Attorney at law
or
attorney-at-law
, usually abbreviated in everyday speech to
attorney
, is the preferred term for a practising
lawyer
in certain jurisdictions, including
South Africa
(for certain lawyers),
Sri Lanka
, the Philippines, and the
United States
. In Canada, it is used only in
Quebec
as the English term for
avocat
. The term has its roots in the verb
to attorn
, meaning to transfer one's rights and obligations to another.
England and Wales and Ireland
edit
The "attorney", in the sense of a lawyer who acts on behalf of a client, has an ancient pedigree in English law. The
Statute of Merton
1235 uses the Latin expression
"attorn"
in a phrase rendered into English by
The Statutes of the Realm
as
[1]
It is provided and granted that every freeman, which oweth suit to the county, trything, hundred, and
wapentake
, or to the court of his Lord, may freely make his attorney to do those suits for him.
The term was formerly used in England and Wales and Ireland for lawyers who practised in the
common law
courts. They were officers of the courts and were under judicial supervision.
[2]
Attorneys did not generally actually appear as advocates in the higher courts, a role reserved (as it still usually is) for
barristers
.
Solicitors
, those lawyers who practised in the
courts of equity
, were considered to be more respectable than attorneys and by the mid-19th century many attorneys were calling themselves solicitors.
[2]
The
Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873
in England and Wales and the
Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877
in Ireland redesignated all attorneys as solicitors.
[3]
The term persists in legal usage in the United Kingdom solely in the instance of
patent attorneys
, who are legal professionals having sat professional qualifications and are expert in acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice. They may, or may not, be additionally either solicitors or barristers or have come to the practice through a technical expert route (e.g. following a PhD and period of practice in a scientific or engineering field).
In the now three separate jurisdictions of
England and Wales
,
Ireland
, and
Northern Ireland
, references in any enactment to attorneys, with the exception of patent attorneys, must be construed as references to solicitors.
[4]
[5]
[6]
The position of
Attorney-General
also persists.
In Poland, it is used as a free profession of public trust dealing with the provision of legal aid, in particular providing legal advice and consultations, drafting legal opinions, drafting legal acts, and appearing before courts and offices as a proxy or defence counsel. It is carried out on the basis of the Law of 6 July 1982 on attorney-at-law. In addition to the obligations arising from the law, every attorney-at-law and trainee attorney-at-law is also subject to the ethical standards of the attorney-at-law profession, defined in particular in the Code of Ethics for Attorney-at-Law.
Look up
attorney
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- ^
Luders, Alexander Luders, ed. (1820) [1235 Statute of Merton (originally in Latin)].
The Statutes of the Realm
(1963 reprint?ed.). London: Dawsons of Pall Mall. page 4, listing 20 Hen III Stat Merton X.
- ^
a
b
A. H. Manchester,
A Modern Legal History of England and Wales, 1750?1850
, Butterworths: London, 1980.
- ^
Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873, s 87; Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877, s 78;
Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law
3rd edition, London: Thomson Reuters (Legal) Limited 2010, p. 190
- ^
The
Solicitors Act 1974
,
section 89(6)
as read with
section 87(1)
- ^
Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978
,
section 105(2)
- ^
The Solicitors Act 1954,
section 84