PRACTICE OF LAW

Legal Practice is the form, manner and order of conducting and carrying on suits or prosecutions in the courts through their various stages, according, to the principles of law, and the rules laid down by the respective courts. By practice is also meant the business which an attorney or counsellor does; as, A and  B has a good practice. A settled, uniform, and continued practice, without objection is evidence of what the law is, and such practice is based on principles which are founded in justice and convenience.

TWO TYPES OF LEGAL PRACTISIONERS :

1.      Solicitor

2.      Barrister

In the legal sense, a Solicitor is someone who has undergone legal training and been admitted to the practice of law In  some countries, the legal profession is split into two separate categories: solicitors and barristers. Solicitors handle legal matters outside of court, providing legal advice to clients, preparing legal arguments, and so forth. They are also sometimes admitted to practice in the lower courts. Barristers, on the other hand, actively participate in court, arguing cases before a judge.

Barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions. They can be contrasted with solicitors — the other class of lawyer in split professions — who have more direct access with clients and who are in general office based. Barristers are rarely if ever hired by clients directly but instead are retained (or instructed) by solicitors to act on behalf of clients

The historical difference between the two professions—and the only essential difference in England and Wales today—is that a solicitor is an attorney which means they can act in the place of their client for legal purposes (as in signing contracts) and may conduct litigation on their behalf by making applications to the court, writing letters in litigation to the client's opponent and so on. A barrister is not an attorney and is usually forbidden, either by law or professional rules or both, from "conducting" litigation. This means that while the barrister speaks on the client's behalf in court, he or she can only do so when instructed by a solicitor.

Read more:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-solicitor.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrister