ABSTRACT
The lawyer or law student who is acquainted with the structure of the profession in England and Wales is used to the dominant professional division being between barristers and solicitors. If one approaches the Italian legal profession from the direction of its counterpart in England and Wales, what one encounters will probably appear very unfamiliar. To acquire an Italian law degree, the laurea in giurisprudenza, a student must study for at least four years at the law faculty of an Italian university. Most students take advantage of the flexible nature of university study in Italy, and take longer than this minimum period to complete their degrees. In Italy, the university year begins in November and continues until May, with short breaks for Christmas and Easter. Each circondario is allocated a fixed number of notaries. The number of successful candidates cannot exceed the vacancies which exist in any given year among that fixed number.
