Customers may see legal right in court with team cut by half (9)
I believe the answer is:
clientele
'customers' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'legal right in court with team cut by half' is the wordplay.
'legal right' becomes 'lien' (I've seen this before).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'court with' becomes 'ct' (I am not sure about the 'with' bit.**).
'team' becomes 'eleven' (I've seen this before).
'cut by half' means to take half the letters.
'lien' going into 'ct' is 'client'.
'eleven' with half the letters taken is 'ele'.
'client'+'ele'='CLIENTELE'
'may see' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for clientele that I've seen before include "Patronising people" , "A shop's customers" , "Customers (of a shop)" , "Market" , "All one's customers" .)