Lawyer begins arguing loudly on antique wooden platform (8)
I believe the answer is:
scaffold
'lawyer' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'begins arguing loudly on antique wooden platform' is the wordplay.
'begins' indicates taking the first letters.
'loudly' becomes 'ff' (short for fortissimo - 'very loud' in music).
'on' is an insertion indicator.
'antique wooden platform' becomes 'scold' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The initial letter of 'arguing' is 'a'.
'a'+'ff'='aff'
'aff' inserted within 'scold' is 'SCAFFOLD'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scaffold that I've seen before include "sort of capital punishment!" , "Platform on which criminals were executed" , "Temporary structure around a building" , "Platform on which criminals were once hung" , "Old platform for hangings" .)