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Introduction
Generally, lawyers, advocates, barristers, and solicitors are considered equivalent words, but they have different meanings, importance, and natures. These terms are used in different countries and have diverse significance.
In India Lawyer
A lawyer is someone who has completed legal education or graduated in law. A lawyer cannot represent clients in court proceedings. A Lawyer is somebody who has been trained in the law. He may be a legal adviser, consultant, academician, in-house legal counsel, or in a corporate firm, and he may draft documents such as contracts, deeds, wills, etc.
Advocates
Those lawyers who qualified for the Bar Council exam as per the Advocates Act, 1961 to practice before Indian Courts are advocates. The role of an Advocate, in contrast, is limited to representing his/her client before court. He is a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy. He can put a case on someone else's behalf. He is a professional pleader in a court of justice.
As per the definitions of the Advocates Act 1961 -
2(a) “advocate” means an advocate entered in any role under the provisions of this Act;
2(i) “Legal practitioner” means an advocate or vakil or any High Court, a pleader, mukhtar or revenue agent;
Thus, the act also clarifies that a person registered with a State Bar Council upon completing his law degree is known as an Advocate.
Advocate on Record
Advocate on Record is an advocate who is entitled under the Order IV of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 (previously Order IV of the Supreme Court of India Rules, 1966), framed under Article 145 of the Constitution, to act as well as to plead for a party in the Supreme Court of India. As per the Rules, no advocate other than an advocate on record shall be entitled to file an appearance or act for a party in the Supreme Court of India. No advocate other than an advocate on record can appear and plead unless an advocate on record instructs him.
If an advocate wants to practice as an advocate-on-record in the Supreme Court, he or she needs additional qualifications. The advocate has to practice for four years as an advocate and, after that, has to inform the Supreme Court that he or she has started training with a senior advocate on record because he or she intends to become an advocate on record. After one year's training expires, the advocate has to appear for an examination conducted by the Supreme Court itself. After an advocate passes this examination, he or she must have a registered office within a radius of 10 miles from the Supreme Court building and a registered clerk. After this, the Chamber Judge of the Supreme Court accepts him as an advocate-on-record.
Advocate General
An advocate general is a senior officer of the law. In some common law and hybrid jurisdictions, the officer performs the function of a legal adviser to the government, analogous to Attorneys General in other common law and hybrid jurisdictions.
The Office of the Advocate General is a constitutional office created under Article 165 of the Constitution of India. The Governor of the State appoints a person qualified to be appointed as a judge of the High Court as Advocate General of the State.
Attorney General of India
The Attorney General for India is the Indian Government's chief legal adviser and is a primary lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. The President of India appoints him under Article 76(1) of the Constitution and holds office during the pleasure of the President. He must be a person qualified to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court, also must have been a judge of any High Court for five years or an advocate of any High Court for ten years or an eminent jurist, in the opinion of the President and must be a citizen of India.
The Attorney General advises the Government of India in legal matters referred to him. He also performs other legal duties assigned to him by the President. The Attorney General has the right of audience in all Courts in India and the right to participate in the proceedings of the Parliament, though not to vote. The Attorney General appears on behalf of the Government of India in all cases (including suits, appeals, and other proceedings) in the Supreme Court in which the Government of India is concerned. He also represents the Government of India in any reference made by the President to the Supreme Court under Article 143 of the Constitution.
Unlike the Attorney General of the United States, the Attorney General of India has no executive authority. The Law Minister of India performs those functions. Also, the AG is not a government servant and is not debarred from private legal practice.
The Attorney General can accept briefs but cannot appear against the Government. He cannot defend an accused in criminal proceedings and cannot accept the directorship of a company without the government's permission.
The Attorney General is assisted by a Solicitor General and four Additional Solicitors General. The Attorney General is to be consulted only in legal matters of fundamental importance and only after the Ministry of Law has been consulted. The Law Ministry makes all references to the Attorney General.
Solicitor General of India
The Solicitor General of India is subordinate to the Attorney General of India. He is the second law officer of the country, assists the Attorney General, and is himself assisted by four Additional Solicitors General for India.
Unlike the Attorney General, the Solicitor General does not give legal advice to the Government of India. His workload is confined to appearing in courts on behalf of the Union of India.
In Britain
As per British Law, the term Attorney is the general term for all those qualified to practice law in Britain, and the terms Barrister and Solicitor are subsets of the term Attorney.
Attorney
A professional person authorized to practice law, conduct lawsuits, or give legal advice.
Barrister
In Britain and Canada, a barrister is a lawyer who speaks in the higher courts of law on behalf of either the defence or prosecution. Barristers can be distinguished from solicitors because they wear a wig and gown in court.
They work at higher court levels than solicitors, and their main role is to act as advocates in legal hearings. This means they stand in court and plead the case on behalf of their clients in front of a judge.
Barristers do not interact with the public as much as solicitors. Solicitors give them details of a case and then give them a certain amount of time to review the evidence and prepare for court.
Most Barristers are self-employed and work in Chambers with others to share accommodation costs and administrators. They can also be employed in-house as banks, corporations, and solicitors advisers.
Solicitor
In Britain, a solicitor is a lawyer who gives legal advice and prepares legal documents. Solicitors draft pleadings or written statements in a case to be filed before the court and perform the functions of attorneys for clients.
Solicitors can work for various organizations, including commercial or non-commercial law firms, the government, private businesses, banks, and corporations. They have specialized knowledge of different areas of the law, such as family, crime, finance, property, and employment.
Solicitors mostly advise clients, negotiate, and draft legal documents. Although primarily a desk job, it does involve traveling to see clients and representing them in court.
In the past, solicitor advocacy work was restricted to magistrates' courts and minor cases in county courts. Still, a few solicitor advocates work at higher court levels.
Attorney General In England and Wales
The Attorney General is one of the Crown's Law Officers. Along with the subordinate Solicitor General for England and Wales, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in England and Wales.
The Attorney General is a non-cabinet minister who leads the Attorney General's Office. He has the primary role of advising the Government on any legal repercussions of their actions, either orally at meetings or in writing. He advises not only the whole government but also individual departments. Although the primary role is no longer litigation, the Attorney General still represents the Crown and Government in court in some select, significant cases and chooses the Treasury Counsel who handles most government legal cases. By convention, he represents the government in every case before the International Court of Justice. The Attorney General also superintends the Crown Prosecution Service and appoints its head, the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Crown Prosecution Service makes decisions to prosecute in cases other than exceptional ones, i.e., where the Attorney General's consent is required by statute or in cases relating to national security.
The Attorney General also superintends the Government Legal Department and the Serious Fraud Office. He is responsible for applying to the court restraining vexatious litigants. He may intervene in litigation to represent the interests of charity or the public interest in certain family law cases. He is also officially the leader of the Bar of England and Wales, although this is merely custom and has no duties or rights attached to it. Since the passing of the Law Officers Act 1997, any duties of the Attorney General can be delegated to the Solicitor General for England and Wales, and his or her actions are treated as coming from the Attorney General. The beginning of the 20th century saw a shift away from litigation and more towards legal advice, and today, the Attorney General delegates most cases to the Crown Prosecution Service and Treasury Counsel.
Solicitor General in England & Wales
The Solicitor General is one of the Law Officers of the Crown and the deputy of the Attorney General, whose duty is to advise the Crown and Cabinet on the law. He can exercise the powers of the Attorney General in the Attorney General's absence.
In USA Solicitor
A solicitor is a qualified person who represents and advises his clients. Can advocate in court (with the due accreditation) and usually specialise in a certain law area. Call yourself a solicitor; it is an offence if you are not one. In the US, a 'lawyer' is a general term for anyone licensed to practice law.
Attorney
An attorney at law in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients. Alternative terms include counsellor and lawyer.
Litigator
A litigator is a specific type of lawyer who tries cases in court, unlike a transactional lawyer who might work on contracts and never see the inside of a courtroom. Litigation attorneys, or litigators or trial lawyers, represent plaintiffs and defendants in civil lawsuits. They manage all phases of the litigation, from the investigation, pleadings, and discovery through the pre-trial, trial, settlement, and appeal processes.
Paralegal
A paralegal is a professional who may or may not be licensed but who assists a lawyer in their regular duties. They may do research, draft documents, and liaise with clients, but they cannot give legal advice or represent someone else as their attorney.
United States Solicitor General
The United States Solicitor General is the fourth-highest-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice. The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States.
The Solicitor General determines the United States' legal position in the Supreme Court. In addition to supervising and conducting cases in which the government is a party, the office of the Solicitor General also files amicus curiae[1] briefs in cases in which the federal government has a significant interest in the legal issue. The office of the Solicitor General argues on behalf of the Government in virtually every case in which the United States is a party and also argues in most cases in which the Government has filed an amicus brief. In the federal courts of appeal, the Office of the Solicitor General reviews cases decided against the United States. It determines whether the government will seek review in the Supreme Court. The Office of the Solicitor General also reviews cases decided against the United States in the federal district courts and approves every case in which the government files an appeal.
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General (A.G.) is the head of the United States Department of Justice as per 28 U.S.C. § 503, is concerned with all legal affairs, and is the chief lawyer of the United States Government. In cases of the federal death penalty, the power to seek the death penalty rests with the Attorney General.
Under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, the Attorney General is nominated by the President and appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Constitution provides that civil officers of the United States, including the Attorney General, may be impeached by Congress for treason, bribery, or "high crimes and misdemeanours."
Footnote:
[1] someone who is not a party to a case and may or may not have been solicited by a party and who assists a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case and is typically presented in the form of a brief. The decision on whether to consider an amicus brief lies within the court's discretion.
References-
1.https://www.brightknowledge.org/law/what-is-the-difference-between-a-barrister-and-solicitor
2.http://le-mot-juste-en-nglais.typepad.com/le_mot_juste_en_anglais/2010/05/this-article--was-originally-published-in-its-french-version--in-several-languages-the-words--meaning.html
