Origin of Lawyers

The Twelfth Century was in Europe a time of cultural growth and social development; historians have called it the "Twelfth Century Renaissance." In England, one thing that grew was the bureaucracy. The demand for more clerical workers meant that they would no longer be clerics (i.e., churchmen), of whom there were not enough. Laymen began to take up the role, and to be given some legal training in order to perform it.

This resulted in, among other things, a movement away from Latin. The educated, upper-class laymen now filling clerical roles used the languages of other educated, upper-class Englishmen at the time: Latin when they read, French when they talked to each other, English when they dealt with the lower strata of society. This became the amalgam of French, English, and Latin known as Law French, in which legal records were thereafter kept.

It resulted, for another thing, in law schools. Traditionally, the younger sons of the nobility — those who would not inherit the noble title and property — had gone into either the military or the clergy. Now, however, they began to receive legal training in order to go into government.

The Twelfth Century also saw significant development of the common-law legal system. Some government clerical workers evolved into judges, though at that time they wore many hats: those who judged also collected taxes, took orders to the nobles, and did whatever other tasks the King needed them to do as his representative in the counties. Standardized, fill-in-the-blanks legal forms were developed. Legal procedures were organized and regularized. In fact, the basic structure of modern legal procedure was established then, 900 or so years ago.

Improvements in the legal system increased the "supply" of justice available. Demand grew to meet it. More and more lawsuits, as we would call them, were filed. As is still true today, however, filing a lawsuit was easier than prosecuting it and many people found themselves in need of help to do so.

Although a writ (i.e., a written order or directive obtained from the court) was necessary to begin a case, the writ was a standardized form that said little about the facts of a specific case. The specific allegations and claims or defenses, nowadays contained in the written Complaint and Answer, were set forth orally to the judge. (This is the origin of the word "pleadings.") It had long been true that this — the hard part — could be done by someone other than the litigant. In Anglo-Saxon times the person making the pleadings was called a forespeca; by the thirteenth century he was a narrator (Latin) or conteur (French). This person told the litigant’s "tale" (talu in Old English, later narratio in Latin or conte [whence "count"] in French).

The conteur did not represent the litigant in the modern sense; his client could correct and contradict him. And at first he could not do everything; the litigant had to be in court and had to do some things himself, e.g., challenge the jurors. But the conteur's role grew until he became the type of lawyer known in England as a "barrister" – the lawyer who appears in court.

The English solicitor — the lawyer who draws the documents and prepares the case — was a parallel development. As written documents became more important and complex — ultimately usurping the original function of the conteur — a specialist was needed to deal with them.

By the reign of Edward I a litigant needed both a conteur and an attorney. In England this remained true until recently, when the English courts began to allow appearances by solicitors.