Conveyancing Brisbane

The term "lawyer" is a generic term which covers both solicitors and barristers.
In some states, a lawyer may practise as both a solicitor and barrister, while in others, like Qld, you must choose to be either a solicitor or barrister (your signature is entered into one of two rolls held by the Supreme Court of Qld).
A solicitor may be heard in any court (not just a Magistrate’s Court) – but you would be wise to use a barrister in any court higher than this. Generally, solicitors deal directly with clients, may work together in firms, may do work such as conveyancing, and may handle trust funds. Barristers are court specialists, and deal mainly with the solicitor rather than the client. If you have a matter to go to court, you would be wise to engage both a solicitor and barrister, as they both work together to do different tasks to prepare and present the matter at trial. In Qld, barristers may not work together or for a firm, we cannot do things like conveyancing, and we are not allowed to take money from clients and place it in a trust fund. We are engaged by a solicitor, not by the client.
A ‘silk’ is a generic term for either a QC or an SC – ie the more experienced barristers who have been promoted to this position. The term arises because their robes apparently are (were?) silk while mine are wool!

So: lawyer = solicitor and/or barrister
solicitors and barristers generally handle different aspects of a case and/or do different work
barrister = junior or silk
silk = QC or SC

A solicitor can represent you in magistrates court but can only instruct a barrister in a superior court. A QC (queens counsel) is a senior barrister. A quick note on that, we no longer have QC’s they are now senior counsels (SC). There are those who were appointed as QC some time ago, but the title QC is no longer confferd and has been replaced by SC