The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1893-12-22
THE LAWYER OF TODAY.
Re Is Gradually Becoming More and More
of Specialist.


of Specialist.
There is as much learning here in
the legal profession as ever. but it is
not on exhibition, said a Philadelphia
lawyer. In the first place, the courts
will not countenance its undue display.
In old times an advocate was allowed
great latitude. Formerly, in case of
damages caused by neglected side
walk, the attorney would be allowed to
expound not only the laws relating to
damages for neglect, but he might
stray off into the realms of medical ju-
risprudence at great length, and even
perorate with an allusion to the Magma
Charta, the constitution and the Amer
ican eagle. At present a lawyer must
confine himself to the real merits of his
case. The machinery of our courts has
grown too costly to permit such waste
of time. 1t follows that there is less
oratorical skill displayed than in former
days. especially at the period when some
Of our leading lawyers made a speciality
of criminal defe..se. Now few lawyers
of eminence, either in Philadelphia or
the east generally, undertake the de-
fense in criminal case.
To-day the practice of law, like other
professions, is becoming more and more
specialized. a law office is simply a
business Office, .as you may discover
by visiting some of the handsome new
Office buildings down town. l know of
one Office where there are several part
ners. that would remind you of a bank
ing Office, and where boOkkeeper and
cashier is employed to pay off clerks,
typewriters and other employees. You
will, however, still find veteran members
of the bar pursuing old time methods in
coZy, quiet Office, sitting at baiZe COW
cred table amid wilderness of we'll
thumbed books. They carry a dark
green bag filled with briefs when they
so to court, precisely as all lawyers did
80 years ago, and as London barristers
still do.
"As to young lawyers, however tai
ented they may be, if without social or
political prestige, their struggle to ad
vance in the profession is sure to be a
hard one. Practice now is often inher-
tied or transmitted in some other way.
l could point out to you in Philadelphia
law firms that have been confined TO the
members of one family or its collateral
branches since the Revolution.
81 may say that there is an evident
impetus to change many useless old le-
gal methods. The remark of Lord Cole
ridge, when in this country, that there
were many volumes of English legal de-
cisions which it would do no harm to
destroy, would answer as the main
spring of this impetus. Legislation is
certainly advancing in this-that mere
ly experimental general laws are passed
with greater difficulty than formerly"
Another lawyer, older than the other,
said: Progress in the legal profession?
Progress is hardly term to apply to
law, for it is founded on precedents,
sometimes the older the better. For this
reason jurisprudence is the least pro-
gressive of the sciences. Still there have
been, no doubt, improvements in meth
ods of practice, though am not much
of code lawyer. l have had to study
hard all my life. The younger lawyers
appear to do little of that. They seem
to believe, with Aaron Burr, that law
is whatever is boldly advanced and
plausibly maintained ''-Philadelphia
Record.