Legal profession is a profession in which legal professionals study, develop and apply law. Usually, there is a requirement for someone choosing a career in law to first pass a bar examination after obtaining a law degree or some other form of legal education such as an apprenticeship in a law office.
It is difficult to generalize about the structure of the profession, because
A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to practise there as such. For example, in England and Wales a solicitor is admitted to practise under the provisions of the Solicitors Act 1974. With some exceptions, practising solicitors must possess a practising certificate. There are many more solicitors than barristers in England; they undertake the general aspects of giving legal advice and conducting legal proceedings.
In the jurisdictions of England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, in the Australian states of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, Hong Kong, South Africa (where they are called attorneys) and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers (called advocates in some countries, for example Scotland), and a lawyer will usually only hold one of the two titles. However, in Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the remaining Australian states and territories, the legal profession is now for practical purposes "fused", allowing lawyers to hold the title of "barrister and solicitor" and practise as both. Some legal graduates will start off as one and then also qualify as the other. In the United States, the barrister–solicitor distinction never existed.
A semiprofession is an occupation that requires advanced knowledge and skills but is not widely regarded as a true profession. Traditional examples of semiprofessions include social work, journalism, librarianship, teaching and nursing. Such fields often have less clear-cut barriers to entry than traditional professions like law and medicine, and their practitioners often lack the degree of control over their own work that has been traditionally associated with professionals such as doctors and lawyers.
In addition, semiprofessions tend to have been historically identified as "women's work," which has exacerbated prejudices against regarding them as "true" professions regardless of the amount of skill involved.
A practising certificate is a licence to practise a particular profession.
In the legal profession, solicitors and barristers may need a current practising certificate before they can offer their services. The authority that administers the practising certificate varies by jurisdiction.
Fused profession is a term relating to jurisdictions where the legal profession is not divided between barristers and solicitors. Generally, the term is used in the context of Commonwealth countries, where the single profession of barrister and solicitor is provided by statute.
In some jurisdictions (e.g., New South Wales, Queensland in Australia), there is a distinction between barristers and solicitors; legal practitioners must practise as either one or the other, and are members either of the local bar or law society. In other jurisdictions (e.g. Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore, the nine common law provinces of Canada, Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia), there is no formal distinction but legal practitioners nonetheless practise as either one or the other.
The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court: Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple, and Middle Temple.
All barristers must belong to one of them. They have supervisory and disciplinary functions over their members. The Inns also provide libraries, dining facilities and professional accommodation. Each also has a church or chapel attached to it and is a self-contained precinct where barristers traditionally train and practise. However, growth in the legal profession, together with a desire to practise from more modern accommodations and buildings with lower rents, caused many barristers' chambers to move outside the precincts of the Inns of Court in the late 20th century.
The legal profession has its origins in ancient Greece and Rome. Although in Greece it was forbidden to take payment for pleading the cause of another, the rule was widely flouted. After the time of Claudius, lawyers (iuris consulti) could practise openly, although their remuneration was limited. A skilled and regulated profession developed gradually during the late Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire: advocates acquired more status, and a separate class of notaries (tabelliones) appeared.
In Western Europe, the legal profession went into decline during the Dark Ages, re-emerging during the 12th and 13th centuries in the form of experts on canon law. The profession started to be regulated and to extend its reach to civil as well as ecclesiastical law.