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Is the word "Lawyer" restricted/regulated in Ireland

  • 26-08-2017 11:59pm
    #1
    vector
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,756 ✭✭✭


    Fact: To call oneself a "Solicitor" or "Barrister" one must be such.

    However.... is there any Act or S.I. that regulates the use of the term "Lawyer"?

    For years it was a word used on American TV shows and sounded wrong in an Irish context, but I now see more and more Solicitors websites in Ireland which describe their staff as "Lawyers". It is also used by Barristers on their CV's for non-legal jobs


Comments

  • #2
    Peregrinus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,998 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    When the world "lawyer" is used in Irish legislation, it normally refers to someone entitled to practise law in an EU member state. As you say, the two professions here are "solicitor" and "barrister", and the usual term which embraces both professions is "legal practitioner".

    There's no explicit restriction on the use of the term "lawyer" as such. But you would need to keep an eye on Solicitors Act 1954 s. 56(1), under which it is an offence to "take or use any name, title, addition or description or make any representation or demand implying" that one is a solicitor. Thus if you describe yourself as a lawyer in a context which suggests that you are someone authorised or qualified to provide legal services in Ireland, I think you'd fall foul of that provision. But there'd be no problem, I think, about using the term lawyer in a context which makes it clear that that's not the case - I practised as a lawyer in Uzbekistan for seventeen years; I am admitted as a lawyer in New York state; that kind of thing.


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