Legal Profession Abbreviations
46 abbreviations · part of Legal Abbreviations
Abbreviations about lawyers and the business of law: titles and ranks (Esq., KC, GC), bar admission and licensing exams (MBE, MPRE, UBE, SQE), ethics and regulation (MRPC, UPL, IOLTA), continuing education (CLE), law firm rankings and recruiting (AmLaw, OCI) and the bodies that shape the profession, such as the ABA, the ALI and the Uniform Law Commission. Law degrees such as the JD and LLM are covered with academic degrees.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1L | First-year law student | Student in the first year of a three-year US Juris Doctor program, or that year itself, when students take required courses such as contracts, torts, civil procedure… |
| 2L | Second-year law student | Law student in the second year of a US Juris Doctor program, typically focused on electives, law review or journal work, moot court and the summer associate job that… |
| 3L | Third-year law student | Law student in the final year of a US Juris Doctor program, typically completing electives, clinics, externships and graduation requirements while preparing for the bar… |
| ABA | American Bar Association | Largest voluntary professional association of lawyers in the United States, founded in 1878 in Saratoga Springs, New York, and headquartered in Chicago. |
| ABS | Alternative business structure | Law firm or legal services entity partly or wholly owned or managed by nonlawyers, a model barred by traditional ethics rules. |
| ACC | Association of Corporate Counsel | Global professional association for in-house lawyers working in corporations, nonprofits and other private-sector organizations, founded in 1982 and based in… |
| AGC | Associate general counsel | Senior in-house lawyer title ranking below the general counsel and deputy general counsel, often responsible for an area such as employment, litigation, intellectual… |
| ALI | American Law Institute | Independent organization of judges, lawyers and law professors, founded in 1923 and based in Philadelphia, that drafts Restatements of the Law, model codes and… |
| ALSP | Alternative legal service provider | Organization other than a traditional law firm that delivers legal services or support, such as e-discovery vendors, contract-management companies, accounting firms'… |
| AmLaw | The American Lawyer | Legal trade magazine, founded in 1979, whose annual rankings of the largest US law firms by revenue, the AmLaw 100 and AmLaw 200, are standard industry benchmarks.… |
| AOR | Attorney of record | Lawyer who has formally appeared for a party in a case and is responsible for it, receives all notices and filings, and usually needs court permission to withdraw. |
| Atty. | Attorney | Common abbreviation for "attorney" in signature blocks, case files, letterhead and forms, as in "Atty. for Plaintiff". |
| AV | AV Preeminent rating | Highest peer-review rating awarded to lawyers by Martindale-Hubbell, indicating that fellow lawyers and judges rate the lawyer's legal ability as very high and ethical… |
| CLE | Continuing legal education | Professional education that lawyers in most US states must complete to keep their law licenses active, covering legal developments, practice skills, ethics and… |
| CLO | Chief legal officer | Top lawyer in a company, responsible for legal strategy, litigation, regulatory matters, contracts, intellectual property and corporate governance, and often also… |
| CP | Certified Paralegal | Professional credential awarded by NALA, the Paralegal Association, to paralegals who meet education or experience requirements and pass its certification exam. |
| Esq. | Esquire | Courtesy title written after the name of a lawyer in the United States, as in "Jane Smith, Esq.", mostly in correspondence, envelopes, signature blocks and court papers. |
| GC | General counsel | Chief lawyer of a company, nonprofit, university or government agency, responsible for the organization's legal affairs, managing in-house lawyers and outside law… |
| IOLTA | Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts | Program under which lawyers deposit client funds that are small or held briefly into pooled interest-bearing trust accounts, with the interest paid to a state… |
| KC | King's Counsel | Senior rank conferred on experienced barristers and solicitor-advocates in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and several Commonwealth countries, written… |
| LLLT | Limited license legal technician | Nonlawyer professional licensed by the Washington Supreme Court to give limited legal advice and help clients prepare documents in specific practice areas, initially… |
| LPC | Legal Practice Course | Postgraduate vocational course in England and Wales that, followed by a two-year training contract, was the main route to qualifying as a solicitor before the… |
| LPO | Legal process outsourcing | Practice of contracting out legal support work, such as document review, contract management, legal research and due diligence, to specialized providers, often in… |
| MBE | Multistate Bar Examination | Standardized multiple-choice section of the bar exam, produced by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and given in nearly every US jurisdiction. |
| MCLE | Mandatory continuing legal education | Rules requiring lawyers to complete a set number of continuing legal education hours to keep practicing, and the state programs that administer them. |
| MEE | Multistate Essay Examination | Essay component of the bar exam written by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, made up of six 30-minute questions that test the ability to analyze legal issues in… |
| MPRE | Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination | Two-hour, 60-question multiple-choice exam on legal ethics and professional conduct rules, required for bar admission in nearly every US jurisdiction. |
| MPT | Multistate Performance Test | Bar exam component that tests practical lawyering skills: candidates receive a file of facts and a library of legal authorities and must complete a task such as a memo… |
| MRPC | Model Rules of Professional Conduct | Ethics rules for lawyers drafted by the American Bar Association in 1983, covering the client-lawyer relationship, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, candor to the… |
| N.P. | Notary public | Public officer commissioned by a state to witness signatures, verify identity, administer oaths and take acknowledgments on documents such as deeds, affidavits and… |
| NALP | National Association for Law Placement | Association of law school career offices and legal employers, founded in 1971, that publishes employment data on law graduates and standards for recruiting law students. |
| NCBE | National Conference of Bar Examiners | Nonprofit organization based in Madison, Wisconsin, that develops the standardized bar exam components used across the United States, including the MBE, MEE, MPT and… |
| OCI | On-campus interviewing | Recruiting program in which law firms and other employers interview law students, traditionally rising second-years, through their school's career office, leading to… |
| ODC | Office of Disciplinary Counsel | State office, usually operating under the supreme court, that investigates complaints against lawyers and prosecutes disciplinary cases for violations of the rules of… |
| OGC | Office of General Counsel | Legal department of a federal or state agency, university or company, headed by the general counsel. |
| PHV | Pro hac vice | Permission for a lawyer not licensed in a jurisdiction to appear in a particular case there, usually granted on motion with a local attorney as sponsor or co-counsel. |
| QC | Queen's Counsel | Senior rank for barristers and some solicitors used during a queen's reign in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and several Commonwealth jurisdictions… |
| RPC | Rules of Professional Conduct | A state's binding ethics rules for lawyers, adopted by its highest court and usually based on the ABA Model Rules. |
| SA | Summer associate | Law student, usually after the second year, working at a law firm for about eight to ten weeks over the summer, often with the expectation of a full-time offer after… |
| SBN | State Bar number | Identification number assigned to each lawyer admitted by the State Bar of California, and by some other bars, that must appear in the caption of court filings. |
| SC | Senior Counsel | Senior rank for barristers used in Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa and some Australian states, written after the name as KC is elsewhere. |
| SQE | Solicitors Qualifying Examination | Centralized assessment for qualifying as a solicitor in England and Wales, introduced in 2021. |
| SRA | Solicitors Regulation Authority | Independent regulator of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales that sets standards, authorizes firms, investigates misconduct and runs the Solicitors Qualifying… |
| UBE | Uniform Bar Examination | Standardized bar exam prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and adopted by about 40 US jurisdictions, producing a score that can be transferred to other… |
| ULC | Uniform Law Commission | Nonprofit organization, founded in 1892, of commissioners appointed by every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. |
| UPL | Unauthorized practice of law | Practicing law without a license, such as giving individualized legal advice, drafting legal documents for others or representing someone in court, which is prohibited… |