Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1886-04-28
Philadelphia Lawyers.

Within the past six months perhaps
twenty five Philadelphia lawyers have
opened branch offices in New York,
and almost every day some other
member of our bar tells me that he
purposes doing likewise as soon as
he can obtain suitable quarters. To
be frank with you, 1 have not heard
more than two or three of those who
have made metropolitan connection
say that they have done particularly
well, though the craze, SO to speak,
for New York offices still holds out.
Some say that they have obtained
four or five cases, out of which they
are confident of earning enough to
pay their expenses for three or four
years. l do not know how that may
be, and 1 never hear the same men
reason that way abou. their Philadel
phia cases But having established
metropolitan connection, fancy that
they have a notion that they may
charge metropolitan fees. L have
not had any New York patronage at
all myself as yet, so 1 cannot say
what my feeling of expansion would
lead me to do in respect to fees
think, however, that 1 shall not for
get the dignity of member of the
metropolitan bar.
In the matter of fees the New York
lawyer decidedly has the best of his
Quaker City brother in ordinary cas-
es, bv reason of his practising under
the Code. The New Yorker gets his
ten dollars for every motion and step
and the fee allowed him is sensibly
graded by the Court according to the
work he does. Now the Philadelphia
lawyer, practising under the common
law forms, has no allowance made
him for motions for continuance, mo-
tions for new trials or any of the
thousand and one steps incident to
the conduct of a cause, The regular
attorneys fee at the end of all is on
ly 50. By special statute the fee al
lowed In divorce cases is $50.
WHAT THEY EARN.
The earnings of members of our
bar may be sharply defined into the
very good, the good, and the very
bad. There are eight or nine of the
whole seventeen hundred who earn
from S25,000 to $4,000 year. L
do not think that there is any man
at our bar whose practice brings him
in more than the latter sum, and in
conceding that there may be one or
two who earn as much as that, l am
conceding altogether as much as 1 |
care to do. No one here receives
such fees as Mr. Conkling, Mr.. Ev-
arts, and some other distinguished |
New York lawyers are credited with
obtaining.
Moreover, no Philadelphia lawyer
would have the face to demand such
fees. The Court set up a standard
of modesty when it put its own allow
ance to an attorney at the nunificent
amount of 50, and / don't think any
Philadelphia lawyer ever quite loses
sight of that standard
Besides these particularly fortu-
nate eight or nine, there are from
seventy-five to hundred men at our
bar who earn from $4,000 to $4,000
a year. The bulk of them make about
$4,000 They comprise most of the
railroad and commercial lawyers,
though one or two or three of the
most noted corporation lawyers are
included in the first class that have
named. One or two criminal lawyers
may perhaps also be put in the $4,000
class, though it is notable fact that
in Philadelphia the earnings of Grim
inal lawyers are as rule very small.
All of these attorneys l put in the
class of 'very good" in respect of
earnings.
MODERATE RECEIPTS.
Now we come to the class of "good."
Perhaps four hundred members OF
the bar, at the outside, may be put
under that head. They are ordinar-
lily bright and as industrious and at
tentive to business as you would have
them, and they have been at the bar >
from seven to thirty years. They ,
earn from $500 to $4,000 annually, ,
the bulk of them decidedly nearer .
the first figure than the second. For F.:
L tell you, as my friend Scollay was !
telling me only this morning, $4,000 |
a year represents a good deal of mon
ey in fees to Philadelphia lawyer,
and means a great deal of work and
even fairly large corps of clerks.
Now we come to the class whose G
earnings are to be put under the
head of the very bad. They take in
4 very considerable part of the bar,
the younger part mostly, but regret c
TO say not altogether the Younger. L
They earn from about $500 year all L
the way down to SO per week. 1 e
know some very deserving and bright S
men of long standing at the bar who t
ire numbered in thisclass. The cur e
'ent is so strong they can barely C
breast it. Were it not for the gen t
'rous assistance in the way of refer f
,nces and masterships that many of il
hem receive from the courts, they s
,ould not manage to exc out an ex D
stence at all. 4
The young men at the bar, espec- T
ally the poor young man and the fl
modest young man with nothing but C
us brains, have a mighty hard time c.
II it at our bar in these days. They D
arm next to nothing. A Judge was il
elling me the other day of one to
ghom he gave reference, who was
o poor that he walked to and from
us Office every day, distance of sew
ra! miles, because he absolutely e,
ould not afford to pay car fare. W
Government by Snap Of the Finger, la
10 n