The evening times., 1899-07-06
The Plaint of the Lawyer.
About the most sensible thing said by
Tammany's long talker," Mr.. Wfllett, of
Alabama, on the Fourth was this:

About the most sensible thing said by
Tammany's long talker,' Mr.. Willett, of
Alabama, on the Fourth was this:
II is fact well known to lawyers that the
legal profession is becoming more and more COM
mercialzed every day; that thousands OF law
yers who were once independent practitioners are
now mere employees OF corporations, and the pro-.
fessiOn is fast losing that fearless, independent
character il had a generation ago. When prac-
tically all the wealth of the country shall have
driited into few trusts, what will become Of
the lawyers: 1t requires no gift OF prophecy to
that in that event they who are fortunate
enough TO remain in the profession will become
mere employees, without independence or indiyid-
uality. Trust companies TO manage litigation
will be formed by the trusts owning the prop
erty, who viii employ attorneys To attend TO
the legal proceedings, very much as a railroad
company employs brakeman or conductor. That
this is already being done by some companies
Is well known.
Mr.. Willett might have gone further
along this line Of prophecy and extin
guished the lawyer altogether; for extinc
tion is the lawyers fate. In the state OF
high civilization TO which We are rapidly
sweeping onward-when the forces Of
cooperation have done their perfect work
and commerce is spiritualized-there will
be no place for the lawyer. But for the
grossness of commerce at present and the
imperfections Of its systems the lawyer
would disappear as the soothsayer and the
witch have disappeared. These important
personages We're as essential to the sys-
TENS and conditions of their times as the
Willett character of lawyers conceive the
men of their profession TO be TO our conGi-
tinIs. But these are distractions.
The rapid trend of the legal profession,
against which Mr.. Willett cries out in dis
tress and alarm. is what he states it to
be. The lawyer is being swept from his
high estate by the resistless progress of
Capitalization. 1t is fact, as
contritely confessed by the Alabama
legal luminary, that the lawyer is becom-
poration, just as much so as the brake
man or the trackwalker OF the railway,
though we will define the lawyers rela-
tion to his employer by the more dignified
title of adviser. We suspect that
it is really the lawyers pride and
not his pocketbook that is being hurt by
the realization of his position. Essential
ly the relation between him and his SEN
sible client always has been that which
exists today between the lawyer and the
corporation or other large and well-con-
Quoted concern by which he may be lucky
enough TO be employed-that Of employe
and employer. Formerly, however, he was
regarded by his community as an especial
ly learned man, and therefore was entitled
to particular respect and confidence The
fact is that in that day he was better ed
ucated and better versed in the social
graces than the average of his
neighbors. 1t was then that he was look
ed to to make the laws as well as inter-
pref them-and oftentimes dis.o.t them
in order that a balance between averages
might be struck and justice dispensed In
der monopoly of the business, by the
way, only the lawyers, under the code. can
expound the laws and dispense justice to-
day. But the community has caught I'D
with the lawyer in the matter Of general
education. He is no longer its most learn
ed member. And this has toppled him
from his proud eminence. This is what
is hurting the lawyer, and not the patent
fact, which is not new, that he is being
'commercialized"