Why do lawyers specify that they are “attorneys at law?” Are there some attorneys that are not “at law?”
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Another thing to remember is that (simplifying a complicated history a lot), two different groups of lawyers developed.
One group, stood in for you in a legal context. In other words they were “attorneys-at-law”. They could sign documents on your behalf and, usefully, go on the court record on your behalf. All very useful if you happened not to live in London (where the Royal courts were) or if you were busy and not able to deal with the court promptly or do other legal business while you were busy.
However, courts were tricky things and at one time very formulaic. Get a formula wrong and the whole process might fall apart. It became useful to have people who were (1) experts in the whole nonsense but also (2) not attorneys, so you could disavow them. “Oh, my stupid representative may have said that, but ….”.
This profession became (by various means) the profession of barrister (called to the bar of England and Wales). Barristers are not attorneys at law – they are often said to be “counsel” instead.
Americans don’t make this distinction and are confused when I say that I am a lawyer but not an attorney-at-law (nor an officer of the court).
The definition of attorney is simply just “a person appointed to act on behalf of another in a legal matter”…..
The chances of that person being licensed to practice law are likely less than 50/50
Yes. An attorney is just someone that represents you and make decisions on your behalf. This could be in a legal, business or medical context. You can grant anyone “power of attorney” and make them responsible for making decisions that are legally binding on your behalf. This frequently happens when people are too old, too young, too uninformed or too feeble to act for themselves.
An attorney at law is someone who makes a living by specialising in being appointed to act in just a legal context.
Yes. The contrast is with “attorney in fact”, which is someone who has been given the “power of attorney” to make legally-binding decisions on another’s behalf: e.g. to buy and sell property in their name. An attorney-in-fact does not necessarily have a license to practice law.
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