The profesdion I am aiming is called Lawyer, Advocate, Attorney, Solicitor, Barrister, Conseller, Queen's Counsel....
why so many words, and which one I should use ?
In french there is only one word for all of them
I hadn't thought you were attacking English - just maybe getting frustrated with it. I'm sorry if my answer came over as defensive. I just wanted to reassure you that the word 'lawyer' is fine to use, and that you needn't worry too much about the other UK/US specific terms.
Why don't you just say that you are hoping to become a LAWYER? All of those professions are types of lawyers, specific to different roles in English speaking countries. If you say that you want to be a lawyer, then this will be universally understood. You can then give more information about the specifics about what being a lawyer in France entails.
Isn't this issue not so much about language, but more about the fact that legal systems vary widely from one country to the next? The legal system in France is different from Britain and the US, so surely it is inevitable that there will not be a one-to-one relationship between the terms used in the two languages? There can't be a direct translation, because the professions are not equivalent in France and in English-speaking countries. For example, in France you have a person known as a 'notaire', whose work corresponds more or less to what a 'solicitor' (who is a type of lawyer) does in Britain. So there's at least one example of a situation where French has two words (or more exactly concepts) where English has one. You can't translate 'notaire' into English any more than you can translate 'gendarme' - these terms refer to the infrastructure of a specific country, so you cannot expect to find exact equivalents.
The systems are complex, but there's no reason why the language has to be. Just use 'lawyer' and you'll be fine.
When I saw "Queen's Counsel", I was reminded of a scene from the Australian movie <em>The Castle</em>, when one of the characters was introduced as "the Queen's counsel" (ie. a very high-ranking barrister). Another character replied, quite innocently, "Oh! Did the Queen need counselling?"
Lawyer sounds like someone working for a law firm.
Attorney sounds like someone working for law enforcement.
Conseller sounds british and fancy.
Queen's conceller sounds even more fancy, like a joke.
The rest of words are not commonly used, if you tell someone who's not English native speaker, they might not understand what you do for living, lol...
Hope this helps
What is the difference between attorney, barrister, lawyer, and solicitor? How about advocate, counsel, counselor, or counselor-at-law?
Lawyer is a general term for a person who gives legal device and aid and who conducts suits in court. An attorney or, more correctly, an attorney-at-law, is a member of the legal profession who represents a client in court when pleading or defending a case. In the US, attorney applies to any lawyer.
In the UK, those who practice law are divided into barristers, who represent clients in open court and may appear at the bar, and solicitors, who are permitted to conduct litigation in court but not to plead cases in open court. The barrister does not deal directly with clients but does so through a solicitor.
The word attorney comes from French meaning 'one appointed or constituted' and the word's original meaning is of a person acting for another as an agent or deputy. A solicitor would be the UK equivalent of the US attorney-at-law. Counsel usually refers to a body of legal advisers but also pertains to a single legal adviser and is a synonym for advocate, barrister, counselor, and counselor-at-law.
