Is there such a thing as a solicitor in Spain?

Not as such — and it matters if you own property there, or are about to inherit some.

“Solicitor” is a British qualification — England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each create their own — and what it certifies is knowledge of that country’s law. Spain has its own profession, the abogado, and that is the qualification that covers Spanish law.

So for anything that actually happens in Spain — an inheritance, a sale, a tax return — the person you need is an abogado. A firm advertising “solicitors in Spain” may well have a British solicitor on the team, and that is genuinely useful where a matter straddles both countries. But the Spanish side still has to be handled by someone qualified in Spain.

How to check, in thirty seconds

If they say solicitor. Every practising solicitor in the UK is on a public register. Search the name at solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk for England and Wales, lawscot.org.uk for Scotland, or lawsoc-ni.org for Northern Ireland. Each entry shows a firm and a current practising certificate. No entry, no solicitor.

If they say abogado. There is a national register and it is open to the public, with no account and no login. The Consejo General de la Abogacía Española keeps the Census of Lawyers, compiled from the data every local bar is required to send it. Search it here: Census of Lawyers.

Ask one of those two questions of anyone who wants to handle your Spanish property or your inheritance. It costs you a minute.