SOLICITORS
LINE WHICH SEPARATES THEM FROM THE BAR--SOLICITOR
A BUSINESS MAN--FAMILY SOLICITORS--GREAT CITY
FIRMS OF SOLICITORS--THE NUMBER OF SOLICITORS IN
ENGLAND AND WALES--TENDENCY TOWARD ABOLISHING THE
DISTINCTION BETWEEN BARRISTER AND SOLICITOR--
SOLICITORS WEAR NO DISTINCTIVE DRESS EXCEPT IN
COUNTY COURTS--SOLICITORS' BAGS.
The line which separates solicitors from the Bar--the barristers--is
difficult for an American to fully appreciate, for in our country it
does not exist. The solicitor, or attorney, is a man of law
business--not an advocate. A person contemplating litigation must
first go to a solicitor, who guides his conduct by advice in the
preliminary stages, or occasionally retains a barrister to give a
written opinion upon a concrete question of law. The solicitor
conducts all the negotiations or threats which usually precede a
lawsuit and if compromise is impossible he brings a suit and
retains a junior barrister by handing him a brief, which consists
of a written narrative of the controversy, with copies of all papers
and correspondence--in short, the facts of the case--and which
states on its back the amount of the barrister's fee. The brief is
engrossed or type-written on large-sized paper with very broad
margins for notes, and is folded only once and lengthwise so as to
make a packet fifteen by four inches.
All Englishmen of substance, and all firms and corporations, have
their regular solicitors and the relation is frequently handed down
from generation to generation. It is, of course, unusual except in
large corporations to have a permanent barrister, because the
solicitor selects one from time to time, as the occasion requires,
and the client is rarely even consulted in the choice. When an
Englishman speaks of his lawyer, he always means his solicitor and
if he wishes to impress his auditor with the seriousness of his
legal troubles, he adds that his lawyer has been obliged to take the
advice of counsel--perhaps of a K. C.
Hence, the solicitor, unlike the barrister, is not ambitious
for fame, nor does he worry because he can not become the
Attorney-General or a judge; his mind is intent upon the pounds,
shillings and pence of his calling. He may seek business, which
the barrister can not do, and he is something of a banker, often
a promoter. Some solicitors, especially those practicing at
Liverpool, are admiralty men, others are adepts in the organization
of corporations and in litigation arising concerning them and
there are many other specialties. Some are men of the highest
grade--particularly those employed by big companies or by families
with large estates.
The venerable family solicitor of the novel and stage--that
custodian of private estates and secrets who appears in all domestic
crises, warning the wayward son, comforting the daughter whose
affections are misplaced and succoring the gambling father, is
sufficiently familiar. The worldly experience, which this kindly old
gentleman brings from his musty office, is invaluable to his
clients.
The large City firms of solicitors, on the other hand, occupy
spacious suites of offices and maintain elaborate organizations like
modern banks, with scores of clerks distributed in many departments,
whose duties are so specialized that no one of them has much grasp
of the business as a whole. The name of such a firm, appearing as
sponsor for an extensive financial project, carries weight in the
business world and its heads enjoy generous incomes, besides being
men of much importance upon whom the honor of knighthood is
sometimes conferred.
In all England and Wales only about 17,000 solicitors took out
annual certificates last year. This indicates the number of offices
and does not include clerks (many of whom have been admitted to
practice as solicitors), nor those who, for one reason or another,
do not practice. Instead of being concentrated, like the barristers,
in the Inns of Court in London, solicitors are scattered all over
the town and throughout the Kingdom itself. Some, especially in the
minor towns or poorer quarters of London, are in a small way of
business and must earn rather a precarious living. Others are of a
still lower class and seek business of a more or less disreputable
character by devious methods, but all are supposed to have been
carefully educated in the law and are answerable to their Society
and to the courts for questionable practices.
The division of the profession between the solicitors and the Bar is
no doubt a survival in modern, or socialistic, England of
aristocratic conditions which it is the tendency of the times to
weaken, if not eventually to abolish. It is somewhat hard upon the
solicitor of real ability to be confined to a limited field and to
feel that, no matter how great his powers and acquirements, it is
impossible to rise to the best position in his profession without
abandoning his branch and beginning all over again in the
barrister's ranks.
In associating with solicitors, one can not fail to be struck by
their attitude towards barristers, as a class, which is hardly
flattering to the latter; they frequently allude somewhat lightly to
them as though they were useless ornaments and as if such a division
of the profession were rather unnecessary. Upon asking whether the
distinction exists in America, they receive the information that it
does not with evident approval.
The advantages, however, of the separation of the functions of the
solicitor from those of the barrister are distinctly felt in the
superior skill, as trial lawyers, developed by the restriction of
court practice to the limited membership of the Bar, which would
hardly exist if the practice were distributed over the whole field
of both branches of the profession. Then, too, the small number of
persons composing the Bar enables greater control by the benchers
over their professional conduct, and helps to maintain a high
standard of ethics and the feeling of _esprit de corps_. Moreover,
the Bar is not distracted from the science, by contact with the
business, of the law and it is saved from the contaminating effect
of participation in the sordid details of litigation. At the same
time, this very condition may be calculated to develop in the
average barrister, as distinguished from one of real ability, an
attitude approaching dilettanteism.
If the division of the profession ever ceases to exist, the change
will no doubt come about by the gradual encroachment of the
solicitors' branch upon the Bar. Already solicitors possess the
right of audience in the county courts, the limit of whose
jurisdiction is constantly being increased, with the result of
developing a species of solicitor-advocate, whose functions are very
similar to those of the barrister. The more this progresses, the
greater will be the number of solicitors who will become known as
court practitioners, and whose services will be sought by the public
and even by other solicitors, providing an existing act forbidding
the latter is repealed.
While such is the drift in England, there is at the same time a
tendency in America to approach English conditions in the evolution
of the law firm composed of lawyers of whom some are known as
distinctively trial lawyers, while the other members devote
themselves to the business the science, by contact with the
business, of the law and it is saved from the contaminating effect
of participation in the sordid details of litigation. At the same
time, this very condition may be calculated to develop in the
average barrister, as distinguished from one of real ability, an
attitude approaching dilettanteism.
If the division of the profession ever ceases to exist, the change
will no doubt come about by the gradual encroachment of the
solicitors' branch upon the Bar. Already solicitors possess the
right of audience in the county courts, the limit of whose
jurisdiction is constantly being increased, with the result of
developing a species of solicitor-advocate, whose functions are very
similar to those of the barrister. The more this progresses, the
greater will be the number of solicitors who will become known as
court practitioners, and whose services will be sought by the public
and even by other solicitors, providing an existing act forbidding
the latter is repealed.
While such is the drift in England, there is at the same time a
tendency in America to approach English conditions in the evolution
of the law firm composed of lawyers of whom some are known as
distinctively trial lawyers, while the other members devote
themselves to the business of the law, and indeed one now
occasionally hears of such partnerships designating one of their
number as "counsel" to the firm--which is, perhaps, an affectation.
Solicitors often become barristers--sometimes eminent ones, for they
have an opportunity to study other barristers' methods, and have
acquired a knowledge of affairs. Of course they must first retire as
solicitors and enter one of the Inns for study. The late Lord Chief
Justice of England began his career as an Irish solicitor.
Solicitors wear no distinctive dress (except a gown when in the
county court, as will be explained hereafter) but attire themselves
in the conventional frock or morning coat and silk hat which is
indispensable for all London business men. They all, however, carry
long and shallow leather bags, the shape of folded briefs, which are
usually made of polished patent leather.