Advocate

(ad'vo-kāt.) [From L. advoco, I summon.] (Law.) A solicitor, counsellor, or attorney-at-law; a pleader in civil or criminal causes. Advocates were held in great honor during the first ages of the Roman commonwealth, being patricians who defended their clients gratuitously; whence has arisen the modern custom of regarding fees as honorary, and not recoverable at law. But, even before the subversion of the republic, the cla had become a profe ion, though an honorable one. In France, the advocates form a separate order, of which each member is attached to a particular local court. [s. 10]