Is there such a thing as a solicitor in Spain?
Not as such. And the difference is the quickest way to tell a qualified Spanish lawyer from a website that has learned which English words you respond to.
What Spain has instead
“Solicitor” is a title created by the law of England and Wales, and separately by the law of Scotland and of Northern Ireland. It exists nowhere else. Spain has two legal professions where England has one.
An abogado advises clients, drafts and negotiates, and argues cases in court. A procurador holds the formal right to represent a party in proceedings and handles the filings with the court. In most matters a Spaniard needs both, and in a great many — an inheritance, a conveyance, a tax return — only the abogado is involved.
An abogado is the nearest thing Spain has to a solicitor. But it is a Spanish qualification, held through one of the provincial Colegios de Abogados, governed by Spanish professional rules and covered by Spanish professional indemnity insurance. It is not a solicitor’s qualification, and nobody can hold it by translation.
So what is a firm saying when it offers “solicitors in Spain”?
One of three things is true, and they are worth telling apart.
- The firm has an English, Scottish or Northern Irish solicitor on the team. Some genuinely do, and it can be a real advantage where a matter straddles both countries.
- The firm is using “solicitor” loosely, as a rough translation of abogado, because it is the word its British clients search for.
- Neither.
The first is worth paying for. The second is common and usually harmless. The third is the one you want to rule out before you send anybody money.
How to check, in thirty seconds
If they describe themselves as a solicitor
Every practising solicitor in the UK is on a public register, with a current practising certificate and a firm. Search the name at solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk for England and Wales, at lawscot.org.uk for Scotland, or at lawsoc-ni.org for Northern Ireland. No entry, no solicitor.
If they describe themselves as an abogado
Ask which Colegio de Abogados they belong to and for their número de colegiado. Then email that Colegio and ask them to confirm that the number belongs to that person and that they are in good standing. They answer, and they answer in English if you write in English.
Ask one of those two questions of us as well
Francisco Sánchez is an abogado of the Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Sevilla, número de colegiado 16.386. He is not a solicitor, and this is not a firm of solicitors. Write to the Colegio and check it before you instruct us. It costs you an email and it is the right habit.
Does it matter which you use?
It matters for a narrow reason. Anything that has to happen in Spain — signing a deed before a notary, filing an inheritance tax return, registering a title — has to be done by someone qualified in Spain. A solicitor in Guildford cannot do it, however good they are. And anything that has to happen here — obtaining a grant of probate, conveying English land, conducting litigation in a UK court — is reserved to UK-qualified lawyers, and a Spanish abogado cannot do that either.
Most cross-border matters need both, working alongside each other. What you want to avoid is one person quietly claiming to be both.