SOLICITOR

In English law. A legal practitioner in the court of chancery. The words “solicitor” and “attorney” are commonly used indiscriminately, although they are not precisely the same, an attorney being a practitioner in the courts of common law, a solicitor a practitioner in the courts of equity. Most attorneys take out a certificate to practice In the courts of chancery, and therefore become solicitors also, and, on the other hand, most, if not all, solicitors take out a certificate to practice in the courts of common law, and therefore become attorneys also. Brown. Solicitor general. In English law. One of the principal law officers of the crown, associated in his duties with the attorney general, holding office by patent during the pleasure of the sovereign, and having a right of preaudience in the courts. 3 Bl. Comm. 27. In American law, an officer of the department of justice, next in rank and authority to the attorney general, whose principal assistant he is. His chief function is to represent the United States in all cases in the supreme court and the court of claims in which the government is interested or to which it is a party, and to discharge the duties of the attorney general in the absence or disability of that officer or when there is a vacancy in the office. Rev. St. U. S.