Who is a lawyer? He is one who is learned in law and a person who is licensed to practice law. Law is the set of guidelines and rules that are laid down by a government to help in maintaining stability, help in defining what is wrong and what is right, and also helps in the delivering of justice. The term lawyer is country specific and the meaning of the term may show a lot of variation from country to country. For example:

1.In Australia the term is used to refer to solicitors and barristers
2.In England the term refers in general to the people who are trained in law. It includes solicitors, barristers, licensed conveyers, legal executives, and it also involves all those persons who are working with the law but are not practicing it.
3.In Scotland the term is used to describe those people who have been legally trained
4.In the Unites States it refers to attorneys at law

The main responsibilities of a lawyer include:

?Oral arguments in a court of law - arguing of a case of a client in a court of law
?Lawyers also usually do research work on the case and submit draft papers on it to court before they actually start arguing the case.
?A lawyer also helps in providing legal advice; he helps the client in deciding what to do next.
? Lawyers also deal with criminal cases which involve in the prosecution or defending of the accused. A lawyer can act as a public prosecutor or as a defense counsel.
?The different types of lawyers are:

1.Litigating lawyers
2.Corporate lawyers
3.Lawyers working in a firm: - it includes real estate lawyers. Real estate lawyers represent the interests of buyers and sellers in relation to immovable property

Who is an attorney? An attorney at law is one who is practicing the law and is entitled to defend or prosecute clients in a court of law. This is a general definition in relation to the United States. The general definition of an attorney is one who has the legal right to act on the behalf of another person; this gives rise to the following terms: attorney-in-fact and attorney-at-law. An attorney-in-fact is a person who has been given the right to act on behalf of another person, he need not necessarily be licensed to practice law, on the other hand an attorney-at-law is one who is trained and licensed to practice law.
Real estate attorneys are those who represent the interests of buyers and sellers similar to real estate lawyers, but the difference here is all real estate attorneys need not be licensed to practice law ( as it may include attorney-in-fact as discussed above) whereas a real estate lawyer necessarily needs to be one who is qualified to practice law.

Thus a lawyer is one who is knowledgeable of the law and is admitted to the bar whereas an attorney need not be one licensed to practice law, but one who is licensed to act in legal capacity on behalf of others. Therefore when the terms are used interchangeably it is better to use lawyer and attorney-at-law.