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# A "solicitor" is a term used in many Common law jurisdictions for a lawyer who offers legal services outside of the courts Add tags Source: Wikipedia Unhappy with this fact? more info created by user picturefactobot on November 29, 2008

# Whereas a barrister advocates and acts in litigation, a solicitor acts as an advisor and representative, often preparing legal documents including contracts, patents,and wills

# in English law, person duly admitted to practice before the supreme court of judicature. He is the agent of the person whose suit he handles, and is distinguished from a barrister, who argues cases before the judge (in the US it is an attorney). The solicitor serves as an intermediary agent between the barrister and his client, negotiating fees and preparing the case for trial. Solicitors may take the place of barristers in the lower courts, and in the 1990s gained new rights of audience in higher courts. They are officers of the court; they have a monopoly of certain legal business and are subject to court regulation. The training required of a solicitor, set by the Law Society (earlier called the Incorporated Law Society), includes several years of clerkship under a practicing solicitor and attendance at a law school.

# So what are the requirements to be a solicitor ?
The normal requirements for admission to a Common Professional Examination/Graduate Diploma in Law course to complete the Academic Stage of Legal Education for solicitors is the award of a degree at a university in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. However, the Solicitors Regulation Authority may also recognise non-standard qualifications, e.g. degrees awarded at certain overseas universities; or degree equivalent qualifications; or professional qualifications including Membership and Fellowship of the Institute of Legal Executives or the Diploma in Magisterial Law; or non-graduate mature persons who have gained considerable experience or shown exceptional ability in an academic, professional, business or administrative field.

Students with overseas degrees or other non-standard qualifications who wish to qualify as solicitors must have obtained a Certificate of Academic Standing from the Solicitors Regulation Authority confirming that the qualifications they hold meet the minimum requirements to commence their training to qualify as a solicitor before enrolling on a CPE/GDL course.
# Solicitor Facts
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers, and a law practitioner will usually only hold one title. However, in Canada, New Zealand and some Australian states, the legal profession is now for practical purposes "fused", allowing a legal practitioner to hold the title of "barrister and solicitor" and practice in both roles simultaneously. The distinction between barristers and solicitors is however retained.

In some other countries with common law jurisdictions, a solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally offers legal services outside of the courts.

re the unification of the Supreme Court in 1873, solicitors practised in the courts of chancery, while attorneys and proctors practised in the common law and ecclesiastical courts, respectively.

In the English legal system, solicitors traditionally dealt with any legal matter apart from conducting proceedings in courts (advocacy), with some exceptions.

# Can You Afford a Career in Law?
Financial pressures are common to all students. With the National Union of Students (NUS) remarking that, on average, a degree costs students £20,000, money concerns are very real for anyone considering higher education. The introduction of compulsory payment of tuition fees in 1998 (with exceptions for low income families) added to the pressure. If you consider that students need to find their living expenses on top of their tuition fees, it is easy to see how debt is accrued. To add to these concerns, levels of debt are set to rise as top-up fees are implemented in September 2006. The NUS estimate that by 2010, student debt at graduation could be as much as £33,708. But are the financial pressures for law students any greater?

Studying law is similar in terms of cost to other mainstream degree subjects, with perhaps the only notable difference being the cost of textbooks. Legal textbooks can be more expensive, with core texts typically costing £30 to £40 each. Many are out of date even before they are printed and it’s not unusual for several editions to be brought out in the same year. Generally, second-hand bookshops at universities will not accept law books for this reason, so law students cannot even recoup expenses by selling books when they have finished with them. However, some law faculties hold second-hand book sales for law students, as some books make useful background reading. Students should look out for such sales.

The cost of being a law student can escalate significantly when individuals decide that they want to pursue a career in the law after their undergraduate studies. Students who have not obtained a qualifying law degree will need to complete a CPE/GDL (law conversion course). Anyone wishing to qualify as a solicitor or a barrister will need to complete the relevant compulsory, one-year vocational courses; the Legal Practice Course (LPC) for solicitors or the Bar Vocational Course (BVC) for barristers.

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A criminal in uniform: Teflon Commander Ali Dizaei used race card to dodge jail for years. Now he's got four-year term for framing an innocent man

PLUS: How his bosses limply played along - and the myriad women who shared his chequered life

By Stephen Wright and Richard Pendlebury

He swaggered around Scotland Yard believing he was above the law.

Commander Ali Dizaei bullied, intimidated and threatened anyone who crossed his path.

If that didn't work, the Iranian-born officer accused them of being racist.

But yesterday his reign of corruption came to a dramatic end when he was condemned as a 'criminal in uniform' and given four years in jail for trying to frame an innocent man.

Following a bust-up in a restaurant, Dizaei, 47, told colleagues that an Iraqi website designer had assaulted him.

It was a pack of lies and yesterday, after a four-week trial, a jury took just two-and-a-half hours to convict Dizaei of misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice.

They found he attacked Waad al-Baghdadi before arresting and attempting to frame him for assault.

Dizaei, who had been the subject of dozens of corruption allegations during his time in the Met, is the most senior Scotland Yard officer to be jailed since the 1970s.

Although he seems certain to appeal against conviction, he faces the sack after more than a decade of running rings around some of the country's most senior officers and politicians.

As the crooked former president of the National Black Police Association starts his sentence at Wandsworth Prison in South London, on the vulnerable prisoners' wing alongside sex offenders, the Mail can reveal that:

* Dizaei is sitting on a £1million pension pot which last night prompted calls for him to be stripped of his entitlement.
*

He was promoted to commander, equivalent in rank to a provincial assistant chief constable, despite performing poorly in interview and Yard chiefs being warned by the Serious Organised Crime Agency of concerns about his conduct.
*

Police authority officials had wanted to sack him in a fast-track process last spring but backed down amid fears he would sue for racism - allowing the £90,000-a-year officer to stay suspended on full pay for a further nine months.

After the verdicts, the chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Nick Hardwick, said: 'Dizaei behaved like a bully and the only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them.'

Mr Hardwick, whose organisation was widely praised for pursuing Dizaei, made a thinly-veiled attack on previous Met chiefs who had appeased the corrupt officer over the last decade.

He said: 'The greatest threat to the reputation of the police service is criminals in uniform like Dizaei. Corruption comes in many forms and remains a threat to the police service. It requires constant vigilance to fight it.'

David Michael, a founder and past chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, said Dizaei had damaged race relations in the force.

'I'm concerned that Commander Dizaei has used the National Black Police Association as a fig leaf to cover his own questionable behaviour.'
Enlarge Dizaei

Row: Dizaei and Waad al-Baghdadi speaking outside the Yas restaurant

The former chairman of the Metropolitan Police Superintendents' Assocation, Simon Humphrey, called for Dizaei to be stripped of his £1million-plus pension pot.

He told the Mail: 'As a matter of course, he should lose his entire pension. The police should no longer take a cowardly stance towards this crook.'

Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson called Dizaei's behaviour 'disgraceful': 'It is extremely disappointing and concerning that this very senior officer has been found guilty of abusing his position and power.

'He has breached that trust and damaged not only his own reputation but that of the entire police service.

'I am proud of the officers who gave evidence in this case and supported the IPCC investigation.

'Bearing in mind his rank and disgraceful behaviour, he should not be surprised at the severity of his sentence.'

Former Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman said Dizaei was 'out of control' and had engaged in 'a wholesale abuse of power for personal motives'. He also described him as a 'violent bully and liar who abused his position of trust'.

'He knew where he could push the boundaries, and how to use the Met's fears of appearing racist to make it difficult to investigate him,' Mr Hayman said.

Another former colleague Brian Paddick called Dizaei a 'Marmite' senior officer who divided opinion: 'Many hated him, believing he had "got away with it" because "he was black". But for the Black Police Association, we was their flag-bearer.'

Having served 24 years in the police, Dizaei is currently entitled to a lump sum payout of about £200,000 and an index-linked pension of about £30,000 a year when he reaches the age of 60.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court heard that Dizaei and Mr al-Baghdadi met by chance on July 18, 2008 in the Yas restaurant, run by a friend of the policeman in Hammersmith, west London.

Mr al-Baghdadi, 24, approached Dizaei and asked for £600 he was owed for building a website showcasing the officer's career, press interviews and speeches.

This angered Dizaei, who had just eaten a meal with his wife but was still in uniform after attending a ceremony at New Scotland Yard for new recruits.

The officer confronted the younger man in a nearby sidestreet where a scuffle took place.

By then Mr al-Baghdadi had called 999 on his mobile phone but Dizaei took the phone from him and complained that he was being attacked.

When police arrived it was Mr al-Baghdadi who was arrested and handcuffed.

Dizaei claimed he had been assaulted with the metal mouthpiece of a traditional pipe held on Mr al-Baghdadi's key ring.

But a doctor concluded that two red marks on the officer's torso were probably self-inflicted and did not match the pipe.

When Mr al-Baghdadi was told weeks later he would not face any charge, he complained about his treatment and Dizaei's web of deceit slowly unravelled.

Giving evidence, Mr al-Baghdadi compared Dizaei to the bloodthirsty movie gangster Tony Montana, played by Al Pacino in the 1983 film Scarface.

He said many people were scared of the Metropolitan Police officer because of his status in the Iranian community.

Yesterday Dizaei, his hair newly dyed black, swaggered into court with his third wife Shy fully expecting to be acquitted.

But he showed no emotion as the verdicts were given or as sentence was passed.

He was sentenced to four years on each of the two charges, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Mr Justice Simon said he must serve the first half of his term in custody and the rest on licence. He told Dizaei his conduct had been a 'grave breach of public trust'.


How his bosses limply played along as he shamelessly played the race card . . .


Ali Dizaei arrives at Southwark Crown Court with his wife Shy

Pride before the fall: Ali Dizaei and his third wife Shy heading for court yesterday

For almost a decade, the figure of Commander Dr Ali Dizaei dominated and poisoned race relations within the Metropolitan Police.

His public face was that of human rights champion and defender of fellow ethnic-minority officers against prejudiced white colleagues.

Dizaei felt their pain. After all, wasn't he the most unfairly persecuted 'black' policeman of them all?

In fact, he was simply a self-serving crook; clever conman, bully, playboy, womanising misogynist, serial litigant and liar, who hijacked the issue of race and used it for his own ends.

Under his presidency the National Black Police Association became a useful tool against those who dared cross him.

Dizaei's jailing for corruption yesterday, seven years after being cleared of similar charges, closes one of the most troubling episodes in modern police history. Many viewed the Iranian-born officer as 'untouchable'. Certainly Dizaei himself thought so.

One of the most telling moments in his trial was a witness's account of how the 'Teflon Commander' had shouted at him: 'Do you know who I am? I'm Ali Dizaei. Back off!'

And back off they did, shamefully. Successive Met commissioners, home secretaries and independent police watchdogs were too nervous to take him on because of the race storm he would invoke.

Dizaei grew up in Tehran, where his father and grandfather were both senior police commanders. At ten he was sent to boarding school in England, later studied law and in 1986 joined Thames Valley Police.

He was fast-tracked through the junior ranks but his abrasive personality, self-promotion and readiness to find offence were already an issue with colleagues and public alike.

In 1999 he applied to become a superintendent in the neighbouring Metropolitan Police. Britain's biggest force was in turmoil, damned as 'institutionally racist' by the Macpherson Report into the bungled investigation of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence by a gang of white thugs.

The Met needed more senior black officers. Dizaei was accepted even though Deputy Assistant Commissioner Barbara Wilding described him after his interview as the most rude and arrogant man she had ever met.

Alas, Commissioner Sir Paul Condon was in no position to be choosy. Dizaei, with a PhD newly awarded for a thesis 'The Thin Black Line' on - yes - police racism, was in.

Once, when he was questioned by a senior white colleague, he replied: 'You can't tell me what to do.' 'But I'm your boss,' said the startled superior. 'I have only one boss and that is Allah,' snapped Dizaei, piously.

In fact his probity rather than his piety was already a matter of great concern. In 1997, while he was still at Thames Valley, a Scotland Yard informant had alleged that Dizaei was involved in drugs, interfering in court cases for money and consorting with prostitutes.
'From now on you are dead'


The allegations were never substantiated and no disciplinary action was taken. But shortly after he transferred to New Scotland Yard his old force received new allegations about him which were passed on to the Met.

In September 1999 Operation Helios, a multi-million-pound investigation into his life and integrity, was launched.

Ian Blair was charged with oversight of the inquiry on his appointment as deputy commissioner in 2000. Dizaei was suspended in January 2001. Some 1,000 wiretaps had demonstrated that he was no ordinary police officer.

He was monitored associating with a conman and four major criminals suspected of money laundering. Surveillance also suggested that he took £800 from a man on bail, in apparent exchange for help with a drink-driving charge.


More...

* DAILY MAIL COMMENT: The bent copper who abused the race card

Other wiretaps revealed unauthorised links with a number of foreign embassies. Dizaei apparently stood to gain £2million by brokering the £24million sale of the Ethiopian Embassy in London. The sums staggered listening detectives, who wondered how a middle-ranking police officer came to be involved.

Further diplomatic concerns touched directly on national security. Dizaei had contacts with senior staff in the Iranian Embassy and sometimes drove a Liberian Embassy car with diplomatic plates.

On a more mundane level, he allegedly bullied a junior colleague into dropping an investigation of a friend. Unsavoury character traits were also exposed, in particular an appetite for philandering.
Waad al-Baghdadi

Framed: Waad al-Baghdadi, who was falsely arrested by Dizaei, likened the officer to fictional gangster Tony Montana

Here was a man of powerful appetites. And dangerous if denied them. Most damning of all, perhaps, were the transcripts of telephone messages Dizaei left to an Iranian ex-lover, Mandy Darougheh.

She had dumped him having discovered he was married, to his second wife Natalie. His reaction, left on her voicemail, was recorded by Helios. 'I will take such revenge from you, that like a dog, you will be sorry that you will never treat me like this again,' he declared.

'Mandy, I am going to declare war on you and I have declared it as of now. See what I will do to you. From now on you are dead. I will start with your mum first. I am so emotionally disturbed now that anything is possible from me.

'I give you an hour and see what I will do to you. If you think I am worried about my career, to get back at you, you must be joking.

'Just remember what I did to ******'s (name unknown) husband. You are not safe. I am going to come and catch you, on my mother's life. If you are at home, get out because if I see you, I am going to lose it right now.

'You want war, bitch, you're going to get some war. You will see now what I can do so you will cry for years. First I will start with your family, then I come to you and your reputation. I will spread all over London that you are a prostitute.'

Even his barrister, Michael Mansfield QC, had to admit during arguments not heard by the jury: 'No police officer, no human being, should be talking like that. We all make mistakes, but it's unacceptable.'

Luckily for Dizaei, the jury did not see these transcripts. And for all its wide-ranging allegations Helios resulted in him facing only two sets of criminal charges. The first concerned attempting to pervert the course of justice by falsely accusing colleagues of vandalising his car.

During the Old Bailey trial Dizaei had to admit lying to investigators about the vehicle's whereabouts on the day in question.

But the unexpected appearance as a defence witness of Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur - the Yard's highest-ranking Asian officer - probably proved crucial.

Ghaffur claimed that Dizaei was targeted because of his colour. To the consternation of the Helios team, Dizaei was found not guilty. Other fraud charges were formally dropped by the prosecution in September 2003. Still, he was by no means out of the woods.

Helios had exposed appalling errors of judgment if not gross misconduct. Nine serious disciplinary matters were still outstanding.

With stupendous cynicism, Dizaei went on the attack. Helios, he said, had been a 'racist witch hunt'. He launched a claim for discrimination.

The NBPA, of which he was then 'legal adviser', called for an ethnic minority recruitment boycott.

Home Secretary David Blunkett panicked. The Met leadership was supine. Nearing retirement, Commissioner Sir John Stevens did not want his 'legacy' tainted by a race war. His ambitious and politically correct deputy Ian Blair was tasked to reach a compromise, personally brokered by Blunkett.

The result? A shameful backroom deal which was to have disastrous long-term consequences. All disciplinary matters were dropped. Dizaei was returned to duty, given £80,000 compensation and a place on the Senior Command Course at Bramshill police college.

Sir John announced: 'The investigation of Superintendent Dizaei highlighted some areas where his conduct fell far below the standards expected of a police officer. He has already publicly expressed his regret for these and acknowledged the lessons he has learned.'

Stevens added, to the amazement and disgust of the anti-corruption unit: 'Superintendent Dizaei is returning to the Met with his integrity demonstrably intact.'

This man of integrity then took his not-so-subtle revenge on Chief Superintendent Barry Norman, who had headed Helios. Some 120 complaints against Norman were made to the IPCC by Dizaei's family and friends. They all had to be investigated by Essex Police which, after three years and £1million in costs, found Norman's conduct was beyond reproach.

After Helios, Dizaei became a favourite of the liberal media, putting himself forward for comment whenever the issue of race arose.

to read more:

Read more: http://www.dailymail .co.uk/news/article-1249382/Ali-Dizaei-GUILTY-perverting-

course-justice.html?ITO=

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photo: i.dailymail. co.uk/i/pix/2010/

02/08/article-1249382-002D981C00000258-513_306x442.jpg

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