What is a Solicitor?

A solicitor holds a university degree and has completed a period of professional training, after which he enters a firm of solicitors as a trainee. After passing his examinations and finishing his traineeship, he can apply to the Law Society to be admitted. He is then formally a ‘solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales’. Solicitors’ offices are usually partnerships, and senior solicitors act as partners in the firm. However, the limited liability partnership (for LLP see chapter 6) has become increasingly popular as a business structure for solicitors. Solicitors who are employed in government departments or industry, rather than in private practice, are known as ‘in-house lawyers’. The solicitor’s professional body is the Law Society. Solicitors are now regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

A solicitor may be described as a general legal adviser. His usual areas of work are conveyancing (law and procedure with respect to the purchase and sale of property), probate (procedure to verify a document, often a will, and the winding up and distribution of a deceased person’s estate), the negotiation and drafting of company and commercial contracts, and the preparation of litigation (court cases), although in the larger firms of solicitors some solicitors have specialized. As mentioned above, they may work as advocates, but without an advocacy certificate, they have only a limited right of audience in the courts.

Note 1: In England, work once only done by solicitors, such as conveyancing and probate, may now be offered by other bodies, for example banks or licensed conveyancers.

Note 2: legal executive (sometimes referred to as paralegals) is the term used in the English system to describe legal professionals who have not trained as solicitors but undertake most of a solicitor's work. In addition to taking professional exams, they have to train under the supervision of a solicitor.