480-300 BCE
The earliest describable class of people as lawyers were likely "orators" in ancient Athens, but a true profession could not take hold or flourish then due to a ban on charging fees for such services. The Athenians believed that citizens should actively participate in their own legal affairs and be responsible for their actions. Hiring a representative would undermine this principle.
41-50 AD
The Roman Emperor Claudius lifted the ban on fees and legalized advocacy as a profession—but with a lifetime fee cap of 10,000 sesterces, or about US$5,000 today. This cap was too low to enable a true profession to flourish.
Experts in law became ascendant in Sri Lanka, with their primary role being to advise the king on achieving justice. These individuals knowledgeable about legal matters were referred to as "Vohara," a term derived from the Sanskrit word "Vyavahara," which, in Hindu law and philosophy, refers to the legal procedure of the "removal of various doubts" to ensure that actions should be "appropriate and right."
330-1000
During the Byzantime Empire, the legal profession became fully bureaucratized, regulated, and stratified. By the sixth century, four years of a regular course of legal study was required to practice law in many countries and before many courts.
1050-1170
The legal profession in Europe collapses due to a combination of factors, including invading barbarian hordes, the decline of Roman law and institutions, and the rise of new legal systems like canon law. "[By 1140], no one in Western Europe could properly be described as a professional lawyer … in anything like the modern sense of the term 'professional.'" James Brundage, The Rise of the Professional Jurist in the Thirteenth Century, Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce (1994).
1190-1230
A small but growing class of experts in canon (ecclesiastical) law arises, but strictly in service of other occupational goals, such as serving the Roman Catholic Church as priests. Some begin to practice canon law as a lifelong profession in itself.
1200-1350
Increasing institutional acceptance and regulation of advocates and experts in law as a profession emerged. Tribunals and rulers across Europe implemented oaths of practice, in which formal rules of ethics are incorporated.
1600-1770
Lawyers as a class grew increasingly influential in the US colonies, leading up to and facilitating the American Revolution. In the 1770s, lawyer and political activist John Adams defended British soldiers accused of murdering American colonists during the British Massacre of 1770, in an unpopular cause that Adams defended by advocating in favor of due process and the rule of law. Most were acquitted. Adams would later become the second President of the United States.
1848
Section 511 of the proposed New York Code of Civil Procedure of 1848 was introduced, the first attempt in the United States at a comprehensive statement of a lawyer's professional duties.
1891
Mahatma Gandhi was licensed to practice law in England and India after being called to the Bar and enrolled in the High Court. He then practiced law in both India and South Africa.
1948
The United Nations promulgated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which the individual right to counsel was impliedly enshrined.
1963
The US Supreme Court decided Gideon v. Wainwright, establishing a US Constitutional right to defense counsel in criminal court, and an obligation for state and federal governments to appoint counsel if the accused is indigent.
1957-1966
The television series Perry Mason was syndicated, the first show to popularize lawyers as a profession. This show paved the way for future TV shows like L.A. Law, Law & Order, The Good Wife, and Suits, and for feature films such as To Kill a Mockingbird, 12 Angry Men, The Verdict, A Few Good Men, The Firm, and The Rainmaker.
1990
The United Nations issued its Basic Principles on the Roles of Lawyers to "assist Member States in their task of ensuring and protecting the proper role of lawyers," and which "should be respected and taken into account by Governments within the framework of their national legislation and practice." Among the more critical principles is that lawyers "shall not be identified with their clients or their clients' causes as a result of discharging their functions."
2023
Total lawyers in the US exceeded 1.3 million. The biggest law firm in the world clocked in at over 3500 lawyers, with annual revenues in excess of $7 billion. Arizona became the first common law jurisdiction to permit an accounting and consulting firm to operate a legal practice, abrogating the long-established ethical rule prohibiting non-lawyers to own law firms.
