Also an advocate who is not a lawyer/solicitor, may be considered as being a little similar to a mediator. An advocate in many situations due to the laws of the land, may not mediate nor represent for you, but instead protect you in your dealings with the law or the civil authorities. Often attending interviews with you, and acting a bit like a lawyer or solicitor.
Example.
They answer official paper work on your behalf and will attend interviews with you and .
They will stop the interviewer from taking advantage if you have mental problems and are unable to adequately verbally protect yourself, They will step in, but not quote law like a lawyer/solicitor would but tell the interviewer to behave themselves if they think the interviewer is taking advantage of your mental health problem.
In the UK some people have advocates who attend interviews with the state benefits or pensions department to protect vulnerable people from the bureaucracy of the state which they cannot deal with.
Hope this helps with when there is a difference between a lawyer and an advocate.
A lawyer deals with law.
An advocate advocates for you represents you and is often used by lawyers as an alternative to legal "law" proceedings. An advocate may not know a lot of law except in the narrow field they work in. This may also apply to some lawyers who specialise. An advocate is not a lawyer if they are employed by an advocacy agency, or instructed by a lawyer or court. They just advocate for you.
An attorney is someone who acts on your behalf in legal matters, it can be and is often a lawyer. But an attorney does not have to be legally trained, they just have to be responsible and agree to meet certain criteria, carry out their legal duties honestly, in a timely manner and in the best interests of the person they are representing. An attorney is often used when we get old via instruments called "power of attorney".
A lawyer will automatically advocate for you under any dictionary definition of the word, but an advocate may not always be able to represent you in a court of law or legal proceedings, instead in some cases acting as "the middle man". Sometimes a lawyer or court judge may instruct that it is best for you to use and advocate or an agency that offers advocacy.
A solicitor is another British word for a lawyer, to solicit and to advocate are close synonyms in a dictionary. Solicitor = the one who does the soliciting ->the solicit-or