barristers, attorneys

Britain has a split legal profession that includes barristers and solicitors (and at one time serjeants at law). Barristers can plead in court but don’t directly represent a client. Instead they are retained (or instructed) by a solicitor. More importantly, they are considered gentleman because they don’t directly take money from a client. In fact, there is a little pocket sewn into the back of a barrister’s robe into which a solicitor could slip a payment (there is some debate about this). Daniel Poole’s What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew is very informative about the legal profession.