Dear Plutarch: An unexpected Christmas present to see you post again.
From eytymological dictionary online:
attorney - c.1303, from O.Fr. aturne "(one) appointed,"
pp. of aturner "to decree, assign, appoint," from a- "to" +
turner "turn." The sense is of "one appointed to represent
another's interests." In English law, a legal agent in the courts
of Common Law who prepares the cases for a barrister,
who pleads them (the equivalent of a solicitor in Chancery).
So much a term of contempt in England that it was
abolished by the Judicature Act of 1873 in favor of
solicitor. Double -t- is a mistaken 15c. attempt to restore a
non-existent L. original. Attorney general first recorded
1533 in sense of "legal officer of the state," from Fr., hence
the odd plural (subject first, adjective second).