Attorney at law

England and Wales and Ireland

The attorney, in the sense of a lawyer who acts on behalf of a client, has an ancient pedigree in English law. The Statute of Merton 1235 uses the Latin expression attorñ in a phrase rendered into English by The Statutes of the Realm as

It is provided and granted that every freeman, which oweth suit to the county, trything, hundred, and wapentake, 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 the common law courts. They were officers of the courts and were under judicial supervision. Attorneys did not generally actually appear as advocates in the higher courts, a role reserved (as it still usually is) for barristers. Solicitors, lawyers who practised in the courts of equity, were considered to be more respectable than attorneys and by the mid-19th century many attorneys were calling themselves solicitors.

The Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 in England and Wales and the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 in Ireland redesignated all attorneys as solicitors. The term persists in legal usage in the United Kingdom solely in the instance of patent 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 of England and Wales, Ireland, and Northern Ireland, references in any enactment to attorneys, with the exception of patent attorneys, must be construed as references to solicitors.

The chief legal adviser to the Sovereign and Government in affairs pertaining to England and Wales is called the Attorney-General.