ing cap to hide their tonsures, which came to be called
a "coif". The great litigation of the nation is conducted by a
small group of men, as is indicated by the earliest Year Books of
case decisions. They sit in court and will sometimes intervene as
amicus curiae [friends of the court]. Parliament refers difficult
points of law to them as well as to the justices. These reports
became so authoritative that they could be cited in the courts as
precedent. Groups of attorneys from the countryside who are
appearing in London courts during term-time and living in
temporary lodgings start to form guild-like fellowships and buy
property where they dine and reside together, called the Inns of
Court. They begin to think of themselves as belonging to a
profession, with a feeling of responsibility for training the
novices who sat in court to learn court procedures and attorney
techniques. They invited these students to supper at the Inns of
Court for the purpose of arguing about the day's cases. The Inns
of Court evolved a scheme of legal education, which was oral and
used disputations. Thus they became educational institutions as
well as clubs for practicing attorneys. The call to the bar of an
Inn was in effect a degree. To be an attorney one had to be
educated and certified at the Inns of Court. They practice law
full time. Some are employed by the King. Justices come to be
recruited from among those who had passed their lives practicing
law in court, instead of from the ecclesiastical orders. All
attorneys were brought under the control of the justices.

There are two types of attorney: one attorney appears in the place
of his principal, who does not appear. The appointment of this
attorney is an unusual and a solemn thing, only to be allowed on
special grounds and with the proper formalities. For instance, a
poor person may not be able to afford to travel to attend the
royal court in person. The other one is the pleader-attorney, who
accompanies his client to court and advocates his position with
his knowledge of the law and his persuasiveness.

In 1280, the city of London made regulations for the admission of
both types of attorneys to practice before the civic courts, and
for their due control. In 1292 the king directed the justices to
provide a certain number of attorneys and apprentices to follow
the court, who should have the exclusive right of practicing
before it. This begins the process which will make the attorney