Law, Lawyer and Counsel

LAW - Is a rule of conduct, just, obligatory and promulgated by legitimate authority, and of common observance and benefit. (Sanchez Roman)

- Is a just precept promulgated by competent authority for the common good of the people, which constitutes obligatory rule of conduct for all its members. (Morato)

- Is an ordinance of reason, promulgated for the common good by one who has authority over the community or society. (St. Thomas Aquinas)

- Is a science of principles by which the civil society is regulated and held together, by which right is enforced, and wrong is detected and punished. (Justice Bradley, USSC)

LAWYER - according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law.

Working as a lawyer involves the practical application of abstract legal theories and knowledge to solve specific individualized problems, or to advance the interests of those who retain (i.e., hire) lawyers to perform legal services.

COUNSEL or a counselor gives advice, more particularly in legal matters.

The legal system in England uses the term counsel as an approximate synonym for a barrister-at-law ', and may apply it to mean either a single person who pleads a cause, or collectively, the body of barristers engaged in a case. It seems uncertain as to whether the term also applies to a solicitor advocate. Some judges and lawyers apply the term interchangeably between both barristers and solicitor advocates.

The difference between "Barrister" and "Counsel" is subtle. "Barrister" is a professional title awarded by one of the four Inns of Court, and is used in a barrister's private, academic or professional capacity. "Counsel" is used to refer to a barrister who is instructed on a particular case. It is customary to use the third person when addressing a barrister instructed on a case: "Counsel is asked to advise" rather than "You are asked to advise".

The legal term counselor, or, more fully, counselor-at-law, became practically obsolete in England, but continued in use locally in Ireland as an equivalent to barrister, where a Senior Counsel (S.C.) is equivalent to the English Queen's Counsel (Q.C.)

In the United States of America, the term counselor-at-law designates, specifically, an attorney admitted to practice in all courts of law; but as the United States legal system makes no formal division of the legal profession into two classes, as in England, most US citizens use the term loosely in the same sense as lawyer, meaning one who versed in (or practicing) law.

In the United States and Canada, many large and midsize law firms have lawyers with the job