In its most general sense, the
practice of law involves giving
legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal
negotiations and
court proceedings such as
lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a
lawyer or attorney at law,
barrister,
solicitor, or
civil law notary. However, there is a substantial amount of overlap between the practice of law and various other professions where clients are represented by
agents. These professions include
real estate,
banking,
accounting, and
insurance. Moreover, a growing number of
legal document assistants (LDAs) are offering services which have traditionally been offered only by lawyers and their employee paralegals. Many documents may now be created by
computer-assisted drafting libraries, where the clients are asked a series of questions posed by the software in order to construct the legal documents.