Search

This book, written for individuals contemplating a career in law, presents insights about the legal profession from 28 of the nation's top lawyers, judges, and legal scholars. Updated to address the critical issues facing the legal profession in the aftermath of the 1980's, the revised edition reflects the changing marketplace for lawyers and uncovers the new realities that every law student should be prepared for. These realities include the following: (1) the growing bottom-line orientation of law firms, leading to layoffs, mergers, and reorganizations; (2) recession-prompted changes in hiring practices, creating the new "temp" lawyer; (3) diminished opportunities on the traditional partnership track; and (4) the emerging concerns about quality of life related to heavier workloads, "rainmaker" expectations, and increased competition. The book discusses law school survival, the bar exam, clerkships, and the actual work a lawyer does, as well as career dissatisfaction, pro bono work, and personality and long-term satisfaction. An added section contains information on the sole practitioner, teaching law, women and minorities in the profession, and professional responsibilities. (GLR)

In the same way that the Imperial Justice Laws in 1879 grafted new institutions onto a preexisting framework, the reforms faced a practicing bar in Germany that already consisted of 4,091 lawyers. But the new rules of freie Advokatur, combined with demographic growth, economic change, and political upheaval between 1879 and 1933 to change dramatically the shape and texture of the bar and the nature of private practice. Free entry and economic opportunity offered new vistas of opportunity for ambitious young men and drew new social elements into the private practice of law. Economic dynamism in large cities made them magnets that attracted many new practitioners, while other cities, formerly important, fell into stagnation because economic growth passed them by. Some previously sleepy towns grew into economic powerhouses, thus inevitably attracting lawyers to serve new clients. As the bar grew, lawyers devised new career strategies and penetrated markets for legal services that they formerly had neglected. Overall, the era of freie Advokatur saw growth and diversification in the practicing bar. But the changes unleashed in 1879 became apparent only gradually. Persons who had been lawyers under the old system continued to practice under the new, although they faced immediate choices with regard to the place and shape of their legal practices. New members of the bar had to decide where to open their practices and how to seek their livings in entirely changed circumstances and based upon expectations rather than a record of experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gneist's publication of The Free Legal Profession in 1867 provided impetus and momentum to the movement to reform the legal profession that carried over beyond German unification in 1871 and culminated in the adoption of the Imperial Justice Laws in 1877–9. But its very importance and dramatic success also raise two questions. First, why were the reforms necessary in the first place; that is, how did the subjection of lawyers in private practice to the state, which Gneist saw as the obstacle to their fulfilling the normative role that he prescribed for them, come about? Second, a single call for reform could not have had such dramatic success unless it built upon previous reform efforts and fell upon fertile ground for change. What was the background upon which Gneist's prescriptions must be considered; what were the reasons that they were so quickly legislated into law? Lawyers in private practice, especially in Prussia, had never attained the position of primacy within the larger legal profession that they had in France or especially in England. In fact, they had suffered over the course of the eighteenth century from a consistent pattern of royal and governmental hostility, in which they saw their numbers, incomes, and privileges reduced and ultimately the legitimacy and the very existence of their profession challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of legal unification of the German Empire was a long one, culminating with the adoption of the Civil Law Code in 1896, effective in 1900, but the first peak, of crucial importance for the organization of the legal profession, came in the years 1877–9. The Imperial Justice Laws, which the Reichstag adopted between January 1877 and July 1879, and which entered into effect together on 1 October 1879, unified the legal system of the new German Empire and changed the lives of all lawyers practicing in the country. Contemporaries viewed these statutes as an interrelated whole, and they must be read together in order to understand fully the framework governing the organization of the private practice of law. This chapter traces first the legislative history of the Imperial Justice Laws, particularly of the Lawyers' Statute (“RAO”), to show how the enactment of the reform legislation intersected with the professional and middle-class projects for reform. Then it explains the legislative framework that the laws created, under which the private legal profession structured itself and operated essentially unchanged until 1933. Both discussions will pay particular attention to inchoate tensions within the bar that the reform legislation created, setting the stage for an exploration in later chapters of how these tensions ripened and manifested themselves, creating internal and external difficulties for the private bar and interfering with its ability to succeed in either the professional or middle-class project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter 20 of the book "Baboo Jabberjee, B.A.," by F. Anstey is presented. It explores the success of Hurry Bungsho Jabberjee in passing the bar exam despite all the difficulties encountered. It highlights the request of Jessimina Mankletow to Jabberjee to keep his promise of marriage, if not, she will bring the case to the court.

An encyclopedia entry for "spare trousers" is presented. It features Rayner Goddard, Lord Chief Justice of England in 1946, who is portrayed as a law student who failed his bar exams five times, a judge who supported corporal punishment, and a pervert who ejaculated when he pronounced a death sentence, requiring his clerk, Arthur Harris, to bring a spare pair of trousers to court. Other Lord Chief Justices who were considered worthless political appointees are mentioned including Sir William de Thorpe, Robert Tresilian and Judge Jeffries.

Chapter XLII of the book "Bart Ridgeley: A Story of Northern Ohio," by A. G. Riddle is presented. It highlights the admission of Case, Ransom and Bart as attorneys and counselors at law authorized to practice in all courts of Ohio. It presents how they are examined and questioned by the Bar Committee with Wood and Lane as the Supreme Judges. It also discusses Bart's opinion when he was asked by Judge Wood if an estate could exist in Ohio.