2020-06-12
155
II. The Legal Profession (Профессия юриста)
1. Entering the Profession of a Lawyer
How does someone become a lawyer? In some countries in order to practice as a lawyer it is necessary to get a university degree in law. However, in others, a degree may not be enough; professional examinations must be passed. In Britain, it is not in fact necessary to have a degree, but one must pass the Bar Final examination (for barristers) or the Law Society Final examination (for solicitors).
In most countries lawyers will tell you that the time they spent studying for their law finals was one of the worst periods of their lives! This is because an enormous number of legal rules and other materials must be memorized. In Japan, where there are not very many lawyers, the examinations are especially hard: less than 5 percent of the candidates pass it.
Even after passing the examination, a lawyer is not necessarily qualified to work as a lawyer. In England, for example, a solicitor or barrister must then spend 2 more years to get practical experience.
The number of people who want to become lawyers is growing very fast in the world. Why is the career in law so popular? Lawyers’ salaries are much greater than those of many other professions. In the USA the average salary of experienced lawyers in private practice is more than $100,000 a year.
(D. Keenan «Keenan’s English Law»)
2. Legal Education in the United States
In the United States, being a lawyer means many different things. There are trial lawyers who appear in court before judges and juries, and many other lawyers who never see a courtroom. There are partners in huge big-city law firms employing 500 to 1,000 lawyers who do specialized work for multinational corporations. There are lawyers who practice alone or in small firms and help families and small businesses with their legal problems, such as divorces, wills, property transactions, bankruptcies and other disputes. There are lawyers who represent people in serious personal troubles, such as victims of accidents or suspects accused of crimes. There are government lawyers, prosecutors and judges; law professors and lawyers who serve poor people.
Though American lawyers are diverse in their specialties, incomes, status, and clients, they all belong to a single profession and have the same basic formal qualifications, education and training. Professional lawyers are controlled by the bar associations, state courts and academic law schools. Almost all the states require that to become a lawyer one must complete successfully 4 years of undergraduate college, then 3 years of a law school approved by the American National Bar Association (ABA) and finally pass a bar examination. In most states 50 to 80 percent of the candidates who take the bar examination pass it.
There are now 185 ABA-approved law schools with about 2,000 full-time professors teaching in them. It is very difficult for the candidates to be admitted: for example, Yale Law School has 5,000 applicants for 170 places. Expenses are also a high barrier. Students at private law school must pay about $30,000 a year in tuition and fees; even at the state (public) law schools they must pay $15-20,000 per year, and thus many graduates have debts of $1000,000 or more.
(R. W. Gordon «Legal education in the U.S.: Origin and Development»)
3. The American Bar Association
Unlike other countries, legal education in the United States is post-baccalaureate. It means that students go to a law school to take up their law degree after they have studied four years at college or university.
The American Bar Association (ABA) is the national organization for the legal profession in the United States. Its members are practicing lawyers, judges, court administrators, law teachers, public service lawyers and law students. In 2004 the ABA was the world’ s largest voluntary professional organization with more than 400,000 members, including more than 350,000 attorneys.
The ABA has established ethical guidelines for the legal profession which are expressed in the «Rules for Professional Conduct». The ABA’s role is also very important in consulting Congress and the White House over matters of law.
(J. A. Sebert «The American Bar Association
and Legal Education in the United States»)
4. The Legal Profession in Great Britain: Barristers and Solicitors
Most countries have different groups of people who specialize in various aspects of law – attorneys, public prosecutors, or judges. In Great Britain there is also a distinction between barristers and solicitors. Who are they?
There are about 7,000 barristers in Great Britain today. Barristers specialize in presenting cases in court before the jury and a judge; they have the «Right of audience», even in highest courts. They are not paid directly by their clients, but they are employed by solicitors.
There are 76,000 solicitors in England and Wales today, and 70 percent of them are men. The main function of a solicitor is to advise clients on legal and financial matters. Solicitors also have a right of audience, but only in lower courts, such as Magistrates’ courts. In general, it can be said that a barrister spends most of his time either in a courtroom or preparing his arguments for the court and a solicitor spends most of his time in an office giving advice to clients and preparing documents.
If a person has a legal problem, he will go and see a solicitor. In fact, their number is increasing. Many problems are dealt with by solicitors only: petty crimes, matrimonial matters, such as divorce, recovering debts. If you want to make a will, write a legal letter, form a company, or buy a house, you are to turn to a solicitor.
(D. Keenan «Keenan’s English Law»)
5. Laymen among the Lawyers:
Justices of the Peace and Jurors
The lowest courts in Great Britain and the USA are Magistrates’, or Police courts. They are presided over by the Justices of the Peace (J.P.), or Magistrates. They are lay justices, i.e. they are not professional lawyers. Today there are over 29,000 lay justices in England and Wales; about 95 percent of criminal trials are dealt with by them. The judicial system could not work without these people. They work part-time and are unpaid. Magistrates’ courts consist of between 2 to 7 magistrates.
Jurors who will hear a case are usually selected by lottery from a list of qualified residents of the country. The qualifications of a juror are the following: he must reside in the country for a specified period of time, be of acceptable age, (from 18 to 70 years old), own some property and be in good health. There are categories of people who cannot be jurors: Members of Parliament, medical practitioners and members of the armed forces, lawyers, judges, and policemen.
The jurors usually form up a jury of 12 people for a particular civil or criminal case. They must hear and decide the case «without fear, favour or prejudice». The jury is to pass a verdict – «Guilty» or «Not guilty». Verdicts are usually unanimous.
In British law the accused are considered to be innocent until they are proved guilty and the prosecution must prove their guilt; the defense does not have to prove their innocence. If there is doubt in the minds of the jury, the verdict must be «not guilty». In Scottish law, the jury may return the verdict of «not proven (not proved)», but even then the verdict is final and a person may not be tried twice for the same crime. Until 1966 in England and Wales all the members of the jury had to be in agreement. Now, at least ten of the 12 jurors must agree before the verdict can be given.
(P. W. D. Reymond «General Principles of English Law»)
Задания
I. Ответьте на вопросы по содержанию прочитанных текстов.
1. What professional examinations are to be passed in order to become a lawyer in most of the countries?
2. Why is it difficult to pass law examinations?
3. Why is the career of a lawyer so popular in the world today?
4. According to Text 2, lawyers specialize in various aspects of legal activities. What are they?
5. What sort of organization is the ABA?
6. How big is the American Bar Association?
7. Look through Text 4 again and say what the difference between barristers and solicitors in Great Britain is.
8. Why are Magistrates’ courts so important in Great Britain and the USA?
9. Who can be selected to sit as a juror?
10. What is the main function of the jury?
