Regret engaging a left-leaning barrister, taking time to find what's needed for court battle (7)
I believe the answer is:
racquet
'court battle' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
I cannot understand how the rest of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for racquet that I've seen before include "Implement for sport" , "Badminton bat" , "Bat for sport" , "Sports implement sounds noisy" , "Bat used in court games" .)