Attorney at law or attorney-at-law, usually abbreviated in everyday speech to attorney, is the preferred term for a practising lawyer in certain jurisdictions, including South Africa (for certain lawyers), Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and the United States.
The attorney, in the sense of a lawyer who acts on behalf of a client, has an ancient pedigree in English law.
The Statute of Merton 1235 uses the Latin expression attorñ in a phrase rendered into English by The Statutes of the Realm as[1] It is provided and granted that every freeman, which oweth suit to the county, trything, hundred, and wapentake, or to the court of his Lord, may freely make his attorney to do those suits for him.The term was formerly used in England and Wales and Ireland for lawyers who practised in the common law courts.
[2] Attorneys did not generally actually appear as advocates in the higher courts, a role reserved (as it still usually is) for barristers.
[3] The term persists in legal usage in the United Kingdom solely in the instance of patent attorneys, who are legal professionals having sat professional qualifications and are expert in acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice.