Solicitors

7 Key excerpts on "Solicitors"

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  The Administration of Civil Justice in England and Wales

  The Commonwealth and International Library: Pergamon Modern Legal Outlines

  • R. W. Vick, C. F. Shoolbred, W. A. J. Farndale(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Pergamon

    (Publisher)

  C H A P T E R 2 Solicitors The Law Society — Education and examinations — Articles and training — Roll — Practising certificates — Discipline — Duties to client — Branches of work — Partnership — Retainers — Compen-sation fund — Remuneration of Solicitors — Costs — Commissioner for oaths and public notary — Legal aid. T H E legal profession in England and Wales is divided into two main branches—Solicitors and barristers. It is proposed to deal with Solicitors in this chapter and with barristers in Chapter 3. It will become apparent that, whilst barristers have a right of audience in all courts, Solicitors are more restricted as regards their right to represent their clients personally in court. It will also become apparent that, apart from certain specific exceptions a lay client is unable to appear in court in the dual capacity of appellant or defendant, as the case may be, and that of advocate. The normal process is that the lay client has to instruct a solicitor, placing the full facts of his case in his hands. The solicitor will pass on these instructions to a barrister in the form of a brief. The barrister will then appear in court and his duty will be to act as mouthpiece for the lay client. The solicitor's duty will have been to ensure beforehand that his brief to counsel (as barristers are generally known) sets out the lay client's instruc-tions in full. It will also be his duty either to attend court in person or to make sure that he sends a competent clerk to attend the court hearing. This will ensure that counsel is kept fully in the picture and that the lay client is properly looked after throughout the hearing of his case. The solicitor will also in the meantime have made sure that all the witnesses who are required for the 29

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  Professional Liability: Law and Insurance

  • Ray Hodgin(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Informa Law from Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The Lord Chancellor has announced an intention to provide for Solicitors to have the right of audience in the higher courts on admission. Details have not been finalised but are likely to include an obligation to take an optional specialist module in the Legal Practice Course and to have spent part of a training contract in the litigation department of the firm. It is also likely that advocacy will receive greater emphasis in the Professional Skills Course.

  11.17

  Solicitors as officers of the Supreme Court

  In addition to professional regulations, Solicitors are subject to the disciplinary jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of which they are officers. This jurisdiction is exercisable against a solicitor for his or her own acts and those of his or her employees. Action may be taken on the court’s own motion pursuant to section 66(1) of, and Schedule 20 to, the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 which prohibit a solicitor from acting as agent for any unqualified person (apart from those in multi-disciplinary and multi-national practices or in incorporated associations).

  If any solicitor deliberately interferes with the administration of justice, he or she is guilty of a criminal contempt of court. A number of old cases give as examples defying a judge in open court, using improper language to the judge or the opponent or destruction of documents.

  There is also a civil liability for contempt of court where a solicitor fails to perform an undertaking given as an officer of the court or fails without reasonable excuse to inform the client of an order against him, for example for discovery of documents.

  An undertaking given by a solicitor acting professionally for a client may be enforced on application for committal in the county court or by motion in the Chancery Division of the High Court. An undertaking properly given by the solicitor binds the solicitor even after the death of the client, the client’s instruction not to perform it or after notice that the client has changed his solicitor.

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  AS Law

  • Andrew Mitchell(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Routledge-Cavendish

    (Publisher)

  Legal Week magazine conducted a survey in June 2007 that found City Solicitors charging between ­­£500–­­£1,000 per hour in the corporate firms, though this positive point about high earnings should be balanced against more general negative media coverage during the year of the stressful, long hours culture experienced by some City lawyers. At the other

  Talking from experience: Solicitors’ firms

  Work experience in a local firm of Solicitors will provide a valuable insight into the working practices of a legal office. You will probably undertake a range of clerical duties such as filing, dealing with both incoming and outgoing mail, and operating the fax and photocopying machines. You might also talk to clients on the telephone and attend the local courts.

  end of the scale, High Street Solicitors engaged in legal aid work were used to fees of up to ­­£50 per hour, though for non-legal aid work fees averaged ­­£80–­­£120 for firms based outside London. (See also Chapter 11 on legal aid.)

  The role of Solicitors

  Despite the differences between firms, Solicitors generally undertake the following sort of tasks:

  • They advise clients directly, through interview or by correspondence.
  • They prepare paperwork (such as legal letters, forms, and so on), often as part of the process of litigation management, which involves bringing a case to court and ensuring that the necessary formalities are met.
  • They represent clients in the lower courts (in the magistrates’ courts and county courts) and may seek to gain an advocacy certificate to represent clients in the higher courts (as solicitor-advocates).

  That said, Solicitors will tend to specialise in particular areas of work. There are two main types of legal work in the Solicitors’ office. The first is contentious work, which involves disputes that are likely to be resolved in court, such as immigration work, divorce, personal injury and general litigation. The second is non-contentious work, which largely involves paperwork and dealing with clients in the office. Examples include conveyancing, the drafting of wills, financial services and probate.

  Solicitor-advocates with the appropriate advocacy experience and qualifications now have opportunities to apply for QC status and also for appointment to judicial posts

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  Judicial Process

  Law, Courts, and Politics in the United States

  • David Neubauer, Stephen Meinhold(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Thus, one of the critical skills of the lawyer is the drafting of documents. The difference between a properly written will and a badly drafted one means the difference between order and chaos, between the quick settlement of an estate during probate and litigation over competing claims. Because of the technical aspects of this kind of work, the ability to write documents such as mortgages and articles of incorpo-ration has been referred to as “the most legal of the lawyer’s skills” (Mayer 1967). A properly drafted document can avoid potential lawsuits, but not all lawsuits can be avoided. Lawyers also draft important documents during all phases of litigation. In filing a case, the plaintiff’s attorneys must precisely state the nature of the claim. In finalizing an out-of-court settlement, lawyers for all parties need to specify the agreements in detail. After the trial, judges prepare judgments and write court orders. For appellate judges, of course, writing opinions explaining the court’s decision is a major activity. Counseling Clients Another important task is counseling clients. Part of this role requires attending to the cli-ent’s emotional needs, particularly during stressful events such as divorce or criminal prose-cution. Just as patients evaluate their doctors’ friendly bedside manner, clients measure their lawyers’ courteous and understanding demeanor. The most important counseling role, however, centers on advising clients about the dic-tates of the law. As professionals educated in the law, lawyers are expected to provide advice about the possible legal consequences stemming from their clients’ actions or inactions. Thus, lawyers must fully and dispassionately evaluate the strengths and the weaknesses of the client’s case, as well as assess the position of the opposing party. 130 Part II Interpreters of the Law Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.

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  English Law

  • Gary Slapper, David Kelly(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  As Janet Paraskeva, The Law Society’s Chief Executive, notes: ‘Inhouse lawyers can provide cost-effective legal advice, and have an increasingly important role in corporate governance. [They] often act as co-ordinators for the outsourcing of legal work and become involved with public affairs, risk management and general business analysis’ (The Gazette, 20 February 2003). In the decade 1994–2004, the numbers of employed Solicitors grew from 10,910 to 21,678—a 99 per cent increase. In fact, the number of Solicitors working in the employed sector is likely to be much higher because the figures come from The Law Society list of those with practising certificates but, because of their employed status, many lawyers are not required to have such a certificate. In-house Solicitors often enjoy more flexible working terms than their private practice counterparts, so it is probably no accident that 49.2 per cent of Solicitors holding practising certificates in commerce and industry are women, while only 39.4 per cent of practising certificate holders in private practice are women (Law Society, Key Facts 2006: The Solicitors’ Profession). 10.5.7 The Legal Services Ombudsman An ombudsman (a name taken from Sweden where the post has existed for over 170 years) is a person independent of the government or a given field of activity who investigates complaints of maladministration. The post of Legal Services Complaints Commissioner (commonly known as Ombudsman (LSO)) was created in 1990 by s 21 of the CLSA 1990 and covers England and Wales. The Act provides that the LSO must not be a lawyer. The Access to Justice Act 1999 gave the LSO powers to make orders rather than recommendations requiring the legal professional bodies and individual practitioners to pay appropriate compensation to complainants

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  Lawyers' Ethics and Professional Responsibility

  • Andrew Boon(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  In a succession of statutes the Law Society gained disciplinary powers over Solicitors, including the right to suspend Solicitors and strike them from its roll. In 1906 the Law Society sponsored legislation preventing solici-tors using client money for their own purposes. In 1941 the Law Society acquired the power to inspect the accounts of practitioners. It also created a compensation fund for clients cheated by Solicitors. The Law Society also took control over entry into the profession. An entry examination for Solicitors was introduced in 1836. At the beginning of World War II the pass rate for each examination was only 50 per cent. Trainee Solicitors also had to complete five-year articles of clerkship, for which they 21 D Sugarman, ‘Bourgeois Collectivism, Professional Power and the Boundaries of the State: The Private and Public Life of the Law Society 1825 to 1914’ (1996) 3(1/2) International Journal of the Legal Profession 81. 22 P Reeves, ‘Case History—A Look Back to the 18th Century to Find the Origins of the Law Society and the Changes over 150 years’ (1995) 92 The Law Society Gazette , 22 February. 46 INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANISATIONS had to pay a premium to an established practitioner. They received no pay for the duration of these articles. Barristers and Solicitors undertook defined areas of work. These were complementary to each other. Barristers had rights of audience, and the right to conduct advocacy, in all courts. Solicitors had more limited rights of advocacy, broadly confined to lower courts, but could conduct litigation and conveyancing, which barristers could not. Solicitors had to ‘instruct’ bar-risters to appear in higher courts by preparing a brief. The traditional organisation of Solicitors is in partnerships. There can be from two to several hundred partners, sharing expenses, liabilities and profits. A significant minority of the profession continue to be sole practitioners.

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  Serving Two Masters

  Conflicts of Interest in the Modern Law Firm

  • Janine E. Griffiths-Baker(Author)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  59 To accept anything other than the highest standards from its officers could potentially bring the entire legal system into disrepute. The Supreme Court 60 has inherent jurisdiction over Solicitors as officers of the Court by virtue of sec-tion 50 of the Solicitors Act, 1974. 61 Sections 51–55 of the Act give the court wide-ranging powers to institute disciplinary proceedings against Solicitors. In principle, therefore, Solicitors are subject to stringent regulation. Not only are they bound by the rules of their professional organisation, they are also sub-ject to review by the courts. Indeed, it is doubtful whether any other profession is, at least in theory, subject to such a weight of regulation and oversight. 62 REGULATING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST It has been suggested that there are essentially two ways in which a regulatory body can address the issue of conflicts of interest: either it can prevent members from acting where conflicts arise, or conflicts can be controlled by means of a range of appropriate measures. 63 The Law Society has, until now, opted for the first of these two approaches. The rules governing the conduct of Solicitors state that a solicitor must not act where the solicitor’s own interests conflict with those of the client, or where a conflict of interests (or a significant risk of con-flict) arises between two or more clients. 64 More specifically, and with potential conflicts in mind, the Law Society rules have been drafted as follows: 15.01 A solicitor or firm of Solicitors should not accept instructions to act for two or more clients where there is a conflict or a significant risk of a con-flict between the interests of those clients. 10 Introduction 57 The Guide, 8th edn, at rule 1.03, n 4 at 4. 58 The full title of a solicitor is in fact Solicitor of the Supreme Court; see Sittingbourne and Sheerness Railway Co v Lawson (1886) 2 TLR 605.

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