Legal Professions: Barristers and Solicitors

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Training
Roles
The court and Legal service Act 1990
The access to justice act 1999
Advantages of Split Legal profession
Disadvantages of the split legal profession
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

Barristers and solicitors are both lawyers with different types of training, expertise and legal work. In some countries like England, the legal profession is split between the Solicitor whose work is to represent and advise the clients and a Barrister who is retained by a solicitor to give a legal opinion and advocate in a legal hearing.

Training

To be a Barrister or a solicitor, one needs an undergraduate Law degree or a degree in any subject followed by a one year course to undertake the Post-Graduate Diploma in Law, formerly known as Common Professional Exam.

The solicitor undertakes a one-year Practical course called The Legal Practice Course (LPC). The course is designed to help students gain skills in Contracts drafting and interviewing. This course is followed by two years of apprenticeship with a practising solicitor; this is known as Taking Articles. After the training and apprenticeship, the hopeful solicitor applies to the Law Society to be admitted by the Master of Rolls by adding the name of the solicitor to the list of qualified solicitors.

After Graduation, those training to become barrister undertake a Bar Vocational Course (BVC). This course is designed to help students develop key skills such as Advocacy, Legal research and fact management. The hopeful Barrister join one of the four Inns of courts, either Lincolns Inn, Grays Inn, Middle Temple or the Inner Temple. The hopeful is then expected to attend Educational forums or dinners in order for the barrister to familiarize him/herself with the people of the same profession as his/hers.

The student then spends 12 months with a senior barrister doing a pupillage where the extensive knowledge and skills learned during legal studies are exercised. The trainee barrister is allowed to appear in court on behalf of clients after six months of pupillage. Once the barrister becomes qualified, they become self-employed.

Roles

The barrister is a legal practitioner whose function is to act as an advocate in crown courts, high courts, the court of appeal and House of Lords, as much of their training lies in courtroom skills of Rapid thinking and cross-examination. They spend most of their time in chambers where they prepare their cases. They never have direct dealing with clients.

Solicitors are the main legal representative for the majority of people and companies. Clients cannot go directly to the barrister. Solicitors can represent clients in lower courts, i.e. county courts and magistrates court.

Barrister usually operates as sole practitioners, and the law prohibits them from forming partnerships. However, they group together into chambers to share work and operating costs. Other barristers are employed by Solicitor firms and big corporations to act as in-house legal advisors.

On the other hand, most solicitors go to private practice; the law allows them to form a partnership. They deal with people from a broad cross-section of the community.

The court and Legal service Act 1990

The CLSA 1990 was passed to see that the public had the best access to legal services and that those services were of the right quality to meet the client particular need.

Important details covered in this act are:

Litigation and rights of audience, pg. 17.
Right to conduct litigation, pg. 28-29.

The access to justice act 1999

Lawyers right of the audience was further catered for by section III of the Access to Justice Act 1999.

It provided that all lawyers, subject to meeting reasonable training, should have full rights of audience before any court. The act gives solicitors the right to conduct litigation in any court.

After the passing of the Access to Justice Act, many solicitors have opted to undertake further training to obtain Higher Courts Advocacy qualification and complete Pupillage. Barristers also undergo the necessary training to qualify to act as solicitors. After this training, qualified solicitors now have full right of audience in all courts, and Barristers have direct access to clients.

Advantages of Split Legal profession

The Training and academic route for the solicitor and barrister is different, hence the need for a split profession. Barrister trained for advocacy may not be well equipped to provide sound advice to members of the public. The same case applies to a solicitor who does not have Cross-examination skills may not represent a client in court may not adequately represent a client in High court.
Having expert barristers at the bar enables small legal firms, who are unable to maintain a large expert department, to compete with large firms.
The Bar Cab Rank Principle ensure that all defendants are well represented in courts regardless of the crime or wealth by having the Barrister operate independently rather than in partnership.
The split profession ensures that the specialist skills of the Barrister are accessible to the average person by ensuring that barristers work independently.

Disadvantages of the split legal profession

The Legal cost for clients is usually higher due to the multiplicity of legal advisors.
With a split legal profession, solicitors prepare a case without the contribution of barristers leading to passing or misunderstanding of key points and work duplication.
The early decision has to be made in regard to which branch of the profession one wants to practice before training to avoid being denied a chance to use ones talents.

Conclusion

The benefits split profession far out-weighs the disadvantages. In my opinion, the two branches should be left to work independently as the skills and training requirement is different and complement each other. The bodies and the rules regulating the two professions ensure justice and representation for all members of the public.

Reference

Catherine Elliot, Frances Quinn (2006) English Legal system, Longman publishers, United Kingdom.

Gary Slapper, David Kelly (2006) The English Legal System, Routledge Cavendish Publishers, England.

Richard Ward, Amanda Wragg (2005) Walker and Walkers English Legal System, Oxford University Press.

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