Barristers and solicitors: what is the difference?

England and Wales is one of the jurisdictions that divides its legal profession into two branches, solicitors and barristers, each with its own training, regulator and traditional role. The distinction confuses outsiders, and the lines between the two have softened over the years, but it still shapes how legal work is done.

Solicitors are the branch most people deal with first. They advise clients directly, handle the day-to-day conduct of matters, draft documents, negotiate and manage transactions and cases from start to finish. A solicitor may work in a law firm, in-house for a company, in government or for a charity. Solicitors are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the independent regulatory arm of the Law Society, which represents the profession.

Barristers are traditionally specialists in advocacy and in giving expert opinions on difficult points of law. Historically they were a referral profession: a client reached a barrister through a solicitor rather than directly, and the barrister was instructed for a specific piece of work, typically to argue a case in court or to advise on its prospects. Most barristers are self-employed and group together in sets known as chambers, sharing premises and clerks while practising independently, though a significant number are employed by firms, companies or public bodies. Barristers are regulated by the Bar Standards Board.

Two features distinguish the Bar. One is the cab-rank rule, which broadly obliges a self-employed barrister to accept instructions in a field in which they practise, regardless of the identity of the client or the barrister’s personal view of the case, provided they are available and properly paid. It is intended to ensure that even unpopular clients can find representation. The other is the barrister’s traditional pre-eminence in rights of audience before the higher courts, the right to stand up and argue a case before a judge.

That last distinction is where the branches have converged. Solicitors have long had rights of audience in the lower courts, and since reforms opening up advocacy they can qualify as solicitor-advocates with higher rights, appearing in the senior courts alongside barristers. Access to barristers has also widened, with public access schemes allowing certain clients to instruct a barrister directly without going through a solicitor. The result is a profession that is still formally divided but increasingly overlapping in practice.

For a client, the practical question is less about titles than about the work. A solicitor is generally the right first port of call for advice, transactions and the running of a matter; a barrister is brought in for specialist advocacy or a difficult opinion. Many disputes involve both, working as a team, with the solicitor managing the case and instructing the barrister to argue it.