H418/01 - Legal professions and regulation

Solicitors and the client's case

A solicitor is a qualified lawyer who often provides a client's first sustained professional help with a legal problem. Solicitors work in firms, businesses, public bodies and other organisations. Their work includes advising on rights and obligations, preparing contracts and wills, handling property transactions, negotiating settlements and conducting litigation. Litigation means the process of bringing or defending legal proceedings; it includes preparing and filing documents, organising evidence and meeting deadlines.

Suppose a café owner says a supplier delivered defective equipment. The solicitor first needs the contract, correspondence and evidence of the defect. They explain the available legal options and their likely costs, contact the supplier and explore settlement. If proceedings become necessary, they prepare the claim and manage its progress. This continuing work matters even if the dispute settles before trial: preventing an unnecessary claim can be as useful as winning one.

Solicitors also undertake advocacy, presenting a client's case to a court. They have rights of audience in the lower courts; a solicitor with the appropriate higher-rights qualification can act as a solicitor advocate in the higher courts. It is therefore inaccurate to say that solicitors never appear in court. Equally, being a solicitor does not mean every solicitor is experienced in every area of law.

A solicitor may instruct a barrister for specialist advice or a hearing. The solicitor then supplies the facts and documents in a brief, while retaining responsibility for the work they have agreed to undertake. Using two professionals can combine continuity with specialist expertise, although it may add cost and require careful communication. A specialist solicitor advocate can sometimes provide both roles.

Barristers and specialist advocacy

A barrister is a lawyer whose work commonly includes specialist legal advice and advocacy in courts and tribunals. A barrister may give an opinion on a difficult point of law, draft court documents, advise on prospects of success, question witnesses and make submissions explaining why the law supports the client's position. Some barristers do little courtroom work; specialist written advice is itself a professional service.

Many self-employed barristers work from chambers, sharing accommodation and administration with other barristers. They remain individual practitioners rather than partners in a solicitors' firm. Other barristers are employed, for example by an organisation or the prosecution service. These arrangements affect how clients obtain services, rather than altering the basic duty to practise competently and honestly.

In the café dispute, a barrister might advise on the meaning of an unusual contractual term, then present the argument at a complex hearing. The solicitor's knowledge of the client's business and the barrister's specialist analysis can complement each other. The client should still understand who is doing what and how each fee is calculated.

Traditionally a solicitor instructs the barrister. Public access allows a suitably trained and registered barrister to accept instructions directly from a member of the public in an appropriate case. Direct access does not automatically give a barrister permission to conduct litigation. Separate authorisation is needed for that reserved activity; otherwise the client may need to perform procedural work or instruct a solicitor. A client who cannot manage the paperwork may therefore need more than an advocate for the hearing. The BSB explains the public-access rules.

This illustrates a useful distinction: a right of audience authorises speaking for a party in court; the right to conduct litigation covers procedural management. One does not automatically imply the other.

Legal executives and practice rights

A Chartered Legal Executive is a qualified lawyer, often specialising in a particular area such as property, family work, employment or probate. Legal executives may advise clients, research law, prepare documents and negotiate. They commonly work alongside solicitors, but are not merely unqualified assistants. Their expertise may be especially valuable where the client needs detailed knowledge of one field.

Qualification and authorisation must be kept separate. Some legal activities are reserved: legislation restricts who may undertake them. Examples include conducting litigation, exercising rights of audience and certain conveyancing and probate work. A legal executive can do non-reserved legal work independently, but needs the appropriate additional practice rights, or a relevant legal exemption, for reserved work beyond the rights attached to their status. Chartered Legal Executives with a valid practising certificate are authorised as commissioners for oaths. CILEX Practitioners can have specific authorisation for further reserved activities within their specialism. CILEx Regulation sets out these distinctions.

For example, a legal executive specialising in family law may give advice and negotiate arrangements. Whether they can independently conduct the litigation and speak in the relevant court depends on their authorisation. Calling every legal executive a courtroom advocate would overstate their rights; calling none of them an advocate would overlook those with advocacy rights.

The comparison between the three professions is therefore about common patterns of work, with important overlap. A solicitor, barrister and authorised legal executive may each be capable of helping with parts of the same dispute. A sensible choice checks the actual specialist experience, practice rights, service offered and cost. The strongest justification is “this person's authorised work matches the client's need”, rather than “this title is always superior”.

Standards and complaint routes

Regulation sets and enforces standards for legal professionals, protecting clients who may struggle to judge technical work themselves. Lawyers owe duties to clients, but also duties to the court and the administration of justice. A client cannot require a lawyer to mislead a judge or conceal a conflict of interest.

The Law Society, Bar Council and CILEX have representative or professional-body roles. Do not confuse representing members' interests with the regulatory function of setting and enforcing standards in the public interest. The Legal Services Board oversees the approved regulators; it does not normally decide an individual client's service complaint.

Different problems require different routes. A complaint about poor service, unexplained bills or failure to communicate should first go to the provider. If unresolved after its final response, or after eight weeks without resolution, an eligible complainant can approach the Legal Ombudsman, subject to its jurisdiction and time limits. It can seek remedies for poor service, such as correcting a bill or awarding compensation. A serious conduct concern, such as dishonesty or misuse of client money, goes to the relevant regulator. Conduct and service issues can overlap. The Ombudsman and regulator are not interchangeable, and reporting misconduct does not guarantee compensation. The Legal Ombudsman explains the service route.

Original example: a solicitor repeatedly fails to update a client and charges for work they cannot explain. That raises a service complaint. Evidence that the solicitor deliberately took money from the client account for personal use also raises a regulatory conduct issue. The distinction follows the nature of the problem, not whether the client is angry.

Expertise, cost and public protection

Professional specialisation can improve the quality of advice: a client does not have to master the law, evidence and procedure alone. Regulation supports trust by requiring competence and providing a response to misconduct. Together these features help turn a legal right into something a person can enforce.

There are limits. A regulated professional can still make a mistake, and a complaint after the event may not restore a lost opportunity. A client may not recognise defective advice quickly enough. Multiple professionals can add specialist expertise but also duplicated costs or communication failures. Rules that protect quality can coexist with fees that make help difficult to obtain. Professional regulation therefore supports access to justice without by itself funding it.

Consider the argument that a divided profession necessarily wastes money. Its strength is that paying separate advisers may add handover time and expense. Its weakness is that complex cases can benefit from focused specialist advice, and some work is undertaken by solicitor advocates or directly instructed barristers. The effect depends on the case and the services actually needed. A reasoned judgement compares the added expertise with the added cost; it does not assume every dispute needs two lawyers.

Quick recap

Professional roles overlap. Match the client's task to expertise and authorisation; distinguish advocacy from conducting litigation. Regulation protects standards, while provider complaints and the Legal Ombudsman address poor service. Neither expertise nor regulation alone makes legal help affordable.