WHAT
IS A LITIGATOR?
Lawyer
 |
19th
century painting of lawyers,
by French artist Honoré Daumier |
| Occupation |
| Names |
Attorney,
counselor (counsel), solicitor, barrister, advocate |
| Type |
Profession |
| Activity
sectors |
Law,
business |
| Description |
| Competencies |
Analytical
skills
Critical thinking skills
Knowledge of the law
Proficiency in legal research
and legal writing |
| Education
required |
see
Professional requirements |
| Fields
of employment |
Courts,
government, private
sector, NGOs,
legal aid |
| Related
jobs |
Judge,
Prosecutor, Law
clerk, Law
professor |
| Average
salary |
see
Earnings and compensation |
A
lawyer, according to Black's
Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an
attorney,
counsel or solicitor;
a person licensed to practice law."
Law is the system of rules
of conduct established by the sovereign
government of
a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political
and social authority, and deliver justice.
Working as a lawyer involves the practical application of abstract
legal theories and knowledge to solve specific individualized
problems, or to advance the interests of those who retain (i.e.,
hire) lawyers to perform legal services.
The
role of the lawyer varies significantly across legal jurisdictions,
and so it can be treated here in only the most general terms.
More information is available in country-specific articles (see
below).
Terminology
In
practice, legal jurisdictions exercise their right to determine
who is recognized as being a lawyer; as a result, the meaning
of the term "lawyer" may vary from place to place.
- In
Australia the
word "lawyer" is used to refer to both barristers
and solicitors
(whether in private practice or practising as corporate in-house
counsel).
- In
Canada, the word "lawyer"
only refers to individuals who have been called
to the bar or have qualified as civil law notaries in the
province of Quebec.
Common law lawyers in Canada may also be known as "barristers
and solicitors", but should not be referred to as "attorneys",
since that term has a different meaning in Canadian usage. However,
in Quebec, civil law advocates (or avocats in French)
often call themselves "attorney" and sometimes "barrister and
solicitor".
- In
England and Wales,
"lawyer" is used loosely to refer to a broad variety of law-trained
persons. It includes practitioners such as barristers,
solicitors,
legal
executives and licensed
conveyancers; and people who are involved with the law but
do not practise it on behalf of individual clients, such as
judges, court clerks, and drafters of legislation.
- In
India, the term "lawyer"
is often colloquially used, but the official term is "advocate"
as prescribed under the Advocates Act, 1961.
- In
Scotland, the
word "lawyer" refers to a more specific group of legally trained
people. It specifically includes advocates
and solicitors.
In a generic sense, it may also include judges and law-trained
support staff.
- In
the United
States, the term generally refers to attorneys
who may practice
law; it is never used to refer to patent
agents
or paralegals.
- Other
nations tend to have comparable terms for the analogous concept.
Responsibilities
In
most countries, particularly civil
law countries, there has been a tradition of giving many legal
tasks to a variety of civil
law notaries, clerks, and scriveners.
These countries do not have "lawyers" in the American sense, insofar
as that term refers to a single type of general-purpose legal
services provider;
rather, their legal professions consist of a large number of different
kinds of law-trained persons, known as jurists,
of which only some are advocates who are licensed to practice
in the courts.
It is difficult to formulate accurate generalizations that cover
all the countries with multiple legal professions, because each
country has traditionally had its own peculiar method of dividing
up legal work among all its different types of legal professionals.
Notably,
England, the mother
of the common law
jurisdictions, emerged from the Dark
Ages with similar complexity in its legal professions, but
then evolved by the 19th century to a single dichotomy between
barristers and
solicitors. An
equivalent dichotomy developed between advocates and procurators
in some civil law countries, though these two types did not always
monopolize the practice of law as much as barristers and solicitors,
in that they always coexisted with civil law notaries.
Several
countries that originally had two or more legal professions have
since fused
or united their professions into a single type of lawyer.
Most countries in this category are common
law countries, though France,
a civil law country, merged together its jurists in 1990 and 1991
in response to Anglo-American competition.
In countries with fused professions, a lawyer is usually permitted
to carry out all or nearly all the responsibilities listed below.
Oral
argument in the courts
Arguing
a client's case before a judge
or jury in a court of law
is the traditional province of the barrister in England, and of
advocates in some civil law jurisdictions.
However, the boundary between barristers and solicitors has evolved.
In England today, the barrister monopoly
covers only appellate courts, and barristers must compete directly
with solicitors in many trial courts.
In countries like the United States that have fused legal professions,
there are trial lawyers who specialize in trying cases in court,
but trial lawyers do not have a de jure monopoly like barristers.
In some countries, litigants have the option of arguing pro
se, or on their own behalf. It is common for litigants
to appear unrepresented before certain courts like small
claims courts; indeed, many such courts do not allow lawyers
to speak for their clients, in an effort to save money for all
participants in a small case.
In other countries, like Venezuela,
no one may appear before a judge unless represented by a lawyer.
The advantage of the latter regime is that lawyers are familiar
with the court's customs and procedures, and make the legal system
more efficient for all involved. Unrepresented parties often damage
their own credibility or slow the court down as a result of their
inexperience.
Research
and drafting of court papers
Often,
lawyers brief a court in writing on the issues in a case before
the issues can be orally argued. They may have to perform extensive
research into relevant facts and law while drafting legal papers
and preparing for oral argument.
In
England, the usual division of labour is that a solicitor will
obtain the facts of the case from the client and then brief a
barrister (usually in writing).
The barrister then researches and drafts the necessary court pleadings
(which will be filed and served by the solicitor) and orally argues
the case.
In
Spain, the procurator
merely signs and presents the papers to the court, but it is the
advocate who drafts the papers and argues the case.
In
some countries, like Japan,
a scrivener or
clerk may fill out court forms and draft simple papers for lay
persons who cannot afford or do not need attorneys, and advise
them on how to manage and argue their own cases.
Advocacy
(written and oral) in administrative hearings
In
most developed countries, the legislature has granted original
jurisdiction over highly technical matters to executive
branch administrative agencies which oversee such things.
As a result, some lawyers have become specialists in administrative
law. In a few countries, there is a special category of jurists
with a monopoly over this form of advocacy; for example, France
formerly had conseils juridiques (who were merged into
the main legal profession in 1991).
In other countries, like the United
States, lawyers have been effectively barred by statute from
certain types of administrative hearings in order to preserve
their informality.
Client
intake and counseling (with regard to pending litigation)
An
important aspect of a lawyer's job is developing and managing
relationships with clients (or the client's employees, if the
lawyer works in-house for a government or corporation). The client-lawyer
relationship often begins with an intake interview where the lawyer
gets to know the client personally, discovers the facts of the
client's case, clarifies what the client wants to accomplish,
shapes the client's expectations as to what actually can be accomplished,
begins to develop various claims or defenses, and explains his
or her fees to the client.
In
England, only solicitors were traditionally in direct contact
with the client.
The solicitor retained a barrister if one was necessary and acted
as an intermediary between the barrister and the client.
In most cases a barrister would be obliged, under what is known
as the "cab rank rule", to accept instructions for a case in an
area in which they held themselves out as practising, at a court
at which they normally appeared and at their usual rates.
Legal advice
Main
article: Legal
advice
Legal
advice is the application of abstract principles of law to the
concrete facts of the client's case in order to advise the client
about what they should do next. In many countries, only a properly
licensed lawyer may provide legal advice to clients for good consideration,
even if no lawsuit is contemplated or is in progress.
Therefore, even conveyancers and corporate in-house counsel must
first get a license to practice, though they may actually spend
very little of their careers in court. Failure to obey such a
rule is the crime of unauthorized
practice of law.
In
other countries, jurists who hold law degrees are allowed to provide
legal advice to individuals or to corporations, and it is irrelevant
if they lack a license and cannot appear in court.
Some countries go further; in England
and Wales, there is no general prohibition on the giving
of legal advice.
Sometimes civil law notaries are allowed to give legal advice,
as in Belgium.
In many countries, non-jurist accountants may provide what is
technically legal advice in tax and accounting matters.
Protecting
intellectual property
In
virtually all countries, patents,
trademarks, industrial
designs and other forms of intellectual
property must be formally registered with a government agency
in order to receive maximum protection under the law. The division
of such work among lawyers, licensed non-lawyer jurists/agents,
and ordinary clerks or scriveners varies greatly from one country
to the next.
Negotiating
and drafting contracts
In
some countries, the negotiating and drafting of contracts is considered
to be similar to the provision of legal advice, so that it is
subject to the licensing requirement explained above.
In others, jurists or notaries may negotiate or draft contracts.
Lawyers
in some civil law countries traditionally deprecated "transactional
law" or "business law" as beneath them. French law firms developed
transactional departments only in the 1990s when they started
to lose business to international firms based in the United States
and the United
Kingdom (where solicitors have always done transactional work).
Conveyancing
Conveyancing
is the drafting of the documents necessary for the transfer of
real property,
such as deeds and mortgage.
In some jurisdictions, all real
estate transactions must be carried out by a lawyer (or a
solicitor where that distinction still exists).
Such a monopoly is quite valuable from the lawyer's point of view;
historically, conveyancing accounted for about half of English
solicitors' income (though this has since changed),
and a 1978 study showed that conveyancing "accounts for as much
as 80 percent of solicitor-client contact in New
South Wales."
In most common law jurisdictions outside of the United States,
this monopoly arose from an 1804 law
that was introduced by William
Pitt the Younger as a quid
pro quo for the raising of fees on the certification of
legal professionals such as barristers, solicitors, attorneys
and notaries.
In
others, the use of a lawyer is optional and banks, title companies,
or realtors
may be used instead.
In some civil law jurisdictions, real estate transactions are
handled by civil law notaries.
In England
and Wales a special class of legal professional–the licensed
conveyancer–is also allowed to carry out conveyancing services
for reward.
Carrying
out the intent of the deceased
In
many countries, only lawyers have the legal authority to draft
wills, trusts,
and any other documents that ensure the efficient disposition
of a person's property after death. In some civil law countries
this responsibility is handled by civil law notaries.
In
the United States, the estates of the deceased must generally
be administered by a court through probate.
American lawyers have a profitable monopoly on dispensing advice
about probate law (which has been heavily criticized).
Prosecution
and defense of criminal suspects
In
many civil law countries, prosecutors
are trained and employed as part of the judiciary; they are law-trained
jurists, but may not necessarily be lawyers in the sense that
the word is used in the common law world.
In common law countries, prosecutors are usually lawyers holding
regular licenses who simply happen to work for the government
office that files criminal charges against suspects. Criminal
defense lawyers specialize in the defense of those charged
with any crimes.
Education
The
educational prerequisites to becoming a lawyer vary greatly from
country to country. In some countries, law is taught by a faculty
of law, which is a department of a university's general undergraduate
college.
Law students in those countries pursue a Master
or Bachelor
of Laws degree. In some countries it is common or even required
for students to earn another bachelor's degree at the same time.
Nor is the LL.B the sole obstacle; it is often followed by a series
of advanced examinations, apprenticeships, and additional coursework
at special government institutes.
In
other countries, particularly the United States, law is primarily
taught at law schools.
In the United States
and countries following the American model, (such as Canada
with the exception of the province of Quebec) law schools are
graduate/professional schools where a bachelor's degree is a prerequisite
for admission. Most law schools are part of universities but a
few are independent institutions. Law schools in the United States
(and many in Canada and elsewhere) award graduating students a
J.D. (Juris
Doctor/Doctor of Jurisprudence) (as opposed to the Bachelor
of Laws) as the practitioner's law degree. Many schools also
offer post-doctoral law degrees such as the LL.M (Legum Magister/Master
of Laws), or the S.J.D.
(Scientiae Juridicae Doctor/Doctor of Juridical Science) for students
interested in advancing their research knowledge and credentials
in a specific area of law.
The
methods and quality of legal education vary widely. Some countries
require extensive clinical training in the form of apprenticeships
or special clinical courses.
Others, like Venezuela, do not.
A few countries prefer to teach through assigned readings of judicial
opinions (the casebook
method) followed by intense in-class cross-examination by
the professor (the Socratic
method).
Many others have only lectures on highly abstract legal doctrines,
which forces young lawyers to figure out how to actually think
and write like a lawyer at their first apprenticeship (or job).
Depending upon the country, a typical class size could range from
five students in a seminar to five hundred in a giant lecture
room. In the United States, law schools maintain small class sizes,
and as such, grant admissions on a more limited and competitive
basis.
Some
countries, particularly industrialized ones, have a traditional
preference for full-time law programs,
while in developing countries, students often work full- or part-time
to pay the tuition and fees of their part-time law programs.
Law
schools in developing countries share several common problems,
such as an overreliance on practicing judges and lawyers who treat
teaching as a part-time hobby (and a concomitant scarcity of full-time
law professors);
incompetent faculty with questionable credentials;
and textbooks that lag behind the current state of the law by
two or three decades.
Earning
the right to practice law
Some
jurisdictions grant a "diploma
privilege" to certain institutions, so that merely earning
a degree or credential from those institutions is the primary
qualification for practicing law.
Mexico allows anyone
with a law degree to practice law.
However, in a large number of countries, a law student must pass
a bar
examination (or a series of such examinations) before receiving
a license to practice.
In a handful of U.S.
states, one may become an attorney (a so-called country
lawyer) by simply "reading
law" and passing the bar examination, without having to attend
law school first (although very few people actually become lawyers
that way).
Some
countries require a formal apprenticeship with an experienced
practitioner, while others do not.
For example, a few jurisdictions still allow an apprenticeship
in place of any kind of formal legal education (though the number
of persons who actually become lawyers that way is increasingly
rare).
Career structure
The
career structure of lawyers varies widely from one country to
the next.
Common law/civil
law
In
most common law countries, especially those with fused professions,
lawyers have many options over the course of their careers. Besides
private practice, they can become a prosecutor,
government counsel, corporate in-house counsel, administrative
law judge, judge,
arbitrator,
law
professor, or politician.
There are also many non-legal jobs which legal training is good
preparation for, such as corporate
executive, government administrator, investment
banker, entrepreneur,
or journalist.
In developing countries like India, a large majority of law students
never actually practice, but simply use their law degree as a
foundation for careers in other fields.
In
most civil law countries, lawyers generally structure their legal
education around their chosen specialty; the boundaries between
different types of lawyers are carefully defined and hard to cross.
After one earns a law degree, career mobility may be severely
constrained.
For example, unlike their American counterparts,
it is difficult for German judges to leave the bench and become
advocates in private practice.
Another interesting example is France, where for much of the 20th
century, all judiciary officials were graduates of an elite professional
school for judges. Although the French judiciary has begun experimenting
with the Anglo-American model of appointing judges from accomplished
advocates, the few advocates who have actually joined the bench
this way are looked down upon by their colleagues who have taken
the traditional route to judicial office.
In
a few civil law countries, such as Sweden,
the legal profession is not rigorously bifurcated and everyone
within it can easily change roles and arenas.
Specialization
In
many countries, lawyers are general practitioners who will take
almost any kind of case that walks in the door.
In others, there has been a tendency since the start of the 20th
century for lawyers to specialize early in their careers.
In countries where specialization is prevalent, many lawyers specialize
in representing one side in one particular area of the law; thus,
it is common in the United
States to hear of plaintiffs' personal
injury attorneys.
Organization
Lawyers
in private practice generally work in specialized businesses
known as law firms,
with the exception of English barristers. The vast majority of
law firms worldwide are small
businesses that range in size from 1 to 10 lawyers.
The United States, with its large number of firms with more than
50 lawyers, is an exception.
The United Kingdom and Australia are also exceptions, as the UK,
Australia and the U.S. are now home to several firms with more
than 1,000 lawyers after a wave of mergers in the late 1990s.
Notably,
barristers in
England
and Wales and some states in Australia
do not work in "law firms". Those who offer their services
to the general public—as opposed to those working "in house"—are
required to be self-employed.
Most work in groupings known as "sets" or "chambers", where some
administrative and marketing costs are shared. An important effect
of this different organizational structure is that there is no
conflict of interest where barristers in the same chambers work
for opposing sides in a case, and in some specialised chambers
this is commonplace.
Professional
associations and regulation
Mandatory
licensing and membership in professional organizations
In
some jurisdictions, either the judiciary
or the Ministry of Justice
directly supervises the admission, licensing, and regulation of
lawyers.
Other
jurisdictions, by statute, tradition, or court order, have granted
such powers to a professional association which all lawyers must
belong to.
In the U.S., such associations are known as mandatory, integrated,
or unified bar
associations. In the Commonwealth of Nations, similar organizations
are known as Inns
of Court, bar
councils or law
societies.
In civil law countries, comparable organizations are known as
Orders of Advocates,
Chambers of Advocates,
Colleges of Advocates,
Faculties of Advocates,
or similar names. Generally, a nonmember caught practicing law
may be liable for the crime of unauthorized
practice of law.
In
common law countries with divided legal professions, barristers
traditionally belong to the bar council (or an Inn of Court) and
solicitors belong to the law society. In the English-speaking
world, the largest mandatory professional association of lawyers
is the State
Bar of California, with 200,000 members.
Some
countries admit and regulate lawyers at the national level, so
that a lawyer, once licensed, can argue cases in any court in
the land. This is common in small countries like New
Zealand, Japan, and Belgium.
Others, especially those with federal governments, tend to regulate
lawyers at the state or provincial level; this is the case in
the United States,
Canada,
Australia,
and Switzerland,
to name a few. Brazil is the most well-known federal government
that regulates lawyers at the national level.
Some
countries, like Italy, regulate lawyers at the regional level,
and a few, like Belgium, even regulate them at the local level
(that is, they are licensed and regulated by the local equivalent
of bar associations but can advocate in courts nationwide).
In Germany, lawyers are admitted to regional bars and may appear
for clients before all courts nationwide with the exception of
the Federal
Court of Justice of Germany (Bundesgerichtshof or BGH);
oddly, securing admission to the BGH's bar limits a lawyer's practice
solely to the supreme federal courts and the Federal
Constitutional Court of Germany.
Generally,
geographic limitations can be troublesome for a lawyer who discovers
that his client's cause requires him to litigate in a court beyond
the normal geographic scope of his license. Although most courts
have special pro
hac vice rules for such occasions, the lawyer will still
have to deal with a different set of professional
responsibility rules, as well as the possibility of other
differences in substantive and procedural law.
Some
countries grant licenses to non-resident lawyers, who may then
appear regularly on behalf of foreign clients. Others require
all lawyers to live in the jurisdiction or to even hold national
citizenship as a prerequisite for receiving a license to practice.
But the trend in industrialized countries since the 1970s has
been to abolish citizenship and residency restrictions. For example,
the Supreme
Court of Canada struck down a citizenship requirement on equality
rights grounds in 1989,
and similarly, American citizenship and residency requirements
were struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1973 and 1985, respectively.
The European
Court of Justice made similar decisions in 1974 and 1977 striking
down citizenship restrictions in Belgium and France.
Who regulates
lawyers
A
key difference among countries is whether lawyers should be regulated
solely by an independent judiciary and its subordinate institutions
(a self-regulating legal profession),
or whether lawyers should be subject to supervision by the Ministry
of Justice in the executive
branch.
In
most civil law countries, the government has traditionally exercised
tight control over the legal profession in order to ensure a steady
supply of loyal judges and bureaucrats. That is, lawyers were
expected first and foremost to serve the state, and the availability
of counsel for private litigants was an afterthought.
Even in civil law countries like Norway which have partially self-regulating
professions, the Ministry of Justice is the sole issuer of licenses,
and makes its own independent re-evaluation of a lawyer's fitness
to practice after a lawyer has been expelled from the Advocates'
Association.
Brazil is an unusual exception in that its national Order of Advocates
has become a fully self-regulating institution (with direct control
over licensing) and has successfully resisted government attempts
to place it under the control of the Ministry of Labor.
Of
all the civil law countries, Communist countries historically
went the farthest towards total state control, with all Communist
lawyers forced to practice in collectives by the mid-1950s.
China is a prime example: technically, the People's
Republic of China did not have lawyers, and instead had only
poorly-trained, state-employed "legal workers," prior to the enactment
of a comprehensive reform package in 1996 by the Standing Committee
of the National People's Congress.
In
contrast, common law lawyers have traditionally regulated themselves
through institutions where the influence of non-lawyers, if any,
was weak and indirect (despite nominal state control).
Such institutions have been traditionally dominated by private
practitioners who opposed strong state control of the profession
on the grounds that it would endanger the ability of lawyers to
zealously and competently advocate their clients' causes in the
adversarial
system of justice.
However,
the concept of the self-regulating profession has been criticized
as a sham which serves to legitimize the professional monopoly
while protecting the profession from public scrutiny.
Disciplinary mechanisms have been astonishingly ineffective, and
penalties have been light or nonexistent.
Voluntary
associations of lawyers
Lawyers
are always free to form voluntary associations of their own, apart
from any licensing or mandatory membership that may be required
by the laws of their jurisdiction. Like their mandatory counterparts,
such organizations may exist at all geographic levels.
In American English, such associations are known as voluntary
bar associations.
The largest voluntary professional association of lawyers in the
English-speaking world is the American
Bar Association.
In
some countries, like France and Italy, lawyers have also formed
trade unions.
Cultural
perception of lawyers
Hostility
towards the legal profession is a widespread phenomenon. The legal
profession was abolished in Prussia
in 1780 and in France in 1789, though both countries eventually
realized that their judicial systems could not function efficiently
without lawyers.
Complaints about too many lawyers were common in both England
and the United States in the 1840s
Germany in the 1910s,
and in Australia,
Canada,
the United States,
and Scotland
in the 1980s.
Public
distrust of lawyers reached record heights in the United States
after the Watergate
scandal.
In the aftermath of Watergate, legal self-help books became popular
among those who wished to solve their legal problems without having
to deal with lawyers.
Lawyer jokes (already a
perennial favorite) also soared in popularity in English-speaking
North America
as a result of Watergate.
In 1989, American legal self-help publisher Nolo
Press published a 171-page compilation of negative anecdotes
about lawyers from throughout human history.
In
Adventures in Law and Justice (2003), legal researcher
Bryan Horrigan
dedicated a chapter to "Myths, Fictions, and Realities" about
law and illustrated the perennial criticism of lawyers as "amoral
[...] guns for hire"
with a quote from Ambrose
Bierce's satirical The
Devil's Dictionary (1911) that summarized the noun as:
"LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law."
More
generally, in Legal Ethics: A Comparative Study (2004),
law professor Geoffrey
C. Hazard, Jr. with Angelo Dondi briefly examined the "regulations
attempting to suppress lawyer misconduct" and noted that their
similarity around the world was paralleled by a "remarkable consistency"
in certain "persistant [sic?] grievances" about lawyers that transcends
both time and locale, from the Bible to medieval England to dynastic
China.
The authors then generalized these common complaints about lawyers
as being classified into five "general categories" as follows:
| “ |
- abuse
of litigation in various ways, including using dilatory
tactics and false evidence and making frivolous arguments
to the courts;
- preparation
of false documentation, such as false deeds, contracts,
or wills;
- deceiving
clients and other persons and misappropriating property;
- procrastination
in dealings with clients; and
- charging
excessive fees.
|
” |
Compensation
Main
article: Attorney's
fee
Lawyers
are paid for their work in a variety of ways. In private practice,
they may work for an hourly fee according to a billable hour structure,
a contingency
fee
(usually in cases involving personal
injury), or a lump sum payment if the matter is straightforward.
Normally, most lawyers negotiate a written fee agreement up front
and may require a non-refundable retainer
in advance. In many countries there are fee-shifting arrangements
by which the loser must pay the winner's fees and costs; the United
States is the major exception,
although in turn, its legislators have carved out many exceptions
to the so-called "American Rule" of no fee shifting.
Lawyers
working directly on the payroll of governments, nonprofits, and
corporations usually earn a regular annual salary.
In many countries, with the notable exception of Germany,
lawyers can also volunteer their labor in the service of worthy
causes through an arrangement called pro
bono (short for pro bono publico, "for the common
good").
Traditionally such work was performed on behalf of the poor, but
in some countries it has now expanded to many other causes such
as the environment.
In
some countries, there are legal
aid lawyers who specialize in providing legal services to
the indigent.
France and Spain even have formal fee structures by which lawyers
are compensated by the government for legal aid cases on a per-case
basis.
A similar system, though not as extensive or generous, operates
in Australia, Canada, as well as South Africa.[citation
needed]
In
other countries, legal aid specialists are practically nonexistent.
This may be because non-lawyers are allowed to provide such services;
in both Italy and Belgium,
trade unions and political parties provide what can be characterized
as legal aid services.
Some legal aid in Belgium is also provided by young lawyer apprentices
subsidized by local bar associations (known as the pro deo
system), as well as consumer protection nonprofit organizations
and Public Assistance Agencies subsidized by local governments.
In Germany, mandatory fee structures have enabled widespread implementation
of affordable legal expense insurance.
History
16th
century painting of a civil
law notary, by Flemish painter Quentin
Massys. A civil law notary is roughly analogous to a common
law solicitor,
except that, unlike solicitors, civil law notaries do not
practice litigation to any degree.
Ancient Greece
The
earliest people who could be described as "lawyers" were probably
the orators
of ancient Athens (see
History
of Athens). However, Athenian orators faced serious structural
obstacles. First, there was a rule that individuals were supposed
to plead their own cases, which was soon bypassed by the increasing
tendency of individuals to ask a "friend" for assistance.
However, around the middle of the fourth century, the Athenians
disposed of the perfunctory request for a friend.
Second, a more serious obstacle, which the Athenian orators never
completely overcame, was the rule that no one could take a fee
to plead the cause of another. This law was widely disregarded
in practice, but was never abolished, which meant that orators
could never present themselves as legal professionals or
experts.
They had to uphold the legal
fiction that they were merely an ordinary citizen generously
helping out a friend for free, and thus they could never organize
into a real profession—with professional associations and titles
and all the other pomp and circumstance—like their modern counterparts.
Therefore, if one narrows the definition to those men who could
practice the legal profession openly and legally, then the first
lawyers would have to be the orators of ancient
Rome.
Early Ancient
Rome
A
law enacted in 204 BC barred Roman advocates from taking fees,
but the law was widely ignored.
The ban on fees was abolished by Emperor
Claudius, who legalized advocacy as a profession and allowed
the Roman advocates to become the first lawyers who could practice
openly—but he also imposed a fee ceiling of 10,000 sesterces.
This was apparently not much money; the Satires
of Juvenal complain that there was no money in working as
an advocate.
Like
their Greek contemporaries, early Roman advocates were trained
in rhetoric, not
law, and the judges before whom they argued were also not law-trained.
But very early on, unlike Athens, Rome developed a class of specialists
who were learned in the law, known as jurisconsults (iuris
consulti).
Jurisconsults were wealthy amateurs who dabbled in law as an intellectual
hobby; they did not make their primary living from it.
They gave legal opinions (responsa) on legal issues to
all comers (a practice known as publice respondere).
Roman judges and governors would routinely consult with an advisory
panel of jurisconsults before rendering a decision, and advocates
and ordinary people also went to jurisconsults for legal opinions.
Thus, the Romans were the first to have a class of people who
spent their days thinking about legal problems, and this is why
their law became so "precise, detailed, and technical."
Late Ancient
Rome
During
the Roman
Republic and the early Roman
Empire, jurisconsults and advocates were unregulated, since
the former were amateurs and the latter were technically illegal.
Any citizen could call himself an advocate or a legal expert,
though whether people believed him would depend upon his personal
reputation. This changed once Claudius legalized the legal profession.
By the start of the Byzantine
Empire, the legal profession had become well-established,
heavily regulated, and highly stratified.
The centralization and bureaucratization of the profession was
apparently gradual at first, but accelerated during the reign
of Emperor Hadrian.
At the same time, the jurisconsults went into decline during the
imperial period.
In
the words of Fritz Schulz, "by the fourth century things had changed
in the eastern Empire: advocates now were really lawyers."
For example, by the fourth century, advocates had to be enrolled
on the bar of a court to argue before it, they could only be attached
to one court at a time, and there were restrictions (which came
and went depending upon who was emperor) on how many advocates
could be enrolled at a particular court.
By the 380s, advocates were studying law in addition to rhetoric
(thus reducing the need for a separate class of jurisconsults);
in 460, Emperor
Leo imposed a requirement that new advocates seeking admission
had to produce testimonials from their teachers; and by the sixth
century, a regular course of legal study lasting about four years
was required for admission.
Claudius's fee ceiling lasted all the way into the Byzantine period,
though by then it was measured at 100 solidi.
Of course, it was widely evaded, either through demands for maintenance
and expenses or a sub rosa barter
transaction.
The latter was cause for disbarment.
The
notaries (tabelliones) appeared in the late Roman Empire.
Like their modern-day descendants, the civil law notaries, they
were responsible for drafting wills, conveyances, and contracts.
They were ubiquitous and most villages had one.
In Roman times, notaries were widely considered to be inferior
to advocates and jurisconsults.
Roman notaries were not law-trained; they were barely literate
hacks who wrapped the simplest transactions in mountains of legal
jargon, since they were paid by the line.
Middle Ages
After
the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the onset of the Dark
Ages, the legal profession of Western Europe collapsed. As James
Brundage has explained: "[by 1140], no one in Western Europe could
properly be described as a professional lawyer or a professional
canonist in anything like the modern sense of the term 'professional.'
"
However, from 1150 onward, a small but increasing number of men
became experts in canon
law but only in furtherance of other occupational goals, such
as serving the Roman
Catholic Church as priests.
From 1190 to 1230, however, there was a crucial shift in which
some men began to practice canon law as a lifelong profession
in itself.
The
legal profession's return was marked by the renewed efforts of
church and state to regulate it. In 1231 two French councils mandated
that lawyers had to swear an oath of admission before practicing
before the bishop's courts in their regions, and a similar oath
was promulgated by the papal legate in London in 1237.
During the same decade, Frederick II, the emperor of the Kingdom
of Sicily, imposed a similar oath in his civil courts.
By 1250 the nucleus of a new legal profession had clearly formed.
The new trend towards professionalization culminated in a controversial
proposal at the Second
Council of Lyon in 1275 that all ecclesiastical courts
should require an oath of admission.
Although not adopted by the council, it was highly influential
in many such courts throughout Europe.
The civil courts in England also joined the trend towards professionalization;
in 1275 a statute was enacted that prescribed punishment for professional
lawyers guilty of deceit, and in 1280 the mayor's court of the
city of London promulgated regulations concerning admission procedures,
including the administering of an oath.
Titles
Generally
speaking, the modern practice is for lawyers to avoid use of any
title, although formal practice varies across the world.
Historically
lawyers in most European countries were addressed with the title
of doctor, and countries outside of Europe have generally followed
the practice of the European country which had policy influence
through "modernization" or "colonialization." The first university
degrees, starting with the law school of the University of Bologna
(or glossators) in the 11th century, were all law degrees and
doctorates.
Degrees in other fields did not start until the 13th century,
but the doctor continued to be the only degree offered at many
of the old universities until the 20th century. Therefore, in
many of the southern European countries, including Portugal and
Italy,
lawyers have traditionally been addressed as “doctor,” a practice
which was transferred to many countries in South America
(including Macau in China).
The term "doctor" has since fallen into disuse, although it is
still a legal title in Italy and in use in many countries outside
of Europe.
The
title of doctor has never been used to address lawyers in England
or other common law countries (with the exception of the United
States). This is because until 1846 lawyers in England were not
required to have a university degree and were trained by other
attorneys by apprenticeship or in the Inns of Court.
Since law degrees started to become a requirement for lawyers
in England, the degree awarded has been the undergraduate LL.B.
Even
though most lawyers in the United States do not use any titles,
the law degree in that country is the Juris
Doctor, a professional doctorate degree,
and some J.D. holders in the United States use the title of "Doctor"
in professional
and academic situations.
In countries where holders of the first law degree traditionally
use the title of doctor (e.g. Peru, Brazil, Macau, Portugal, Argentina,
and Italy),
J.D. holders who are attorneys will often use the title of doctor
as well.
It is not uncommon for English-language lawyers, especially in
the United States, to use the honorific suffix "Esq." (for "Esquire"),
irrespective of whether the lawyer is male or female.
In
many Asian countries, the proper title for a lawyer is simply,
"lawyer", but holders of the Juris Doctor degree are also called
"??" (doctor).
ABOUT
ORANGE COUNTY:
Orange County is a county in Southern California, United States.
Its county seat is Santa Ana. According to the 2000 Census, its
population was 2,846,289, making it the second most populous county
in the state of California, and the fifth most populous in the
United States. The state of California estimates its population
as of 2007 to be 3,098,121 people, dropping its rank to third,
behind San Diego County. Thirty-four incorporated cities are located
in Orange County; the newest is Aliso Viejo.
Unlike many other large centers of population in the United States,
Orange County uses its county name as its source of identification
whereas other places in the country are identified by the large
city that is closest to them. This is because there is no defined
center to Orange County like there is in other areas which have
one distinct large city. Five Orange County cities have populations
exceeding 170,000 while no cities in the county have populations
surpassing 360,000. Seven of these cities are among the 200 largest
cities in the United States.
Orange County is also famous as a tourist destination, as the
county is home to such attractions as Disneyland and Knott's Berry
Farm, as well as sandy beaches for swimming and surfing, yacht
harbors for sailing and pleasure boating, and extensive area devoted
to parks and open space for golf, tennis, hiking, kayaking, cycling,
skateboarding, and other outdoor recreation. It is at the center
of Southern California's Tech Coast, with Irvine being the primary
business hub.
The average price of a home in Orange County is $541,000. Orange
County is the home of a vast number of major industries and service
organizations. As an integral part of the second largest market
in America, this highly diversified region has become a Mecca
for talented individuals in virtually every field imaginable.
Indeed the colorful pageant of human history continues to unfold
here; for perhaps in no other place on earth is there an environment
more conducive to innovative thinking, creativity and growth than
this exciting, sun bathed valley stretching between the mountains
and the sea in Orange County.
Orange County was Created March 11 1889, from part of Los Angeles
County, and, according to tradition, so named because of the flourishing
orange culture. Orange, however, was and is a commonplace name
in the United States, used originally in honor of the Prince of
Orange, son-in-law of King George II of England.
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Incorporated:
March 11, 1889
Legislative Districts:
* Congressional: 38th-40th, 42nd & 43
* California Senate: 31st-33rd, 35th & 37
* California Assembly: 58th, 64th, 67th, 69th, 72nd &
74
County Seat: Santa Ana
County Information:
Robert E. Thomas Hall of Administration
10 Civic Center Plaza, 3rd Floor, Santa Ana 92701
Telephone: (714)834-2345 Fax: (714)834-3098
County Government Website: http://www.oc.ca.gov |
CITIES OF ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA:
City
of Aliso Viejo,
92653, 92656, 92698
City of Anaheim, 92801,
92802, 92803, 92804, 92805, 92806, 92807, 92808, 92809,
92812, 92814, 92815, 92816, 92817, 92825, 92850, 92899
City of Brea, 92821,
92822, 92823
City of Buena Park,
90620, 90621, 90622, 90623, 90624
City of Costa
Mesa, 92626, 92627, 92628
City of Cypress,
90630
City of Dana Point,
92624, 92629
City of Fountain
Valley, 92708, 92728
City of Fullerton,
92831, 92832, 92833, 92834, 92835, 92836, 92837, 92838
City of Garden
Grove, 92840, 92841, 92842, 92843, 92844, 92845, 92846
City of
Huntington Beach, 92605, 92615, 92646, 92647, 92648,
92649
City of Irvine,
92602, 92603, 92604, 92606, 92612, 92614, 92616, 92618,
92619, 92620, 92623, 92650, 92697, 92709, 92710
City of La Habra,
90631, 90632, 90633
City of La Palma,
90623
City of Laguna
Beach, 92607, 92637, 92651, 92652, 92653, 92654, 92656,
92677, 92698
City of Laguna
Hills, 92637, 92653, 92654, 92656
City of Laguna
Niguel, 92607, 92677
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City
of Laguna Woods,
92653, 92654
City of Lake Forest,
92609, 92630, 92610
City of Los
Alamitos, 90720, 90721
City of Mission
Viejo, 92675, 92690, 92691, 92692, 92694
City of Newport
Beach, 92657, 92658, 92659, 92660, 92661, 92662, 92663
City of Orange,
92856, 92857, 92859, 92861, 92862, 92863, 92864, 92865,
92866, 92867, 92868, 92869
City of Placentia,
92870, 92871
City of Rancho Santa
Margarita, 92688, 92679
City of San Clemente,
92672, 92673, 92674
City of San
Juan Capistrano, 92675, 92690, 92691, 92692, 92693,
92694
City of Santa Ana,
92701, 92702, 92703, 92704, 92705, 92706, 92707, 92708,
92711, 92712, 92725, 92728, 92735, 92799
City of Seal Beach,
90740
City of Stanton,
90680
City of Tustin, 92780,
92781, 92782
City of Villa Park,
92861, 92867
City of Westminster,
92683, 92684, 92685
City of Yorba
Linda, 92885, 92886, 92887
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Noteworthy
communities Some of the communities that exist within city
limits are listed below:
* Anaheim Hills, Anaheim * Balboa Island, Newport Beach
* Corona del Mar, Newport Beach * Crystal Cove / Pelican
Hill, Newport Beach * Capistrano Beach, Dana Point * El
Modena, Orange * French Park, Santa Ana * Floral Park, Santa
Ana * Foothill Ranch, Lake Forest * Monarch Beach, Dana
Point * Nellie Gail, Laguna Hills * Northwood, Irvine *
Woodbridge, Irvine * Newport Coast, Newport Beach * Olive,
Orange * Portola Hills, Lake Forest * San Joaquin Hills,
Laguna Niguel * San Joaquin Hills, Newport Beach * Santa
Ana Heights, Newport Beach * Tustin Ranch, Tustin * Talega,
San Clemente * West Garden Grove, Garden Grove * Yorba Hills,
Yorba Linda * Mesa Verde, Costa Mesa
Unincorporated communities These communities are outside
of the city limits in unincorporated county territory:
* Coto de Caza * El Modena * Ladera Ranch * Las Flores *
Midway City * Orange Park Acres * Rossmoor * Silverado Canyon
* Sunset Beach * Surfside * Trabuco Canyon * Tustin Foothills
Adjacent counties to Orange County Are: * Los Angeles
County, California - north, west * San Bernardino County,
California - northeast * Riverside County, California -
east * San Diego County, California - southeast
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