‘Lawyer’ vs. ‘Attorney’ – What’s the Difference?

The terms “lawyer” and “attorney” are used quite interchangeably, but is there a difference between the two terms? Just what is the difference? Is one more-commonly-used than the other?

To put it simply, all attorneys are lawyers, but not all lawyers are necessarily considered attorneys. Practically speaking though, both terms are used interchangeably by most internet searchers (and law firms) in America. ”Lawyer” is used more informally, while “attorney” is more-frequently-used in a formal setting.

What is an Attorney?

An attorney is a legal professional who has gone to law school, received their degree and passed the bar exam, giving them the ability to fully practice law in their jurisdiction.

The what is a Lawyer?

Technically speaking, someone who is educated in law (who has been through law school and received a law degree [J.D.]), would be considered a lawyer. Passing law school, however, doesn’t mean you are automatically allowed to provide legal representation. That being said, lawyers who have not passed the bar are still free to provide legal counsel to those that need it, but may not able to represent a plaintiff in a case. The law expressly states that only “attorneys” are empowered to act as legal representatives, and to be an “attorney,” one must pass the bar exam in the state in which they would like to practice.

Since these terms are used interchangeably, which is more-commonly used?

While this often depends on the vernacular of a particular geographical region, I’ve done a bit of research using Google Trends in order to determine how the two terms are used in web searches.

When you simply compare “lawyer” to “attorney,” it becomes clear that “attorney” is much more commonly-used. But what happens when we narrow it down to just searches in the USA?

Just as before, we can see that “attorney” is used more-often (more than twice as often as “lawyer”), but why is this? Well, while the searcher intent of the term “lawyer” is pretty specific, “attorney” can also be used with in other types of searches (power of attorney, attorney general, etc). So what happens when we compare the terms “injury lawyer” to “injury attorney”?

As you can see, the results are quite different. Both terms are now almost even in usage, but “injury lawyer” is more-common and trending upward.

Interestingly, the when comparing the terms “criminal lawyer” vs “criminal attorney,” the results are quite different once again.

Surprisingly, “criminal attorney” is searched about 40% more-often in Google than “criminal lawyer.”

In conclusion.

All this being said, the reality is that both “lawyer” and “attorney” can be used interchangeably in almost every scenario with no ambiguity or confusion, but it is interesting to see how the two terms compare in the number actual Google searches. Have anything to add? Leave a comment below!

By Jeff Rasansky

Category: In Depth