THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Warming-up

1. Why clid you make up your mind to become a lawyer?

2. Did anybody advice you to choose a career?

1. What is the most attractive thing in the legal profession! salary, pro­tection of society and individuals, prestige ?

Text 1

Read the text about the main types of legal professions.

THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Although many kinds of people working in or studying legal affairs are referred to as lawyers, the word really describes a person who has become officially qualified to act in certain legal matters because of examinations he has taken and professional experience he has gained.

I Most countries have different groups of lawyers who each takes a particular kind of examination in order to qualify to do particular jobs. In Ja­pan, a lawyer must decide whether he wants to take the examination to become an attorney, a public prosecutor or a judge. In England, the deci­sion is between becoming a barrister or a solicitor. Barristers specialize in arguing cases in front of a judge and have the right to be heard, the right of audience, even in the highest courts. They are not paid directly by clients, but are employed by solicitors. Solicitors have also a right of audience in lower courts, but in higher courts, such as the Court of Appeal, they must have a barrister to argue their client's case. In general, it can be said that a barrister spends most of his time either in a courtroom or preparing his arguments for the court and a solicitor spends most of his time in an office giving advice to clients, making investigations and preparing documents.

If a person has a legal problem, he will go and see a solicitor. In fact there are at least 50,000 solicitors in Britain, and the number is increas­ing.

Many problems are dealt with exclusively by a solicitor. For instance, the solicitor deals with petty crimes and some matrimonial matters in Mag­istrates' Courts. He prepares the case and the evidence. He actually speaks in Court for you.

In a civil action he can speak in the County Court, when the case is one of divorce or recovering some debts. In the County Court the solicitor wears a black gown over his ordinary clothes.

• A solicitor also deals with matters outside Court. He does the legal work involved in buying a house, for instance. He writes legal letters for you and carries on legal arguments outside Court. If you want to make a will the best man to advise you is a solicitor.

- Barristers are different from solicitors. Barristers are experts in the in­terpretation of the Law. They are called in to advise on really difficult points. The barrister is also an expert on advocacy (the art of presenting cases in Court). Indeed, if you desire representation in any Court except the Mag­istrates' Court, you must have a barrister.

Barristers are rather remote figures. If you need one, for instance, you never see him without your solicitor being with him. Barristers do not have public offices in any street. They work in what are known as chambers* often in London. They belong to the institutions called Inns of Court,* which are ancient organizations rather like exclusive clubs.

In the USA the Justice Department is responsible for the faithful exe­cution of the laws under the President's authority. The main administra­tors of federal law enforcement are the ninety-four U.S. attorneys,* who are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

There is a U.S. attorney in each federal judicial district. Their stuffs of assistant attorneys vary in size with the amount of litigation in the district. U.S. attorneys have considerable discretion, which makes them powerful political figures. Their decision to prosecute or not affects the wealth, free­dom, rights, and reputation of the individuals and organizations in the dis­trict.

chambers — адвокатская контора

(the) Inns of Court — юридические корпорации, готовящие адвокатов (четыре крупнейшие корпорации: the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn)

US attorney — прокурор округа (в CILIA)

Cain

According to the Bible, he was the first murderer. The story is told in Genesis, Chapter Four. He was a tiller of the soil and his brother Abel was a shepherd. They were both sons of Adam and Eve. When the Lord accepted Abel's offerings and rejected those of his, he was very "wroth and his countenance fell". He fell upon his brother Abel and killed him. When the Lord asked him where his brother was, he asked the famous question "am I my brother's keeper?". For his crime, he was banished to be a wanderer over the earth, but to prevent him from being killed, God put a mark upon him to protect him According to the Bible, he went to live in the land of Nod, east of Eden

Marcus Junius Brutus, 85—42 B.C., Gaius Longinus Cassius, d. 42 B.C.

These two Roman generals were the leaders of conspiracy to murder Julius Caesar, the man who invaded Britain and was one of the greatest Roman generals. Both had distinguished careers, having been promised governorships by Caesar. One was even a personal friend of Caesar's but was convinced by the other that Caesar, who by then was dictator of Rome, was a tyrant who must be got rid of. On the Ides (15^th) of March 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed to death on the steps of the Capitol, the senate house of Rome, both men taking part in the murder. Unfortunately, the conspiracy then began to crumble and the two generals fled to Macedonia to raise an army. They were defeated at the battle of Philip by Caesar's nephew Octavian and Roman military hero Mark Anthony. After the battle one committed suicide, while the other ordered his servant to kill him.

Caligula, A.D. 12—41

This Roman Emperor will always be remembered for his great cruelty and love of bloodshed. On one occasion, at one of the famous games, at which the gladiators performed, he is said to have remarked that he wished that the Roman people had only one neck so that he could kill them all with one blow. There is little doubt this his extreme cruelty was due to madness, as he started his reign in a very reasonable way. However, after a strange illness, he began to act as though insane and declared himself a god and even gave his horse a high public office. In the end he was murdered by a member of his own bodyguard as he left the games on 24^th January A.D. 41.

Colonia Agrippina, AD. 16—59

As Roman empress, married to the emperor Claudius, she is remembered mostly for having poisoned him in A.D. 54 in order Ш for her son, Nero to take the throne. The sister of Caligula and a cruel and ambitious woman, she is said to have murdered her er previous husband as well. In the end she met her death on the k orders of Nero, who was tired of being ruled by his mother. The city of her birth on the Rhine was named Colonia Agrippinensis in her honour and is now called Cologne.

Guy Fawkes, 1570—1606

Guy Fawkes is the best known member of the gang which planned Gunpowder plot of 1605. The originators of the plot were Robert Catesby, Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy and John Wright. Fawkes was only brought in later by Catesby, who knew of his reputation for courage. All were Roman Catholics and their plan was to destroy James I and his Protestant parliament by blowing them up. Percy rented a house next to parliament and later the cellar below the House of Lords. There Fawkes hid thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, covering them with wood and coal. The plot was discovered when one of the conspirators sent a letter to Lord Monteagle in October 1605 asking him not to attend the opening of parliament on 5^th November. Suspicions were aroused and on the night of 4^th November Fawkes was arrested in the cellar. He had been given the task of lighting the fuse to set off the explosion. Tortured, he refused to give the names of his fellow conspirators until they had either been killed or captured. He was executed by hanging on 31^st January 1606.

Captain William Kidd, 1645—1701

A privateer was a private person (a civilian not in the navy) who was given a commission to attack the King's enemies at sea and traditionally there was always a thin line dividing privateering from piracy. In 1695 William Kidd, a Scotsman who had emigrated 1; to Boston, Massachusetts, was given a commission by William II to arrest all pirates and also a commission to act as a privateer against the French He fitted out the brig Adventure and in 1697 sailed to Madagascar, the lair of many pirates at that time. But instead of attacking the pirates, he joined forces with them and began capturing merchant ships and plundering local trade. He deserted his ship and went to New York, offering treasure to the governor and claiming to be able to explain his actions. However, he was arrested and sent to England for trial where he was hanged in 1701. About 14,000 pounds of treasure was recovered from his ship and from a hiding place near Long Island, though there is still supposed to be a lot of Captain Kidd's treasure waiting to be found.

Alessandro Cagliostro, 1743—1795

Count Cagliostro's real name was Guiseppe Balsamo, and he became famous as a charlatan or confidence trickster, as we would call him today. As a young man he learned a little about chemistry and medicine and then left Sicily in 1769. After getting some knowledge of the supernatural, he appeared in Malta as the great Count Cagliostro, specialist in medicine, magic and all kinds of strange arts. He was soon fleecing the rich of Europe, selling them an elixir of youth and love potions. Finally he was condemned to death in Rome for setting up a secret society and died in prison at San Leone.

Billy the Kid (William Bonny), 1860—1881

Billy the Kid was a legend in the Wild West as a cattle rustler and murderer. Slim and fair, Billy was born in New York but soon moved to New Mexico. He was apprenticed to a blacksmith but found this boring, so he shot the smith and became a cowboy. At first he worked for John Chisholm, who was fighting a range war in the Pecos Valley. He quarrelled with Chisholm and joined a band of cattle rustlers, killing as many of Chisholm's men as he could in the process. Pat Garrett was elected sheriff to capture Billy the Kid He did this, but Billy shot two deputies and escaped from his cell just before he was due to be hanged. He was caught by Garrett two months and five murders later and shot dead in a gunfight. He was said to have shot twenty-one men, but in fact he probably only killed three.

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper" was a mysterious killer who terrorised the East End of London in the autumn of 1888. His victims, all women, were killed by having their throats cut, and in many cases the bodies were savagely mutilated as well. The number of victims is said to be between four and fourteen, though police authorities generally thought that only five murders were definitely the work of the Ripper. The Ripper was never caught, and his identity remains a mystery. All kinds of people have been suggested as possible Rippers, including the Duke of Clarence and even a barrister.

Roy Bean, d. 1903

In the days when the western part of the USA was known as Wild West law was upheld by very rough and ready men 'Judge* Bean, as he called himself, was one of the most colourful of the lawmen. As a young man he had been a slaver, driven an ammunition truck in the war against Mexico, smuggled cotton and been tried. He became famous as Justice of the Peace in a town called Vinegarroon. Here, in a saloon called the Jersey Lilly — so named after the actress Lily Langtree of whom he was a fan — he held the court. His justice was as rough as the people he tried and he built up an enormous reputation, so that many tales were told about him. One is that he decided on one occasion that a man accused of murdering a Chinaman might call on his tough friends to make trouble for the judge. Looking through his law books he announced that he could not find anywhere that it said that you must not kill a Chinaman!

Butch Cassidy, 1866—1910 and the Sundance Kid, d. 1910

Butch Cassidy, whose real name was Robert Leroy Parker, was the leader of a gang of American outlaws called the Wild Bunch who operated mainly from a secure hideout in Wyoming Territory called Hole in the Wall. Other members of the gang were the I Sundance Kid (real name Harry Longbaugh), Bill 'News' Carver, Ben Kilpatrick and Harvey Logan The Wild Bunch rustled cattle,