The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1890-08-16
FORTUNES IN FEES
Large Sums Paid to Famous Ia,
yers for Their Services.

Famous lawyers can usually comms,,
large fees. but what the annual incoms
of most of them is would be a very Ala
cult matter to determine. 1t occasional.
happens, however, that some bio -
comes to public notice, but as pere,s,
thing only the lawyer and his client a.
in position to give the exact amount
/ never heard of larger fee than ss,o
600, and that was paid to Henry L. chi,
ton for his services in the contest oys
the will of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Sim.
he received this fee Mr.. Clinton has ~
tired from active service.
1t would be idle to guess at the ficure.
paid to the lawyers engaged in the Stewan
will contest, but they must have been
simply enormous with such men in COM
as Joseph II. Choate, eX-Attorney-G enerl
Leslie W. Russell. ex-United States Dis
trict Attorney Elihu Root, ex-Surropat
Daniel G.. Rollins, eX-Judgc Gilbert and
Stephen p. Nash. In the beginning Of
the contest ex-senator Roscoe Conklnc
appeared for eX-Judye Henry Hilton. but
be died before proceedings were very fr
advanced.
am told on the very best AUTHORITY
that Mr.. Choate's usual price is $500 for
every day ne has to appear in court, in
addition to his retaining fee in each case.
He docs not give any of this money, &C.
cordirg to my informant. to his firm. lie
receives an interest in the receipts Of
Evarts. ChOatc & Bcaman for the use Of
his name on the door and for the advice
he gives to the other members as counsel
but when his individual services are re.
quired he must be specially retained in
addition to his firm. II is said that be
has made as much as $500, 900 in a single
year, and that as he has made practice
from the time he first came to New York
of putting aside One-half of his earnings
he is a very wealthy man.
An extraordinarily big fee, all things
considered, was the $4,000 paid to
Aaron Kahn for his services to Miss Mau
Irene Hoyt in the contest over the will Of
her father. Jesse Hoyt. Kahn did not
serve throughout the contest. as Frank
J. Dupignac was substituted for him
while the proceedings were still pending.
After Miss Hoyt's defeat Kahn put in .
bill for 800, 600, and he felt that he was
unfairly treated when the court reduced
his claim to 100000.
Among the most famous litigations Of
modern times was one over the estate Of
Nathaniel Gilman, that came before the
courts periodically from 1859 up to .
couple of years ago. By an inventory
filed in 1868 the value of the estate was
fixed at 81, $50, 600. When the division
came to be made Miss Anna X. Gilman,
one of the heirs. was informed that her
one-tcnth interest in what the lawyen
had left was $4,000.
1t is perhaps needless to remark that
corporations pay lawyers with the greatest
liberality. The late Henry +. Davies re-
signed from the Court of Appeals bench
to become counsel for the Equitable As
surance Company at a salary of $50, OOOa
year. and it is reported that Dillon 4
Swayne receive like amount from an
other big monopolist corporation. John
Z. Parsons, the great trust lawyers said
to make from $4,000 year upward
These are rough estimates, however, and
should not be taken as cXact.-lNev
York Herald.