THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN ENGLAND

1. THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN ENGLAND Unit 6

2. Preview Branches of the legal profession Solicitors: type of work Solicitors� professional organisation Solicitors� training Barristers: type of work Barristers� professional organisation Barristers� training Historical overview Legal terms

3. Branches of the legal profession Solicitors Barristers

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

5. 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

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

7. 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.

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

9. 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

10. 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

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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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)

17. 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) Also: estate agents, bank managers, accountants

18. 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

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

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

21. 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

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

23. 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 In 2004: over 96,000 solicitors

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

25. Training A law degree � not essential A student who does not graduate in law takes a conversion course and must sit the Common Professional Examination (CPE) or obtain a Diploma in Law CPE: 1 year (full time) or 2 years (part-time)

26. Training Legal practice course: 1 year (full course) or 2 years (part-time); the aim: to equip trainee solicitors with the knowledge and skills to work in a solicitor�s office; course-work, assessment of practical skills, written examinations

27. 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;

28. Training professional skills course (20 days): subjects such as accounts, professional conduct, advocacy

29. Barristers

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

31. Barristers When they qualify they are �called to the Bar�, an expression which 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

32. 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)

33. 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

34. 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

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

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

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

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

39. Inns of Court In order to become a barrister, a student must pass all the necessary law exams; he or she must also attend �qualifying sessions� which include �dining in Hall� and other educational activities

40. 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

41. 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)

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

43. 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�

44. Queen�s Counsel After some 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

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

46. Type of work Advocacy � work in court The art of advocacy � the art of persuasion

47. 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)

48. Training Academic qualifications, practical training Attending the Bar Vocational Course and doing at least 12 months� pupillage

49. Bar Vocational Course Practical course to prepare student barristers for life at the Bar Basic skills: advocacy, conference skills, drafting, fact management, legal research, negotiation, opinion writing

50. 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

51. 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)

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

53. 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

54. 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

55. Training of barristers A law degree, e.g. a Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B.) Many students graduate in a non-law subject and undertake a one year conversion course known as a postgraduate Diploma in Law, or GDL The student barrister then applies to join one of the Inns of Court to study for the Bar Vocational Course, or BVC It is mandatory to keep terms at an Inn before they can be called to the Bar

56. 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

57. 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

58. 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

59. 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�)

60. 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

61. 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

62. Status of solicitors 17th and 18th c. status of solicitors increased � 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)

63. Legal terms Barrister odvjetnik s pravom zastupanja pred sudom; pravozastupnik Solicitor odvjetnik bez prava zastupanja pred sudom; pravni zastupnik

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

65. 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

66. 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 vlasni�tva

67. 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

68. 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

69. 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

70. 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 parnickih stranaka, podnesci u gradanskom postupku

71. 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

72. 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

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

74. 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:

75. 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.

76. 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.

77. 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.

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

79. Exercise 3

80. 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

81. 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

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

83. 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

84. Exercise 5 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.

85. Exercise 5 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.

86. Exercise 5 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.

87. 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.

88. 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.

89. 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.

90. 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.

91. Additional information Barristers: www.barcouncil.org.uk Solicitors: www.lawsociety.org.uk/home.law International professional organisations www.ibanet.org