partnership. Sole practitioners are solicitors who own and manage their own firms. To become a sole practitioner a solicitor must have been qualified for 3 years. A partnership is where the management of the firm is controlled by a number of solicitor-partners, who divide the profits between them. Some employ a large number of staff, including other qualified solicitors. They sometimes employ foreign lawyers. Until recently it was not possible for solicitors to form a partnership with anyone who was not a solicitor. However, in 1992 new rules were introduced which allow solicitors to form partnerships with lawyers qualified in foreign jurisdictions. Some firms have offices abroad, particularly in other parts of Europe, the United States, the Middle East and the Far East, where they advise clients on English and international law. Most firms have four or fewer partners, but there is a growing trend towards larger firms as law becomes increasingly complex and specialised. Firms with 20 partners or more are becoming common and the largest firms nave more than 100 partners.

Solicitors have the back-up of extensive administrative facilities and take advantage of developments in information technology and telecommunications to run quick and efficient practices. Many firms now operate 24 hour practices to meet the immediate needs of clients anywhere in the world.

It is worth noting, however, that there is no monopoly on the giving of legal advice in the United Kingdom. The only limitations to this are areas restricted to solicitors and barristers by statute, which is the formalities concerning real property transfer and succession and the representation of clients before the courts. Anyone, whether a qualified lawyer or not, is able to give legal advice. All members of the public are able to undertake their own legal work, including representing themselves in court.