attorney


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attorney

1. a person legally appointed or empowered to act for another
2. US a lawyer qualified to represent clients in legal proceedings
3. South African a solicitor
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Attorney

in Anglo-Saxon countries, the representative of another person who appears in his place and in his name to conclude agreements or other acts outside of court. Until 1873 the lowest category of lawyer in England (corresponding to the French scrivener) was also called attorney. In accordance with the English Act Governing the Administration of Justice (1873), all persons permitted to conduct cases in court, aside from barristers, were called solicitors. In the USA the attorney is an official who serves in the court which admitted him to the bar and carries out all functions connected with conducting cases in court.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
'"Very good," said the attorney. "Will you write down instructions for the officer?"
But the ashes of the father do not mingle with theirs; nor, from that night forward, did the attorney ever gain the remotest clue to the subsequent history of his queer client.' As the old man concluded his tale, he advanced to a peg in one corner, and taking down his hat and coat, put them on with great deliberation; and, without saying another word, walked slowly away.
The Prosecuting Attorney interposed, demanding to know which of the two cases lumped together was, and by what right Patsy's lawyer, at that stage of the proceedings, should take the witness.
Both Patsy's attorney and the Prosecuting Attorney rested their cases, letting everything go before the Court without argument.
And, while the next punctilious legal wrangle between the attorneys interrupted his tale of what happened in the Vendome, Carter Watson, without bitterness, amused and at the same time sad, saw rise before him the machine, large and small, that dominated his country, the unpunished and shameless grafts of a thousand cities perpetrated by the spidery and vermin-like creatures of the machines.
The attorney started, as if unconscious of any impropriety, and continued:
View in context
Bernard smiled down upon the assistant district attorney as upon a naughty child.
In the corridors were many people, and with his eyes on the broad shoulders of the assistant district attorney, Thorndike pushed his way through them.
"The judge'll be here in a minute, now," said the assistant district attorney, and went inside a railed enclosure in front of the judge's bench.
"Speak to him, NOW!" exclaimed the district attorney. 'You've got to wait till your man comes up.
The first man in the line was already at the railing, and the questions put to him by the judge were being repeated to him by the other assistant district attorney and a court attendant.
Austin says," continued the district attorney, "she's looked into this case, and asks to have the man turned over to her.

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