You're confusing "lawyer", who is one who has attained a law degree with Barrister and Solicitor, meaning one who is authorized by the local law society to practice law. In the US you don't call your lawyers Barristers and Solicitors like we do here or in England or Oz. None the less, a lawyer before the court is a barrister, and one who does other work (real estate, wills, corporate) is a solicitor - even in the US.
That's why it's said that one must "pass the bars" in order to practise. Each state has it's Bar (or Law Society, as we call them up here). You pass your bar, you become a Barrister, you can go into court.
It may sound like semantics, but there are plenty of lawyers, who, for various reasons choose not to practice, who never pass their bars, who do pass their bars and then leave the profession. They're stll "lawyers" AFAIK.
Anyway, I've said this several times. Not worth repeating again, unless someone ~really~ takes issue, and I will then return with authorities to back up my current opinion.
(not pissed off or anything, Peter - this post just sounds a bit dry due to it's content, but it really isn't a big deal; you just can't tell from this... <g>)
cheers, frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: "Peter J. Alling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: something weird... Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 01:22:13 -0500
In the US you can be a former lawyer, while I don't think a law school will revoke your degree, so you can always be a law
school graduate, you can't be a lawyer unless you've been admitted to the bar and if they expel you then you're no longer a member
and no longer a lawyer.
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