Attorney at law orattorney-at-law, usually abbreviated in everyday speech toattorney, is the preferred term for a practisinglawyer in certain jurisdictions, includingSouth Africa (for certain lawyers),Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and theUnited States. The term has its roots in the verbto attorn, meaning to transfer one's rights and obligations to another.
Theattorney, in the sense of a lawyer who acts on behalf of a client, has an ancient pedigree in English law. TheStatute of Merton 1235 uses the Latin expressionattorñ in a phrase rendered into English byThe Statutes of the Realm as[1]
It is provided and granted that every freeman, which oweth suit to the county, trything, hundred, andwapentake, or to the court of his Lord, may freely make his attorney to do those suits for him.
The term was formerly used in England and Wales and Ireland for lawyers who practised in thecommon law courts. They were officers of the courts and were under judicial supervision.[2] Attorneys did not generally actually appear as advocates in the higher courts, a role reserved (as it still usually is) forbarristers.Solicitors, lawyers who practised in thecourts of equity, were considered to be more respectable than attorneys and by the mid-19th century many attorneys were calling themselves solicitors.[2]
TheSupreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 in England and Wales and theSupreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 in Ireland redesignated all attorneys as solicitors.[3] The term persists in legal usage in the United Kingdom solely in the instance ofpatent attorneys, who are legal professionals having sat professional qualifications and are expert in acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice. They may, or may not, be additionally either solicitors or barristers or have come to the practice through a technical expert route (e.g. following a PhD and period of practice in a scientific or engineering field).
In the now three separate jurisdictions ofEngland and Wales,Ireland, andNorthern Ireland, references in any enactment to attorneys, with the exception of patent attorneys, must be construed as references to solicitors.[4][5][6]
The position ofAttorney-General also persists.
InPoland, it is used as a free profession of public trust dealing with the provision of legal aid, in particular providing legal advice and consultations, drafting legal opinions, drafting legal acts, and appearing before courts and offices as a proxy or defence counsel. It is carried out on the basis of the Law of 6 July 1982 on attorney-at-law. In addition to the obligations arising from the law, every attorney-at-law and trainee attorney-at-law is also subject to the ethical standards of the attorney-at-law profession, defined in particular in the Code of Ethics for Attorney-at-Law.
