Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "to make an attorney" or "to appoint an attorney." Used historically in legal instruments and writs to designate the act of formally constituting another person as one's legal representative or attorney-in-fact. The phrase appears in the context of powers of attorney and formal appointments of legal agents, signifying the grantor's act of conferring authority upon another to act on their behalf in legal proceedings or transactions.
Common Confusion
Three related Latin phrases appear together in Bouvier and are easily conflated:
AD FACIENDUM ATTORNATUM — to appoint an attorney (creation of agency/representation).
AD FACIENDUM, SUBJICIENDUM, ET RECIPIENDUM — to do, submit, and receive (broader formula covering performance, submission to jurisdiction, and receipt of judgment, commonly found in appearance writs).
AD FACTUM PRÆSTANDUM — a Scots law term of art for a class of strictly enforceable obligations, carrying significant consequences including denial of bankruptcy relief and sanctuary. Despite superficial Latin similarity, this phrase is doctrinally unrelated and operates in an entirely different legal context.
Researchers must not conflate the Scottish ad factum præstandum doctrine with the English appointment-of-attorney formula. They share Latin roots and proximity in historical dictionaries but describe different legal concepts in different jurisdictions.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a navigational marker in historical legal documents rather than a living term of art. Researchers encountering it in old pleadings, writs, or instruments should treat it as a signal that the document involves the creation or recitation of an attorney relationship — most commonly in powers of attorney or in writs summoning a party to appear by counsel.
The phrase belongs to a cluster of Latin formulaic expressions that appeared in English and Scottish legal practice before plain-language drafting displaced Latin in the courts. In English practice, Latin was formally abolished in legal proceedings by statute in the eighteenth century, so ad faciendum attornatum will appear almost exclusively in documents predating that reform or in scholarly and treatise discussions of historical forms.
Researchers using older digests and form books should be alert to related phrases appearing in close proximity: Bouvier records ad faciendum, subjiciendum, et recipiendum ("to do, submit, and receive") immediately following this entry, suggesting these expressions traveled together in formulaic writs. A document containing one Latin phrase of this type likely contains others, and the full formula should be read together to understand the scope of the authority or obligation being described.
Do not assume the term is exclusively English. Scottish legal sources reference related Latin obligation language in a distinctly different doctrinal context (see ad factum præstandum, below), so jurisdiction identification is essential before drawing conclusions about meaning or effect from a document using Latin obligatory phrases.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary provides the definition tersely: "to appoint an attorney," citing Tayler. The entry is minimal and primarily functions as a Latin-to-English gloss rather than a substantive doctrinal entry. Bouvier positions the phrase within a run of related Latin formulae, suggesting it was understood as part of a recognized family of expressions rather than a standalone term requiring extended treatment.
No other source dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus include a dedicated entry for this phrase. The absence reflects its status as a formulaic Latin expression rather than a developed common law doctrine. Historical dictionaries that do address it treat it identically — as a literal translation with no elaboration on contested meaning or doctrinal variation.
Researchers should note that Bouvier's attribution to "Tayler" likely refers to a now-obscure legal glossary or Latin legal phrases compendium common in early nineteenth-century practice libraries. The citation is not to a case or statute and carries no precedential weight; it is a scholarly gloss only.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase is associated primarily with English legal practice and its use in writs and powers of attorney before Latin was abolished from court proceedings. Scottish practice used related but distinct Latin obligatory language with independent doctrinal content. No meaningful modern usage survives in either jurisdiction.