American Legal History

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-- AndrewMcCormick - 13 Nov 2009
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 Friedman argues that "As soon as... society posed problems for which lawyers had an answer..., layers began to thrive, despite the hostility.", . As the profession grew, one might hypothesize that established lawyers would use character and fitness standards to limit entry to the profession for economic reasons. Alternatively, lawyers may have had class-based motivations; between 1800 and 1900 the class of men composing the profession shifted from the "elite" to middle class and business backgrounds (Friedman), and elite class may have developed character standards as barriers for entry. However, Rhode's empirical research suggests that if were this a motivation, it was an ineffective ploy.
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A law review article on Hamlin's Legal Education in Colonial New York, New York University Law Quarterly Review 1939, discussed character of lawyers and men of government critically, and commenting on the unprofessional legal system in early America. On the other hand, AAlexis de Tocqueville, on Lawyers and Judges, attached a certain importance and conservatism to American lawyers. Interestingly, de Tocqueville observes that "they entertain the same repugnance of the actions of the multitude [as the aristocracy]", suggesting that, despite Hamlin's comments that the legal profession in America was, compared to that of Britian, base and common, America's legal community harbored elitism.
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A law review article on Hamlin's Legal Education in Colonial New York, New York University Law Quarterly Review 1939, discussed character of lawyers and men of government critically, and commenting on the unprofessional legal system in early America. On the other hand, Alexis de Tocqueville, on Lawyers and Judges, attached a certain importance and conservatism to American lawyers. Interestingly, de Tocqueville observes that "they entertain the same repugnance of the actions of the multitude [as the aristocracy]", suggesting that, despite Hamlin's comments that the legal profession in America was, compared to that of Britian, base and common, America's legal community harbored elitism.
 George Sharswood, in An Essay on Professional Ethics, 1884, demonstrates the shift from wishing to eliminate the legal profession to a desire to hold it to a high standard, "the things we hold dearest on earth... we confide to the integrity of our legal counsellors[sic] and advocates. Their character must be not only without a stain, but without suspicion." Lawyers became an established fixture of American commerce, and character and fitness standards were present if unused.

Revision 18r18 - 30 Jan 2010 - 18:39:26 - AndrewMcCormick
Revision 17r17 - 27 Jan 2010 - 20:36:05 - AndrewMcCormick
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