First legal officer distressed at tree any longer? (8,7)
I believe the answer is:
attorney general
'first legal officer' is the definition.
'attorney general' can be an answer for 'officer' (I have seen 'Legal officer' mean 'attorney general' so perhaps 'officer' could also mean 'attorney general'). I'm not certain of the 'first legal' bit.
'distressed at tree any longer?' is the wordplay.
'distressed' is an anagram indicator.
'at'+'tree'+'any'+'longer'='attreeanylonger'
'attreeanylonger' is an anagram of 'ATTORNEY-GENERAL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for attorney general that I've seen before include "Crown legal officer" , "Lawman" , "chief legal officer" , "Chief law officer" , "Senior lawyer" .)