A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters.
The legal system in England uses the term counsel as an approximate synonym for a barrister-at-law, but not for a solicitor, and may apply it to mean either a single person who pleads a cause, or collectively, the body of barristers engaged in a case.
After they have graduated from University with a law degree, they become a 'junior counsel', their work normally is completing most of the paperwork in cases (such as drafting legal documents).
[2] In the United States of America, the term counselor-at-law designates, specifically, an attorney admitted to practice in all courts of law; but as the United States legal system makes no formal division of the legal profession into two classes, as in the United Kingdom, most US citizens use the term loosely in the same sense as lawyer, meaning one who is versed in (or practicing) law.
The word "counsel" also means advice given by a professional (psychology and social sciences, religious, academic, etc.)