The Legal Profession in the UK
The legal profession in the United Kingdom is divided into two branches, barristers and solicitors.
The former are legal practitioners, who have been admitted to plead at the bar and who are engaged
in conducting the trial or argument of causes; they have exclusive right of audience in the Supreme
Court. The latter assemble the materials necessary for presentation in court and settle cases out of
court. They may also practice in most inferior courts, such as county courts and certain proceedings
of the Crown Court.
Each have their own controlling bodies – the bar Council and the Law Society respectively – and an
intending lawyer must decide, at a relatively early stage in legal training, whether to practice as a
solicitor or a barrister, because apart from the initial period of legal education the two branches are
mutually exclusive in terms of personnel and training, although rather less so in terms of their work.
The controlling bodies exercise strict codes of professional ethics and standards of practice: this is
one of the ways in which the exclusivity of the profession, and its claim to produce high standards f
work, are maintained. Both bodies act as disciplinary agencies to deal with any alleged breach of
these codes, and for serious breaches a member of either branch of the legal profession may be
“struck off”.
All lawyers undergo extensive periods of education, both through formal academic learning and
through practical training in legal work. In the case of solicitors, this practical training takes the
form of a two-year period, after obtaining a law degree and completing the one-year Legal Practice
Course, in a training contract with a firm of practitioners. For intending barristers, the period of
training is rather more complicated and less financially secure, but possibly more intensive because
of the immersion of the novice in the traditions and practices of the Bar. Apart from undertaking
various examinations in the law, the prospective barrister must also join one of the four Inns of
Court, where the life of the barrister is learned. The various rules and institutions of the Bar serve to
socialize the novice into the established ways of that branch of the profession, where customs,
traditions and etiquette play so great a part.
For many people, the image of the typical lawyer ad his work is that presented in the formal setting
of the courtroom. Here, it is traditionally the barrister, in wig and gown, who presents the case and
expresses the arguments on the client‟s behalf; the solicitor‟s task is to deal directly with client, to
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ensure that the barrister chosen is properly and fully instructed, to collect and collate relevant
evidence (such as witnesses, statements, letters, photographs and so on) and to ensure that all
relevant persons are present in court on the day of the trial.
This image of lawyers and their work is, however, somewhat misleading: the traditional division of
functions in the courtroom has gradually been broken down. Although only barristers have full
„rights of audience‟ (that is, the right to address the judges‟ bench directly on the client‟s behalf) in
all courts, solicitors have full rights of audience, too, in magistrates‟ and county courts, and in some
Crown courts.