Warning - somewhat lengthy!

The whole 'solicitor/barrister' debate is somewhat complicated and the distinction is becoming slightly more blurred than used to be the case. To say that a solicitor reports to a barrister is not strictly true, but does apply in some cases. Confused yet?

Becoming a solicitor or a barrister are two completely different career choices, with completely different training routes.

Solicitors are regulated by The Law Society(www.lawsociety.org.uk). To become a solicitor you do your law degree or post-grad legal conversion course, then you do a years professional academic training (Legal Practice Course) and then two years as an 'articled clerk' - where you spend approx 6 months in each of the major departments within a firm. Only after that are you qualified. (min. time commitment = 6 years)

To become a barrister you also have to do your law degree or post-grad conversion. Then, you go to Bar School for a year and then have to do your 'pupillage' with any one of the sets of barristers chambers. Their regulatory body is The Bar Council. You can find out more at www.barcouncil.org.uk (min. time commitment = 5 years)

The principle difference between the two is that barristers are entitled to represent clients in court - any court. Increasingly however solicitors are becoming entitled to represent clients in certain areas in the lower courts and also (I think) in tribunals and so on. The whole thing is fairly contentious though.

As such, if a solicitor had a case that would likely need to go to court or needed advice on a fine point of law which they knew a particular barrister specialised in, then they would instruct counsel to take the case or to give their opinion.

So - the basic answer is, barristers are not superior to solicitors, or the other way round - they're just different. To prove the point, I know of several people who have initially trained as barristers and later re-qualified as solicitors!

[I haven't been keeping completely up to date with the solicitor-advocate issue, so forgive me if I'm slightly off-base on that bit!]

To complicate the issue still more, our top legal position is actually the Attorney-General (but I think that's about the only time we use the word), who is assisted by the Solicitor-General - see http://www.cjsonline.org/working/attorney.html for a definition. The Solicitor-General is an MP and has Cabinet ranking - at the moment it's Harriet Harman QC, MP.