Don’t confuse Solicitor with Barrister

• Solicitors - are concerned mainly with the paperwork involved in legal situations. These include agreements, contracts, wills, conveyance papers, etc.
  
  
• Barristers - specialise in appearing before the court on behalf of a client and usually act through a referring solicitor.

Practising as a Barrister
If you require a barrister to act for you, work through your lawyer who will make an introduction and brief the barrister on the situation and the details of the case. Solicitors generally work from their own offices, while barristers spend most of their time in the courts and work out of chambers. Chambers are offices shared with other court specialists.

Once a person is admitted as a barrister or solicitor, they are able to get a practising certificate to act as a barrister and solicitor, or solely as a barrister. This allows for the existence of an independent bar, which is a separate group within the profession. This bar comprises of those lawyers who practice as barristers alone. The term is “barrister’s sole”.

Barristers sole are not permitted to practice in partnership, but can employ other barristers. There is no extra training required or experience necessary if a lawyer decides to set up as a barrister sole.

A Queens Counsel is a rank, available only to New Zealand barristers who are barrister sole.


Practising as a Solicitor
If you have a legal problem, the first person you should see is your solicitor. While they are able to represent you in court for basic legal matters, when it comes to complex litigation the solicitor will arrange for a barrister to act for you.

If you want to get in touch with a solicitor, it is a simple matter of getting their number from the telephone book and making a call. If you want to get in touch with a barrister you will generally have to go through a solicitor because barristers don’t advertise in the phone book.

A person entering private practice as a solicitor needs to meet some extra requirements after being admitted to the bar. These include 3 years legal experience in New Zealand during the preceding 8 years. This condition can be waived by the High Court in certain circumstances.

Other requirements may include undergoing short courses and a test in trust accounting. Any lawyer practising on his/her own account, who operates a trust account, must also undertake training and qualify as a trust account partner.