Você está na página 1de 99

THE LEGAL PROFESSION

IN ENGLAND
Unit 6
What can lawyers do for their
clients?
Preview
Branches of the legal profession
Solicitors: type of work
Solicitors professional organisation
Solicitors training
Barristers: type of work
Barristers professional organisation
Barristers training
Advantages and disadvantages of a split profession
Historical overview
Legal terms

Branches of the legal profession
Solicitors
Barristers

Solicitors
Provide members of the public their
clients with skilled advice and
representation in all legal matters
Instructions
Anyone who needs legal advice or have
legal work done will go to a solicitors
office and tell them what he requires
this is called giving a solicitor
instructions

Solicitors
Work on their own, or as partners with
other solicitors
A solicitors practice: firm of solicitors

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.

Type of work
Employment: assisting employees and
employers in cases involving allegations of
unfair dismissal, or claims for redundancy
payments
Family: divorce, child care
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
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
Type of work
Legal advisors
Also: provide detailed records of a case
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
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
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

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
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)
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)
Other clients: estate agents, bank
managers, accountants
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
Solicitor advocates
Allowed to appear in the Crown Court and
High Court
Solicitors and barristers
Solicitors have direct contact with their
clients, barristers do not
The solicitors relationship with a client
more personal
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
The Law Society
The professional body that governs the
solicitors branch of the legal profession
Responsible for the training of solicitors
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
Cc. 97,300 solicitors

The Law Society
Makes rules as to how solicitors should
look after their clients
Carries out spot-checks and audits
Disciplinary powers
Training
A law degree not essential
A student who does not graduate in law
takes a conversion course conversion
course, also called the Graduate Diploma
in Law (GDL/CPE)
1 year (full time) or 2 years (part-time)
Training of solicitors
Legal Practice Course (LPC), or
Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice :
1 year (full course) or 2 years (part-time);
aim: to equip trainee solicitors with the
knowledge and skills to work in a
solicitors office;
course-work, practical skills, written
examinations
Training
Training contracts involve work in a
solicitors office
Trainees handle their own cases, see
clients, and carry out the responsibilities
of a solicitor under supervision;
Training
Professional skills course: subjects such as
accounting, professional conduct, advocacy
Compulsory modules: Criminal Litigation,
Business Law and Practice, Property Law and
Practice, and Civil litigation
Elective modules: personal injury, family law,
employment law, housing law, immigration law,
probate, commercial law, welfare law and
commercial property law
Barristers
Barristers
Barrister-at-Law; also known as counsel
Barristers
When they qualify they are called to the
Bar
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

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

Barristers
Share offices known as barristers
chambers, and have their work organised
by the same manager, who is called a
barristers clerk
Barristers clerk
Arranges court appearances and meetings
between clients, solicitors, and barristers
(conferences)
Negotiates barristers fees
Inns of Court
Grays Inn (1370)
Lincolns Inn (1422)
Inner Temple (1440)
Middle Temple (1404)

Grays Inn
Inns of Court
In order to become a barrister, students
must pass all the necessary law exams;
they must also attend qualifying sessions
which include dining in Hall and other
educational activities
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
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)
Inns of Court
For centuries, the training institutions and
professional societies for barristers
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
Queens 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 Majestys
Counsel Learned in the Law : Queens
Counsel (QC)
Becoming a QC: taking silk
Barristers
2004: 14,364 practising barristers in
England and Wales, of whom 1,239 QCs
Type of work
Advocacy work in court
The art of advocacy the art of
persuasion
Principles of advocacy
A practising barrister must promote and
protect fearlessly and by all proper and
lawful means his clients best interests
without regard to his own interests or to
any consequences to himself or to any
other person (Barristers Code of Conduct)
Training
Academic qualifications, practical training
Attending the Bar Professional Training
Course: one year full time or two years
part time
BPTC aims to give students the skills
and required for a career at the Bar:
advocacy, role-playing, exercises in
drafting legal documents and writing
opinions.
Course content
Case work skills: Case preparation, Legal research
Written Skills:Opinion-writing (giving written advice on
cases), Drafting (writing various types of documents
required for litigation)
Interpersonal skills: Conference skills (interviewing
clients), Negotiation, Advocacy (court or tribunal
appearances)
Legal knowledge: Civil litigation and remedies,
Criminal litigation and sentencing, Evidence, Professional
ethics

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

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
Training of barristers: summary
1. A law degree, e.g. a Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B.)
or conversion course known as a
postgraduate Diploma in Law, or GDL
2. The student barrister then applies to join one
of the Inns of Court to study for the Bar
Professional Training Course, or BPTC
3. Pupillage
Advantages
Having an independent barrister reviewing a course of action gives
the client a fresh and independent opinion from an expert in the
field.
A barrister acts as a check on the solicitor conducting the trial; if it
becomes apparent that the claim or defence has not been properly
conducted by the solicitor prior to trial, the barrister can (and
usually has a duty to) advise the client of a separate possible claim
against the solicitor.
Having trials conducted by experienced specialist advocates makes
for smoother,more professionally run trials.
Disadvantages
A multiplicity of legal advisers leads to higher costs
As barristers are dependent upon solicitors for referrals
of work, it is open to question

how willing barristers are
to criticise those who instruct them to the client.
Barristers are sometimes criticised for being "over-
specialised" and not having sufficient general expertise
outside of what can be highly specialised fields.


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
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 litigants 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
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
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)
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
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

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)
Training: summary
Solicitors Barristers
Degree, if not in law then a Graduate
Diploma in Law/Common Professional Examination
Legal Practice Course Bar Professional Training Course
Training contract Pupillage
Role: Summary
Solicitors Barristers
Private practice in solicitorsfirm Self-employed in chambers
Wide variety of work Mostly court work
Contracts, wills, conveyancing Also write opinions and draft
documents
Direct access by clients Direct access limited to other
professions, e.g. accountants
Advocacy rights: summary



Solicitors Barristers
Advocacy certificate Full rights

Supervision


Solicitors Barristers
Law Society Bar Council

Legal terms
Barrister
odvjetnik s pravom zastupanja pred svim
sudovima
Solicitor
odvjetnik s pravom zastupanja pred niim
sudovima
Legal terms
Instructions
Details of the case given by a client to a
solicitor, or by a solicitor to a barrister

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
solicitors client cannot consult a barrister
directly but only through his solicitor; the
solicitor is therefore the barristers client
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
vlasnitva
Legal terms
Brief:
details of a clients 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

Legal terms
Defamation:
act of injuring someones 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
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
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 parnikih stranaka, podnesci u
graanskom postupku
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
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
Barristers
Advocacy in all courts
Advising clients on specialist legal issues
Advising on litigation
Drafting of documents in connection with
litigation

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:
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.
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.
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.
Exercise 2
Training for solicitors
5, 6, 3
Training for barristers
7, 2, 4, 1
Exercise 3
VERB NOUN NOUN -
PERSON
0 partner
trainee
advise
practice
specialise
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
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

Key
1c
2a
3b
4e
5g
6d
7f
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
advocacy, Bar Vocational Course, chambers, conversion course,
document/pleading/opinion, exercise rights of audience, pupillage, pupil
master, senior barrister, shadow
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 Id 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.
advocacy, Bar Vocational Course, chambers, conversion course,
document/pleading/opinion, exercise rights of audience, pupillage, pupil
master, senior barrister, shadow
I generally look at papers when they first come
in. Im 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.
advocacy, Bar Vocational Course, chambers, conversion course,
document/pleading/opinion, exercise rights of audience, pupillage, pupil
master, senior barrister, shadow
Chambers runs ___training evenings to
reduce the loss of opportunity to ____
____ _____ _____ in court.
When Ive prectised for more than ten
years, Id be interested in being appointed
as a _____ ______, with a specialist area
such as employment law.
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 Id expect to be present in
chambers from about 8.45 am to
7.00pm, working almost throughout in my
pupil masters room. During that time I
shadow his professional life completely.
Key
I generally look at papers when they first
come in. Im 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.
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.
Key
When Ive practised for more than ten
years, Id be interested in being appointed
as a senior barrister, with a specialist
area such as employment law.
Additional information
Barristers:
www.barcouncil.org.uk
Solicitors:
www.lawsociety.org.uk/home.law
International professional organisations
www.ibanet.org

Você também pode gostar