Counsel

An attorney who advises and represents a party in a legal proceeding.

An officer of court. One who undertakes to conduct suits and actions in court. The same as counsellor. By the term counsel is also understood counsellor at law.

Advice given to another as to what he ought to do or not to do.

To counsel another to do an unlawful act is to become accessory to it if it be a felony, or principal if it be treason, or a misdemeanor.

Practice, Crim. Law. In the oath of the grand jurors there is a provision requiring them to keep secret 'the commonwealth's counsel, their fellows, and their own.' In this sense this word is synonymous with knowledge; therefore, all the knowledge acquired by grand jurors, in consequence of their office, either from the officers of the commonwealth, from their fellow-jurors, or which they have obtained in any manner in relation to cases which come officially before them, must be kept secret.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.

1. Attorney or legal adviser. 2. The advice or aid given with respectto a legal matter. 3. In criminal law, the term may refer to the advising orencouraging of another to commit a crime.