The legal profession in the uk

The legal profession in England and Wales has two branches, solicitors and barristers. There are some 67,000 solicitors in England and Wales, and only 8,500 practicing barristers. Barristers represent clients in the courts on the instruction of solicitors, although their exclusive rights of audience in the higher courts have been eroded in recent years. Barristers are organized into sets of Chambers, but are essentially self-employed. Their professional organization is called the Bar. Solicitors are organized into firms of varying size from sole practitioner to large international practices and provide all legal services, and instruct barristers. Their governing body is the Law Society.

Essentially, barristers are the lawyers who represent litigants as their advocate before the courts of that jurisdiction. They speak in court and present the case before a judge or jury. In some jurisdictions they undertake additional training in order to hone their skills with evidence law, ethics, and court practice and procedure. In contrast, solicitors generally engage in preparatory work and advice, such as drafting and reviewing legal documents, dealing with and receiving instructions from the client, preparing evidence, and managing the day-to-day administration of a matter. Solicitors can provide a crucial support role to a barrister when in court, be it in managing large volumes of documents in the case or even negotiating settlements outside the courtroom while the trial continues inside.

Other differences include the following:

• A barrister will usually have rights of audience in the higher courts, whereas other legal professionals will often have more limited access, or will need to take additional qualifications to do so. In this regard, the profession of barrister corresponds to that part of the role of legal professionals found in civil law jurisdictions relating to appearing in trials or pleading cases before the courts.

• Barristers usually have particular knowledge of case law, precedent and the skill of 'building' a case. When a solicitor in general practice is confronted with an unusual point of law, they sometimes seek the "opinion of counsel" on the issue.

• In most countries, barristers operate as sole practitioners, and are prohibited from forming partnerships or working as a barrister as part of a corporation (although in England and Wales the Clementi report has recommended the abolition of this restriction). However, barristers normally band together into 'chambers' to share clerks (administrators) and operating expenses. Some chambers grow to be large and sophisticated, and have a distinctly corporate feel. In some jurisdictions, some barristers are employed by firms of solicitors, banks or corporations as in-house legal advisers.

• Solicitors work directly with the client and are responsible for engaging an appropriate barrister; whereas barristers generally have little or no direct contact with their 'lay clients', particularly without the presence or involvement of the solicitor. All correspondence, inquiries, invoices, and so on, will be addressed to the solicitor, who is primarily responsible for the barrister's fees.

• In court, barristers are often visibly distinguished from solicitors by their apparel. For example, in Ireland, England and Wales, barristers usually wear a horsehair wig, stiff collar, bands and a gown. As of January 2008 Solicitor advocates have also been entitled to wear a wig, but will wear a different gown. In many countries the traditional divisions between barristers and solicitors are breaking down. Barristers once enjoyed a monopoly on appearances before the higher courts, but in England, Wales and Scotland this has now been abolished, and solicitor advocates can generally appear for clients at trial. Increasingly, firms of solicitors are keeping even the most advanced advisory and litigation work in-house for economic and client relationship reasons. Similarly, the prohibition on barristers taking instructions directly from the public has also been widely abolished, but in practice, direct instruction is still a rarity in most jurisdictions, partly because barristers with narrow specializations or who are only really trained for advocacy are not equipped to provide general advice to members of the public.

Historically barristers have had a major role in trial preparation, including drafting pleadings and reviewing evidence. In some areas of law, that is still the case. In others, it is relatively common for a barrister to only receive a "brief" from an instructing solicitor to represent a client at trial a day or two before the hearing.

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