Terrible oil riots gripping Conservative lawyer (9)
I believe the answer is:
solicitor
'lawyer' is the definition.
(I know that lawyer can be written as solicitor)
'terrible oil riots gripping conservative' is the wordplay.
'terrible' indicates anagramming the letters.
'gripping' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are gripped).
'conservative' becomes 'C' (UK political abbreviation).
'oil'+'riots'='oilriots'
'oilriots' anagrammed gives 'soliitor'.
'soliitor' placed around 'c' is 'SOLICITOR'.
(Other definitions for solicitor that I've seen before include "Law practitioner" , "Legal officer" , "Legal advisor" , "Legal practitioner" , "beggar" .)