Flashcards: Legal professions

An ombudsman or public advocate is usually appointed by the government or by parliament, but with a significant degree of independence, who is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints of maladministration or a violation of rights.

A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing an opposition.

A police force is a constituted body of persons empowered by the state to enforce the law, protect property, and limit civil disorder.

A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement.

A paralegal is an individual, qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency, or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible.

A barrister (also known as barrister-at-law or bar-at-law) is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions who works at higher levels of court.

A coroner is a person whose standard role is to confirm and certify the death of an individual within a jurisdiction.

A judicial executioner is a person who carries out a death sentence ordered by the state or other legal authority, which was known in feudal terminology as high justice.

A jurist (a word coming from medieval Latin), also known as legal scholar or legal theorist, is someone who researches and studies jurisprudence (theory of law).

A lawyer is a person who practices law, as an advocate, barrister, attorney, counselor or solicitor or chartered legal executive.

The law of agency is an area of commercial law dealing with a set of contractual, quasi-contractual and non-contractual fiduciary relationships that involve a person, called the agent, that is authorized to act on behalf of another (called the principal) to create legal relations with a third party.

The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system.

A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England, where the office originated.

Legal advice is the giving of a professional or formal opinion regarding the substance or procedure of the law in relation to a particular factual situation.

A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions.

An expert witness, in England, Wales and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as an expert.

A herald, or, more correctly, a herald of arms, is an officer of arms, ranking between pursuivant and king of arms.

A court reporter or court stenographer, also called stenotype operator, shorthand reporter or law reporter, is a person whose occupation is to transcribe spoken or recorded speech into written form, using shorthand, machine shorthand or voice writing equipment to produce official transcripts of court hearings, depositions and other official proceedings.

A fiduciary is a person who holds a legal or ethical relationship of trust with one or more other parties (person or group of persons).

The Reporter of Decisions (sometimes known by other titles, such as Official Reporter or State Reporter) is the official responsible for publishing the decisions of a court.

Agency in English law is a component of UK commercial law, and forms a core set of rules necessary for the smooth functioning of business.

An adjudicator is someone who presides, judges, and arbitrates during a formal dispute.

The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law.

In the United States, the generic term officer of the court (not to be confused with court officers) is applied to all those who, in some degree in function of their professional or similar qualifications, have a legal part—and hence legal and deontological obligations—in the complex functioning of the judicial system as a whole, in order to forge justice out of the application of the law and the simultaneous pursuit of the legitimate interests of all parties and the general good of society.

A commissioner is, in principle, the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something, the noun's second meaning).

A court clerk (English English clerk to the court; American English clerk of the court or clerk of court) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining the records of a court.

Conservatorship is a legal concept in the United States of America.

A Recorder is a judicial officer in England and Wales and some other common law jurisdictions.

A tax advisor or tax consultant is a person trained in tax law.

A Judicial officer is a person with the responsibilities and powers to facilitate, arbitrate, preside over, and make decisions and directions in regard to the application of the law.

Service of process is the procedure by which a party to a lawsuit gives an appropriate notice of initial legal action to another party (such as a defendant), court, or administrative body in an effort to exercise jurisdiction over that person so as to enable that person to respond to the proceeding before the court, body, or other tribunal.

(This article is about the legal, clerical and academic title. For other uses, see Proctor (disambiguation).) Proctor, a variant of the word procurator, is a person who takes charge of, or acts for, another.

A sole practitioner (UK) usually refers to either; * A solicitor or registered European lawyer who is regulated (in England and Wales) by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to provide paid-for legal services to the public alone and unattached to a law firm or organisation, or * a non SRA regulated lawyer who provides legal services alone outside of an organisation and is regulated by an authorised and legally recognised regulatory board or organisation.

A law practice manager describes a person with managerial responsibilities at a law firm.

A Legal Practice Manager describes an employee who has a wide range of management and administration responsibilities at a law firm with the overall purpose of ensuring the smooth day to day running of the legal office.