Attorneys are now drawn from the knightly class of landed
gentlemen, instead of ecclesiastical orders. Since it was
forbidden for ecclesiastics to act as advocates in the secular
courts, those who left the clergy to become advocates adopted a
close-fitting 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.
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