Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-16
OUR BAR AND ENGLISH
CHOATE COMPARES THEM AND
CONDEMNS CONTINGENT FEE.

ALBANY, January 16.-Joseph H. Choate
presided yesterday at the annual meeting of
the State Bar Association, devoting his an
nual address to 1.-The English Bar" He
spoke entertainingly of differences in the
practice between England and this country.
THE chief cause of detraction from our
absolute independence and disinterestedness
as advocate s,' he said, 'is that fatal and
pernicious change, made several genera
tons ago by statute, by which lawyers and
clients are permitted to make any agree
ments they please as to compensation, SO
that contingent fees, contracts for shares
and even contracts to pay all the expenses
and take half the result are permissible,
and 1 fear not uncommon.
How can the courts put full faith in the
sincerity of laborS as aids to tnem in
the administration of justice if they have
reason to suspect us of having bargained
for a share of the result? The individual
advocate can persistently refuse to follow
such practices, or to take contingent fee
share in the controversy, and 1 am
old fashioned enough to wish that every
member of the profession who aspires to
leadership would take such a stand, and to
believe that if he did so it would promote
his reputation and success in true profess
sional Distinction
Less in England.
Mr.. Choate thought that the amount of
litigation must be less in England than in
New York in proportion to the population,
while the financial rewards for the profess
sion in the two countries he considered
were probably about on a par.
My conclusion, from fair knowledge
of both countries" said Mr. Choate lis
that In the law, as in every other element
of our common civilization, each nation has
yet much to learn from the other, and that
to that end ought Studiously on both
sides to cultivate more frequent and con-
slant intercourse and a better knowledge
of each other, and no profession can do so
much as ours to bring about this happy
contamination.
The association voted to appoint a COM
mittee composed of one member from each
judicial district to investigate and report
upon abuses of contingent fees.
The association adopted a resolution, in
troduced by William B. Hornblower, pro-
viding for a committee of five to support
bills in Congress to make the salaries of
federal judges equal to those of the judges
of the highest appellate courts in the state
in which the judges respectively reside.
number of papers dealing with various
phases of legal knowledge were read. The
annual address was delivered in the evening
in the assembly chamber by Judge Jacob
MEG. Dickinson of Chicago. His theme
was Standardization by Construction and
Interpretation of the Constitution
Judge Dickinson discussed the doctrine
announced by the President and Secretary
Root of increasing the power of the federal
government, not by amending the Consti-
tuition, but by judicial Interpretation and
construction of the Constitution, and con-
demned it as revolutionary and dangerous
to our national life. He instanced several
cases in which he considered that the Con-
stitution had been exploited as never be-
FORE No power recognized as belonging
to the states could ever be taken away by
governmental action, he asserted, but only
by the people and in the way they had fore
ordained. He urged general revival of a
knowledge of the Constitution
The association reelected Mr.. Choate
president for the ensuing year.