Common-law countries

In England and Wales a practicing lawyer must be either a barrister (an advocate whose work is predominantly directed to the courtroom) or a solicitor (a general legal adviser who deals with all kinds of legal business out of court and who may act as an advocate in some of the lower courts). The former are organized in four Inns of Court (Lincoln’s Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Gray’s Inn) under the discipline of the Senate of the Inns of Court; the latter are under the jurisdiction of the Law Society. It is not necessary to hold a university degree to qualify for the profession of law, but such a degree (most often in law) is usual. To become a barrister, a candidate must pass a two-part examination in legal subjects, but university graduates may obtain partial or total exemption from the first part, depending on their degrees. A barrister’s preparation also includes practical courses and a period of pupilage administered under the authority of the Senate of the Inns of Court. A barrister may not practice at all until he has undergone six months of pupilage in chambers and may not practice independently until he has been a pupil for a year. Pupilage causes some difficulty, partly because of the cost but mainly because of the increasing shortage of places in chambers. To qualify as a solicitor, the normal course involves serving as an articled clerk (apprentice) for two years and passing law examinations in two parts. In Scotland and Ireland (both the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) there are similar requirements, though the arrangements differ in detail.

In the United States, admission to the bar qualifies one for all types of legal work. The only formal requirements are passing a state bar examination after graduating from law school; in a few states the law degree alone is sufficient.

In both England and the United States, as in many other common-law countries, becoming a judge or magistrate is a promotion (by appointment or election) from the ranks of the bar, and there is no special training for the exercise of judicial functions. But in some other common-law countries, especially in Africa and Asia, a newly qualified lawyer may enter the government legal service and find himself appointed in a short time to a junior magistracy. Even in these countries there is generally no special training for the job of adjudicating.

Civil-law countries

In continental European countries the qualifications to practice law typically depend on which of the various branches of the profession the university law graduate wishes to enter. Some countries place more emphasis on apprenticeship and others on examination. In France, for example, a legal practitioner may be an advocate, an avoué, a notary, or a judge. Each receives a different training, but all normally have gone through third- and fourth-year law degree courses. The advocate (roughly corresponding to the English barrister) must pass a bar examination and then serve as a probationary lawyer for three years, during which he takes further course work as well as acquiring practical experience. The avoué (something of a cross between a junior barrister and a senior solicitor) serves a period of articled clerkship and undergoes a professional examination by practicing lawyers. The notary (who does the noncontentious work performed in England by a solicitor) need not be a university graduate and can be a product of a professional school. His period of training lasts two years in a notary’s office. He also takes a professional examination and, if successful, must wait for a vacancy, since there is a limited number of notarial offices established by law.

In Germany the graduate in law who seeks a legal career must embark upon a period of practical training as a Referendar. This is a uniform program involving two years of practical work in the courts, in the office of a lawyer in private practice, in the office of a public prosecutor, in the civil service, and sometimes in the legal department of a commercial concern. Upon its completion the graduate must pass a second state examination (Assessorexamen).

A somewhat similar procedure is followed in Japan. Law graduates who seek careers as judges, prosecutors, or lawyers in private practice must pass the National Law Examination for entrance to the Legal Training and Research Institute. Like his German counterpart, the Referendar, the Japanese student at the institute is paid by the state. The bulk of the work consists of practical exercises and discussions, lectures on legal topics, and visits to institutions of concern to lawyers (such as prisons). The training is uniform, leads to a single examination, and qualifies the graduate for any branch of legal practice.

In some countries, such as France and Spain, there are special schools for training judges. In others, such as Germany and the Nordic countries, judicial training is acquired in the post-law-school period of practical internship. In Germany, for example, a law graduate may be appointed to a lower court after completing the Referendarzeit and passing the second state examination. After serving a probationary period, he becomes eligible for an appointment for life. In France the first step to becoming a judge is to pass an annual competitive examination for which students prepare by taking a special program in their last year of law studies. Successful candidates then must undergo extensive training consisting of a period of formal study at the National School of the Judiciary in Bordeaux, followed by a series of short practical internships in settings such as police departments, law offices, prisons, and the Ministry of Justice in Paris. This training culminates in a judicial apprenticeship, during which the future judge participates on a daily basis in all the activities of a variety of courts. Upon completion of their training period, the students are ranked on the basis of their grades and the evaluations of supervisors and are then assigned to their first positions in the judicial system. Since the administrative law courts in France are not part of the judiciary but rather of the administration, most judges for these courts are drawn not from lawyers trained in the National School of the Judiciary but from civil servants trained in the National School of Administration.