Barrister
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A barrister (also known as barrister-at-law or bar-at-law) is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the philosophy, hypothesis and history of law, and giving expert legal opinions. Often, barristers are also recognised as legal scholars.
Barristers are distinguished from solicitors, who have more direct access to clients, and may do transactional-type legal work. It is mainly barristers who are appointed as judges, and they are rarely hired by clients directly. In some legal systems, including those of Scotland, South Africa, Scandinavia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, the word barrister is also regarded as an honorific title.
Popular culture
- Rumpole of the Bailey (UK) - classic courtroom series
- Kavanagh Q.C. (1995–2001) (UK)
- North Square (2000) (UK) - Channel 4 court drama series contains interactions between barristers and solicitors
- Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) - Main character Mark Darcy is described as a 'top barrister.'
- Silk (2011–2014) (UK) - BBC court drama series
- Rake (2010-2014) - Australian TV series based on the story of a colourful barrister
- Sydney Carton - central character, a barrister, in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities
- Witness for the Prosecution, in which the central character is the barrister Sir Wilfred Robards, QC
- Arnold Timsh - Target in The Knife of Dunwall, an expansion on the video game Dishonored
See also