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frank theriault wrote:
Hi,
Well, first of all, please understand that it really makes no difference to me if I can still call myself a lawyer or not. I haven't practised in 8 years, and I have no intention of practising again. Nor do I have the intention of using my law degree in the future (at least not directly). So, 't'is no big deal at all.
But, as I understand it, a lawyer is one who has had the degree of law conferred upon them. It's the degree that gives one the title, not the practise.
In order to practise law, I must be a barrister and solicitor, which I'm no longer.
I think it's like a PhD. Once the degree is conferred, that person is a doctor for the rest of their life.
In the case of your father, well, that's a throwback to the "old days" (no insult to him intended), back before law schools were formalized to the extent that they are today. Lawyers became lawyers basically by apprenticing with an established lawyer. The remnant of that is seen in today's articling system for lawyers. So, perhaps in your part of the US, at that time, there was more or less a "hybrid" system. You could go to law school to become a lawyer. Or, you could do it "the old fashioned way", and apprentice to become a lawyer.
Of course, I could be wrong, and I invite someone with better information than me to enlighten us all (with appropriate authorities and references, of course <vbg>).
cheers, frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: OT -- Lawyers, seriously; formerly Re: something weird... Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 23:35:26 CST
frank said:
> I was about to say "was". As in I "was" a lawyer. But, really, I still am
> one. (scary thought, eh?) It's a degree that's been conferred upon me, so
> as long as I can still put the letters LLB behind my name, I'm a lawyer.
> Just a "non-practicing" lawyer.
frank, if you aren't -- or, to be safer by being not so personal, "someone
isn't" -- currently licensed to practice law, or a member of the relevant Bar,
or whatever confers the right to practice law, but has the degree, would that
not make you or the hypothetical someone a "person with a law degree" rather
than a "lawyer"? Just wondering. It's a usage question, not a legal one. :-)
(If you think it's a legal question, I guess I could ask my father, who *is* a
practicing lawyer, but then that opens another can of confusion-worms since he
does not have a law degree. He's a relic of the old articled-clerk
system.)
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-- graywolf http://graywolfphoto.com/graywolf.html
