At Law

[L. Fr. a ley; L. Lat. ad legem,] According to law; by, for, or in law. This common expression has been applied from a very early period exclusively to the English common law, and seems peculiar to it. " At common law," (answering to the Fr. al com^en ley, and Lat. ad comm Mnem legem,) is a phrase of constant occurrence in the books; in being the corresponding preposition applied to equity, '* At law ana in equity" b a phrase in daily use. At law forms a part of the well-known professional titles, serjeant at law, and barrister at law, in England, and attorney at law, and counsellor at la/w, in the United States. These have not undergone any change, but the old and bng obsolete English title, apprentice at law had also the forms of ** apprentice in law," and " apprentice (/law. See Apprenti^us ad legem. An attorney at law is still occasionally called an "attorney in law," by way of clearer distinction from attorney in fact. Story on Agency, § 24. The prepositions at and in both seem, in these connexions, to have the sense of for.