bar·ris·ter / ˈbarəstər/ (also bar·ris·ter-at-law) • n. chiefly Brit. a lawyer entitled to practice as an advocate, particularly in the higher courts. Compare with attorney, solicitor.

BARRISTER

Inenglish law, an attorney who has an exclusive right of argument in all the superior courts.

A barrister is a counselor who is learned in law and who has been admitted to plead at the bar. A barrister drafts the pleadings in all cases, with the exception of the simplest ones. Distinguished from an attorney, which is an English lawyer who conducts matters out of court, a barrister engages in the actual argument of cases or the conduct of the trial.

barrister XVI (barrester). Obscurely f. BAR1, perh. after †legister lawyer, or minister.

barrister a person called to the bar and entitled to practise as an advocate, particularly in the higher courts; the word is recorded from late Middle English, and may be formed on the pattern of minister.