A barrister is a professional trial advocate who until 1990 had the exclusive right to plead cases in the higher courts (both civil and criminal) in England and Wales. A citizen who had need of legal help would approach a solicitor, a pre-trial attorney. If the situation involved a pleading before a higher court, the solicitor would turn the case over to a barrister who specialized in the kind of law involved. Otherwise the solicitor might handle the case without benefit of barrister. Each barrister belonged to one of four independent “Inns of Court,” which had the sole right of licensing barristers to appear in the superior courts. What I describe above applies to the situation in Gilbert’s day (143, 243, 309). Since January 1990, however, the division of advocacy work between solicitors and barristers has been largely removed, although all other divisions of work remain.
