ATTORNEY

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ATTORNEYAuthored
The Law Mind • 1285 words
Definition
Attorney, in its broadest sense, denotes a person appointed and authorized to act in the place of another. The term carries two distinct legal meanings that must be kept separate: 1. Attorney in fact: A private agent authorized by another (the principal or constituent) to transact specified business on that person's behalf, whether or not the agent has any legal training. The authority is typically granted by a written instrument called a power of attorney. The attorney in fact's authority is defined and limited by that instrument. 2. Attorney at law (also: attorney-at-law): A person admitted to the bar and licensed by a court or state authority to practice law — to appear for, advise, and represent parties in legal proceedings. This is the dominant modern meaning of "attorney" used without qualification. An attorney at law is simultaneously an officer of the court and a representative of the client. Admission requirements, disciplinary authority, and scope of permissible practice are regulated by jurisdiction. The two meanings share a common root — substitution, or acting in the place of another — but they operate in entirely different legal contexts. In modern usage, "attorney" unqualified almost always means attorney at law.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To work as a legal attorney; to provide with a legal attorney. (Wiktionary's definitions are verbal forms, reflecting the modern assumption that "attorney" means a licensed legal professional.) Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A substitute; a proxy; an agent (marked obsolete). One who is legally appointed by another to transact any business for him — an attorney in fact. A legal agent qualified to act for suitors and defendants in legal proceedings — an attorney at law. Webster's 1913 preserves the full historical spectrum: the pure agency sense (by 1913 already marked obsolete in common speech), the attorney-in-fact sense, and the attorney-at-law sense, in that order. Modern common usage has collapsed all three into the licensed-lawyer meaning. A researcher reading nineteenth-century sources must resist the assumption that "attorney" always means a licensed legal professional — in many contexts it meant nothing more than an authorized agent.
Common Confusion
ATTORNEY VS. LAWYER VS. COUNSEL These terms are often used interchangeably but carry technical distinctions. "Lawyer" is a general descriptive term for one trained in law; it implies no formal admission or appointment. "Attorney" technically implies appointment — acting for another — and in its legal-professional sense requires bar admission. "Counsel" or "counselor" emphasizes the advisory role and is the preferred title in some jurisdictions and courts. In practice, attorney and lawyer are treated as synonyms in most modern American usage, but historical sources and formal legal instruments may use them with more precision.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES Attorney in fact: Agent authorized by a private instrument (power of attorney) to act for the principal in specified matters. Does not require bar admission. Authority terminates on the principal's incapacity unless the instrument is a durable power of attorney. Durable power of attorney: A power of attorney that survives the principal's incapacity, by statute. Governed in most states by the Uniform Power of Attorney Act or its predecessors. Attorney at law: A licensed legal professional admitted to practice before a court, authorized to represent and advise clients, and subject to the court's disciplinary authority as an officer of that court. Attorney general: The chief law officer of a government — a public officer, not a private agent, despite the shared term. The "general" denotes the scope of the commission (general rather than limited authority) in the original agency sense.
Why It Matters in Research
The word "attorney" in historical sources is a minefield for anachronistic reading. Through much of the common law period, "attorney" was a broad agency term — a person could be your "attorney" to collect a debt, receive a deed, or appear at a feudal ceremony, with no implication of legal training. Coke's gloss (preserved in both editions of Black's) captures this: one "set in the turne, stead, or place of another," with private attorneys and public attorneys at law as subcategories. Researchers navigating eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sources should watch for three patterns. First, instruments reciting appointment of an "attorney" may be creating a limited agency, not retaining counsel. Second, the attorney-at-law was historically the trial-court practitioner in English practice, distinct from the solicitor (office practitioner) and the barrister (advocate), a distinction that did not cleanly transplant to American jurisdictions. Third, early American usage often used "attorney" and "counselor" to mark different court admissions — attorney for inferior courts, counselor for superior courts — a distinction that disappeared as bar admission became unified. The durable power of attorney is a statutory creation of the twentieth century; pre-twentieth-century sources discussing "attorney in fact" and incapacity will not reflect modern durable-power doctrine. See the Trusts, Estates & Probate Encyclopedia entry for Uniform Power of Attorney Act coverage. For fee-related research, the attorney-client relationship triggers important procedural rules — the American Rule on fees, exceptions for fee-shifting statutes, and tax treatment of attorney fee recoveries — covered in the Civil Procedure and Tax encyclopedia entries cross-referenced above.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries converge firmly on the substitution-and-agency foundation. Both editions of Black's open with the broadest definition — a person "appointed and authorized to act in the place or stead of another" — before subdividing into attorney in fact and attorney at law. Both quote Coke's Institutes for the etymology and original scope, grounding the term in a feudal practice of appointing stand-ins for legal acts. Bouvier's adds the constituent/principal framing and emphasizes that the attorney acts "by direction" of the principal, reinforcing that authority flows from appointment rather than from professional status. Bouvier's also enumerates subtypes — attorney in fact, attorney at law, and attorney general — showing the breadth the term carried in American practice through the nineteenth century. Anderson's relies heavily on case citation rather than definition, which reflects the term's practical embeddedness in litigation: the cases cited concern scope of authority, client obligations, and court supervision, suggesting that by the late nineteenth century the attorney-at-law meaning was dominant enough that the dictionary devoted most analytical space to that subspecies. Rapalje & Lawrence's relevant material, as reflected in the available source excerpts, addresses related agency and attestation concepts rather than providing a freestanding attorney definition, and does not add materially to what Bouvier's and Black's supply. No historical dictionary adequately addresses the durable power of attorney, which is a product of Uniform Law Commission work beginning in the 1960s and 1970s. Researchers should treat all historical-dictionary coverage of attorney in fact as reflecting the common law rule under which a principal's incapacity terminated the agent's authority.
Jurisdictional Note
In England and Wales, "attorney" as a designation for a court practitioner was abolished in 1873 with the fusion of common law and equity courts; the term "solicitor" became standard for office and court practitioners below barrister. In the United States, all states now regulate attorney-at-law status through bar admission, but the scope of unauthorized practice of law — and thus what an attorney in fact may lawfully do — varies significantly by jurisdiction.
Related Terms
agentattorney at lawattorney generalattorney in factbar admissionbarristerclientconstituentcounselcounselordurable power of attorneyfiduciarylawyerlegal representationofficer of the courtpower of attorneyprincipalproxysolicitorunauthorized practice of law
ATTORNEYmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In the most general sense this term denotes an agent or substitute, or one who is appointed and authorized to act in the place or stead of another. It is "an ancient English word, and signi- fieth one that is set in the turne, stead, or place of another; and of these some be pri- vate * * and some be publike, as at- torneys at law." Co. Litt. 516, 128a; Britt. 2856. One who is appointed by another to do something in his absence, and who has au- thority to act in the place and turn of him by whom he is delegated. Attorneys, in the modern use, are of two sorts, attorneys at law and attorneys in fact, as to which see those titles.
ATTORNEYmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
One put in the place, turn, or stead of another, to manage his affairs; one who manages the affairs of another by direction of his principal. Spel- man, Gloss.; Termes de la Ley. One who acts for another by virtue of an appointment by the latter. Attorneys are of various kinds. Attorney in fact. A person to whom the authority of another, who is called the con- stituent, is by him lawfully delegated. This term is employed to designate persons who act under a special agency, or a special letter of at- torney, so that they are appointed in factum, for the deed, or special act to be performed; but in a more extended sense it includes all other agentsem- ployed in any business, or to do any act or acts in pais for another. Bacon, Abr. Attorney; Story, A225 All persons who are capable of acting for themselves, and even those who are dis- qualified from acting in their own capacity, if they have sufficient understanding, as infants of a proper age, and femes coverts, may act as attorneys of others; Co. Litt. 52 a: 1 Esp. 142; 2 id. 511. Attorney-at-law. An officer in a court of justice, who is employed by a party in a cause to manage the same for him. Appearance by an attorney has been allowed in England from the time of the earliest records of the courts of that country. They are mentioned in Glanville, Bracton, Fleta, and Britton; and a case terning upon the party's right to appear by attor- ney is reported: Y. B. 17 Edw. III. p. 8, case 28. In France such appearances were first allowed by let- ters patent of Philip le Bel, A. D. 1290; 1 Fournel, Hist des Avocats, 42, 98; 2 Loizel. Coutumes 14. It resuits from the nature of their functions, and of their duties, as well to the court as to the client, that no one can, even by consent, be the attorney of both the litigating parties in the same controversy; Farr. C. The name of attorney is given to those officers who practise in courts of common law; so- Bcitors, in courts of equity; and proctors, in courts of admiralty and in the English ecclesiastical courts. It is an encroachment upon the judiciary for the legislature to declare that a court shall admit attor brys in specified cases, such admissions being judi cial and not lezisintive questions; 123 Pa. 527. As a general rule the eligibility of persons to hold the position of attorney-at-law is settled by local legislation or by rule of court. It has been held that, excepting where permitted by special statute, women cannot act as attorneys-at-law in the vari- ous states; 55 Ill. 535; 16 Wall. 130; and the supreme court of the United States will not issue a mandamus to compel a state court to admit a woman to practise law before such court, upon the ground that she has been denied a privilege or immunity belonging to her as a citizen of the United States, in contravention of the constitution; 154 U. S. 116; but the general trend of authority now is that women may be admit- ted to practise as attorneys; 184 Ind. 665; 29 Atl. (N. H.) 559; 8 D. R. (Pa.) 399; but any woman of good standing at the bar of the supreme court of any state or territory or of the District of Columbia for three years, and of good moral character, may become a member of the bar of the supreme court of the U. S.; Act Feb. 15, 1879. In North Carolina, unnaturalized foreigners cannot be licensed as attorneys; 8 Hawks 855; Weeks, Att. at Law 79, note. The business of attorneys is to carry on the practical and formal parts of the suit; 1 Kent 307. See, as to their powers, 2 Supp. to Ves. Jr. 241, 254; 3 Chit. Bla. Com. 23, 838; Bacon, Abr. Attorney; 8 Pa. 74;8 Wils. 374; 16 S. & R. 368; 14 id. 307; 7 Cra. 452; 1 Pa. 264. In general, the agreement of an attorney-at-law, within the scope of his employment, binds his client; 1 Salk. 86; as, to amend the record, 1 Binn. 75; to refer a cause, 1 Dall. 164; 6 Binn. 101; 7 Cra. 436; 3 Taunt. 486; not to sue out a writ of error, 1 H. Bla. 21, 23; 2 Saund. 71 a, b; 1 Term 388; to strike off a non pros., 1 Binn. 469; to waive a judgment by default, 1 Archb. Pr. 26; or waive a jury trial; 99 N. C. 58. But the act must be within the scope of his authority. He cannot, for ex- ample, without special authority, purchase lands for the client at sheriff's sale; 2 S. & R. 21; 11 Johns. 464; or extend the time for payment of money to release a judg- ment in ejectment, entered by consent; 127 Pa. 71; or compromise a claim; 122 Pa. 1; 47 Mo. App. 1; or satisfy a judgment for less than is due; 66 Тех. 336. In the absence of fraud, the clientis con- cluded by the acts, and even by the omis- sions, of his attorney; 23 Tex. 109; 14 Minn. 333; 22 Cal. 200; Weeks, Att. at Law 375. In general, he hasall the powers exercised by the forms and usages of the court in which the suit is pending; Weeks, Att. at Law 374. The principal duties of an attorney are- to be true to the court and to his client; to manage the business of his client with care, skill, and integrity; 4 Burr. 2061; 1 B. & Ald. 202; 2 Wils. 325; 1 Bingh. 347; Mech
ATTORNEYmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
(96) 2. An attested copy of a document consents to become his tenant. "And this seems to be an examined copy, with a ceryielding of consent is called an attorntificate or memorandum of its correctness, ment." (Shepp. Touch. 253; Litt. § 551.) signed by the persons who have examined it. See COPY. ATTEST, (what is implied by the term). 9 Mees. & W. 404. 290. (a note or other instrument). 16 Mass. (a power of sale). 4 Taunt. 223. ATTESTATION, (of affidavit, by corporation). 2 Green (N. J.) 443. (of a deed). 2 Bl. Com. 307; 2 Car. & P. 325; 1 Steph. Com. 495; 9 Mees. & W. 404. It may be either express (in deed) or implied (in law); thus, if the tenant, after notice of the grant of the reversion, pay his rent to the grantee, this is a good attornment in law. Shepp. Touch. 262; and see 3 Halst. (N. J.) 315. 2. To stranger.-In England, by Stat. 11 Geo. II. c. 19, § 11, attornments made by tenants to strangers claiming title to the estate of their landlords are null and void, and their landlord's possession not affected thereby unless made with their privity and consent, or in pursuance of a
ATTORNEYn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A substitute; a proxy; an agent. [Obs.] And will have no attorney but myself. Shak. One who is legally appointed by another to transact any business for him; an attorney in fact. A legal agent qualified to act for suitors and defendants in legal proceedings; an attorney at law.
ATTORNEYv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
To perform by proxy; to employ as a proxy. [Obs.] Shak.
attorneyverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
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To work as a legal attorney. | To provide with a legal attorney.
attorneynoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
A lawyer; one who advises or represents others in legal matters as a profession. | An agent or representative authorized to act on someone else's behalf in accordance with that person's instructions. | One such who practised in the courts of the common law. | A solicitor. | An honorific given to lawyers and notaries public, or those holders by profession who also do other jobs. Usually capitalized or abbreviated as Atty. | Clusia spp. | A prosecutor.

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