The word Lawyer generally describes anyone who gives legal advice or is learned in one or more areas of law. The term lawyer then is used to describe, solicitors, barristers, legal executives; it is used to describe the legal profession.
Traditionally solicitors will take on cases and advise clients, sometimes representing them in civil and criminal courts, other areas of law include dealing with wills, family law, buying and selling of houses etc.
Barristers are often referred to as counsel, this could be junior counsel or Queens counsel, Queens counsel are often selected because of their expertise and experience in specific areas. There was a time when barristers had sole rights to appear in the High Court, the court of appeal and the House of Lords but this is increasingly not the case.
The biggest challenge facing most lawyers/barristers is that the law is changing constantly, in some areas of law more than others. Certain skills are necessary to be a good lawyer, these include:
A� Good information gathering techniques,
A� An analytical inquiring mind- with the ability to pay attention to detail,
A� The ability to draw out specific details from a mass of information,
A� Excellent communication skills, including, written, listening and verbalizing skills,
A� Problem solving abilities,
A� Working under pressure, and meeting deadlines, (not for the fain hearted),
Barristers need all of the above skills, plus a quickness and deftness of mind, the ability to persuade and argue a case, confidence, with an aptitude for public speaking, and last but not least, the ability to forge relationships with a wide range of different people.
Solicitors form the largest part of the legal profession with approximately 100,000 practitioners. Their main role is to advise individuals and organisations on legal matters, generally problem-solving.
There are approximately 15,000 barristers in England and Wales, 80%, of which are self-employed (independent), the employed bar consists of counsel working in-house within companies, charities or government organisations. The majority of their work is based on handling litigation-advocacy on either civil or criminal cases. It used to be that a solicitor would instruct a barrister on behalf of clients; this is no longer the case, members of the public, commercial and non-commercial organisations are now able to instruct barristers directly. Regulation of barristers in self-employed practice has been amended to permit barristers to undertake work on direct instructions from lay clients, without the need for a solicitor or other professional client to be instructed.
