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Is it easier to become a barrister or solicitor?

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Reply 40
Avatar for see-are
see-are
Original post by ForKicks
Slow? Heh.

If you don't know what a TC is, you really aren't qualified to comment, even if you want to go down the barrister route. It is not a little thing, it is extremely basic knowledge. Like I said, those who can offer anything credible know what it is.


Not knowing an abbreviation is not a major issue...
And I don't claim to know much about law etc you seem to have made the assumption that I have done some sort of guesswork about the inner workings of court or something. No, if you want to comment on me being qualified (as if you need to be you snob) then you can at least read my comments and see that I only made an input about humanities degrees and their worth - didn't even mention law.
Reply 41
Avatar for Norton1
Norton1
18
Original post by Future_Dr
What is the difference between a Lawyer, Solicitor, Barrister? It really puzzles me. :rolleyes:


Barristers are the posh ones. Solicitors are the slack jawed, shuffle footed, beetle browed drudges. Simple when you know how,
Reply 42
Avatar for Kessler`
Kessler`
11
Original post by norton1
barristers are the posh ones. Solicitors are the slack jawed, shuffle footed, beetle browed drudges. Simple when you know how,


dot dot dot
Solicitor, although it is by no means easy to do that.
Original post by Future_Dr
What is the difference between a Lawyer, Solicitor, Barrister? It really puzzles me. :rolleyes:


The term 'lawyer' refers to solicitors/barristers collectively (or in America they tend to use it to refer to their equivalent of a barrister).

Solicitors undertake legal business for individual and corporate clients, while barristers advise on legal problems submitted through solicitors and present cases in higher courts. Certain functions are common to both – for example, the presentation of cases in lower courts.

Clients don't go directly to barristers - they go through the solicitor who refers the case to a barrister.
Original post by see-are
I guess I'd have to say I don't know? ...
Are you slow?
I probably just don't know the abbreviation not the actual thing


I would have thought TC would quite easily be understood to mean training contract...?
Original post by Rascacielos
The term 'lawyer' refers to solicitors/barristers collectively (or in America they tend to use it to refer to their equivalent of a barrister).

Solicitors undertake legal business for individual and corporate clients, while barristers advise on legal problems submitted through solicitors and present cases in higher courts. Certain functions are common to both – for example, the presentation of cases in lower courts.

Clients don't go directly to barristers - they go through the solicitor who refers the case to a barrister.


This is traditionally true but it's changing. Barristers now will have access to clients and solicitors can have higher rights of audience to speak in court like any barrister.
Original post by The West Wing
This is traditionally true but it's changing. Barristers now will have access to clients and solicitors can have higher rights of audience to speak in court like any barrister.


I appreciate that barristers talk to their clients, but what I was saying is that they go to the solicitor first, to then be reffered onto the barrister.

I wasn't aware about the solicitors having access to higher courts though. I wonder whether there will be a day when there is a generic 'lawyer' because the two traditionally separate positions seem to be merging quite a lot.
Original post by Rascacielos
I appreciate that barristers talk to their clients, but what I was saying is that they go to the solicitor first, to then be reffered onto the barrister.
Whilst this is still the norm, barristers can now be 'Direct Access' qualified, which allows them to accept clients directly rather then through instruction from a solicitor. Any barrister who has been in practice for three years or more can become Direct Access qualified. It's as straightforward as paying for and attending a short course.
Rascacielos

I wasn't aware about the solicitors having access to higher courts though. I wonder whether there will be a day when there is a generic 'lawyer' because the two traditionally separate positions seem to be merging quite a lot.

Plenty of people are wondering the same thing. Certainly the solid line between the two has been blurring ever so slightly in recent years. That said, whilst you can no longer talk in absolutes as to who does what in the legal process, those absolutes do still mostly apply as general rules.
Reply 49
Avatar for BO'H
BO'H
11
solicitor

and while they are different skill sets that of a top barrister is rarer and harder to master

and historically barristers are posher pleb1, because they had to have money to live during pupillage when they were earning nothing and because being able to speak well is such a key skill that many poorer/state school kids don't have (this is a generalisation, but like many generalisations there is some truth in it)

basis for opinion: my 15 years as a solicitor
Original post by BO'H
solicitor

and while they are different skill sets that of a top barrister is rarer and harder to master

and historically barristers are posher pleb1, because they had to have money to live during pupillage when they were earning nothing and because being able to speak well is such a key skill that many poorer/state school kids don't have (this is a generalisation, but like many generalisations there is some truth in it)

basis for opinion: my 15 years as a solicitor


I don't actually accept this.

It was always always hard to get established at the bar because there was nowhere to hide and your "customer-base" were knowledgeable lawyers. What has changed in the last 10 years is that with pupillage awards it has become formally difficult to qualify. When you started out, pupillages were ten a penny but tenancies weren't.

Barristers have always come from a more elevated social position than attorneys/solicitors and that can be traced back for more than 700 years.

The relative cost of training between the two professions has swung wildly during the 20th/21st centuries.

Most barristers in the 1960s would have done a law degree supported by a student grant. The bar exam was an easy exam and candidates usually combined it with some employment e.g law tutoring. Therefore, only pupillage was entirely without income although most young barristers needed family support to survive the early years of practice.

At the same time, most solicitors were five year men supported by their family for most or all of five year articles. Premiums for articles had died out by then but few articled clerks were paid. The cost of law school also had to be borne by the clerk.Thereafter on admission or shortly thereafter, a new solicitor was likely to have to need to buy into a partnership. Those who couldn't afford to do so went into local government and the such-like. There weren't many assistant solicitors in private practice for more than two or three years.
Original post by Crazy Jamie
Whilst this is still the norm, barristers can now be 'Direct Access' qualified, which allows them to accept clients directly rather then through instruction from a solicitor. Any barrister who has been in practice for three years or more can become Direct Access qualified. It's as straightforward as paying for and attending a short course.


Oh right, I wasn't aware of that! Interesting.
Reply 52
Avatar for jjarvis
jjarvis
14
Original post by Rascacielos
(or in America they tend to use it to refer to their equivalent of a barrister).


There is no split profession in America, so there's not an equivalent of barristers in the sense of a different branch operating on a referral basis. While some lawyers specialise in trial advocacy, there's not a separate qualification procedure or separate rights.
Original post by jjarvis
There is no split profession in America, so there's not an equivalent of barristers in the sense of a different branch operating on a referral basis. While some lawyers specialise in trial advocacy, there's not a separate qualification procedure or separate rights.


Yeah, I didn't explain that very well, did I? :colondollar:
Reply 54
Avatar for see-are
see-are
Original post by TheMeister
I would have thought TC would quite easily be understood to mean training contract...?

it is now, thanks
Reply 55
Avatar for Norton1
Norton1
18
Original post by Kessler`
dot dot dot


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Reply 56
Avatar for Kessler`
Kessler`
11
Original post by Norton1
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The path to becoming a solicitor is easier, but you shouldn't pick your potential career path on what appears easier. You pick it because it is what you want. I want to be a barrister, but I am beginning to wonder whether I can afford the post-grad training, but it is what I want to do, so I am going to try my hardest to achieve it. I wish you good luck though, whatever you choose.
Original post by RedDragon
The path to becoming a solicitor is easier, but you shouldn't pick your potential career path on what appears easier. You pick it because it is what you want. I want to be a barrister, but I am beginning to wonder whether I can afford the post-grad training, but it is what I want to do, so I am going to try my hardest to achieve it. I wish you good luck though, whatever you choose.

There is no easier path. After you done the llb or gdl- you get choice of either bar or solicitor. Both professions are hard to get into. TC are dwindling as with pupillages.

Face it- Lawyers- is not the way forward.

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