Польшадағы құқық саласы және «меценат» аталымы

In Poland, any person holding a Magister's degree in law (Polish: magister prawa) is called a "jurist" or "lawyer" (prawnik). According to Polish legal doctrine, a lawyer should be understood as a person who graduated from law school with the aforementioned degree, even if such a person does not practice law after graduation.

Polish lawyers may work in licensed legal professions, public administration, law enforcement, tax services and governmental agencies. Since a legal entity can be represented in a court of law by its employees, companies do not employ advocates or attorneys at law but instead rely on in house lawyers, counsellors or associates not admitted to the bar. Because an agent can act for any person under Polish law, some lawyers do what in the UK is done by solicitors. Thus, specialized persons write legal agreements, conduct negotiations, or execute debts. Polish law expressly permits persons with Magister's degree in law to provide legal counselling. In the reasons for judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 26 November 2003 (ref. no. SK 22/02), the view was expressed for the first time that the provisions in force in Poland allow persons holding a Magister's degree in law to carry out legal counselling on their own account. A consequence of the judgment was the legal sanctioning of legal counselling offices run by persons who graduated from law schools but do not belong to bar associations. The person with qualifying legal education can work as:

counsellor at law, legal counsellor or legal advisor (Polish: doradca prawny) who provides legal advice, drafts documents and legal opinions; with a permanent contract of commission with a client, a counsellor has power of attorney in administrative proceedings and selected civil proceedings.

In modern Polish language, mecenas is an honorific title addressed to a person working in a legal profession and authorised to appear in a court of law on behalf of a client – advocates and attorneys at law. In the 16th century, lawyers of that time were called procuratores mercenarii, i. e. paid substitutes in litigation. In this way, they were distinguished from non professional substitutes called procuratores. From the phrase procuratores mercenarii, the term mecenas was created by gradually eliminating the first segment and the "r" in the second word. It appeared as early as the 18th century in its modern form and became popular in the 19th century. The title of mecenas is purely a matter of courtesy and is not protected by the law. It is most commonly used to address advocates and attorneys at law and can be loosely compared to the English counsel. In 2014, the Press Office of the National Bar Council of Advocates called for the title of mecenas to be reserved only for advocates and attorneys at law, but this remained without impact on the practice of the media and legal community.

An examination for admission to bar apprenticeship for advocates and attorneys at law is a written test. A hundred out of a hundred and fifty points guarantee admission. The examination covers: 1) criminal law and criminal procedure; 2) infraction law and infraction court proceedings; 3) financial criminal law and financial criminal proceedings; 4) civil law and civil procedure; 5) family law; 6) public economic law; 7) commercial companies and partnerships law; 8) labour law and social security regulations; 9) administrative law and administrative procedure; 10) administrative court proceedings; 11) European Union law; 12) constitutional law; 13) organization of justice in Poland.