No Mike I am not a barrister. They get paid a LOT more than me! But I am employed by a law firm and have represented people in lower courts and liased with barristers in the higher courts where solicitors do not have right of audience so a barrister is instructed by our firm and I go along to make sure it runs to plan and that the client manages to get to court and meet his barrister etc.
To answer your question. In the UK England and Wales (Scotland has a different legal system) a lawyer has a duty not to mislead the Court so if a client admits he did a crime then the lawyer has a duty to tell him to plead guilty and if the client refuses then the barrister/solicitor will say sorry I cant represent you. There are ways round this and most barristers will NEVER ask the client if they actually did the crime and will often say "please dont tell me wether you did it-I dont want to know. I am only interested in the evidence" etc.
I really should have answered this by email as its very o/t. Apologies to anyone annoyed by o/t posts.