As mentioned previously, “lawyer” is the title of attorneys in the US and therefore in the US dictionary we have “lawyer” referring to “attorney.”
Again, it’s worth pointing out that an attorney is a lawyer in the US, not in any other part of the world. This is, of course, where dictionaries go wrong. The confusion stems from the fact that “lawyer” is derived from the word “lawyer,” and the word “law” is derived from “lawyer.”
Of course, the US and UK can’t be the only jurisdictions where lawyers and attorneys have different names, and every country has laws and definitions in its own unique dictionary. However, a word’s definition comes from a definition in a dictionary, and a definition comes from the law, which is defined by a dictionary.
To get an overview of the legal titles, we have written a quick and easy-to-read entry, The Legal Title.
US Law Dictionary: Office of the Attorney General. Title 8, Chapter 21, Section 83-84. Definition, definition of attorney.
DC Law Dictionary: Lawyer, definition of attorney, definition of lawyer.
Legally speaking, it is clear that someone practicing law in New York is a lawyer. Therefore, the attorney, not the lawyer, would represent the city and claim jurisdiction of the US government to get a warrant and charge the members of Hamas for civil violations.