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Are there any lawyers mentioned in Harry Potter?


I remember 3 cases of court scenes in Harry Potter, one in Dumbledore's memory about the questioning of Karkaroff and sentencing of Barty Crouch Jr. after WWI (Wizarding War I), one in OotP for Harry's disciplinary hearing, and one in the last book about questioning of Mrs. Cattermole. In all these cases the defendant is left to fend for him/herself. In Harry's case, Dumbledore has to come and defend him and he's not a lawyer either.


Do all the court cases shown in the books depict special circumstances, or is that how the wizard legal system works, where the Ministry directly accuses a person and he has to personally defend himself? Do lawyers exist in the Potterverse? Are they ever mentioned? (I am interested in a book answer, but movies or anything else are fine too)



Answer




There does appear to be some manner of a legal profession in the Wizarding World; Scrimgeour hints at one in Deathly Hallows, in response to Hermione rules-lawyering1 him (emphasis mine):



"The Decree for Justifiable Confiscation gives the Ministry the power to confiscate the contents of a will —"


"That law was created to stop wizards passing on Dark artifacts," said Hermione, "and the Ministry is supposed to have powerful evidence that the deceased's possessions are illegal before seizing them! Are you telling me that you thought Dumbledore was trying to pass us something cursed?"


"Are you planning to follow a career in Magical Law, Miss Granger?" asked Scrimgeour.


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Chapter 7: "The Will of Albus Dumbledore"



What form that takes is unclear, as we see no evidence of magical barristers or solicitors in the extended Potter canon. Perhaps the only legal authority is the legislature, perhaps the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has a public defender service, or perhaps there are private legal professionals.


For my part, I suspect that they exist, because lawyers are an emergent property of a legal system and labour specialization: as long as you have laws you will have some people who are better at understanding, interpreting, and arguing them, which created economic incentive for those people to sell their services. At the very least you would expect non-advocate solicitors, or somebody you could pay to give you legal advice; if defendants are allowed "help" in Wizengamot trials (which they appear to be, at least under some circumstances), you would also expect professional advocates to spring up, and at that point you basically have laywers as we know them.


However, I would note that the court cases we see in the books are quite unusual, and convened under extraordinary circumstances:




  • The Death Eater hearings in Dumbledore's memories come at the tail end of a quite miserable war that everybody just wants to be done with already

  • Harry's case is one in which the Minister is actively bending the law (as noted by Dumbledore) for political purposes

  • The Cattermole case is a kangaroo court in the extreme, where the defendant's guilt has already been decided and Umbridge just wants to feel powerful for a few minutes


Although the British Ministry is notoriously corrupt and ineffectual, it's not clear that these cases are representative of the general trend.



1 TVTropes link. It's dangerous to go alone


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