Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 10.djvu/70

44 44 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. against a man inferior to him as a general lawyer, but who tries cases nine months out of twelve. Trial lawyers who have been out of court practice here for several years shrink from returning to it. The man who tries cases nine months out of twelve here learns law. The distinction between attorney and counsel is now more marked than ever, and the number of lawyers who have counsel try their cases increases. Young men on first coming to this city covet places in the big offices. Some such offices hire an additional room merely for such comers to sit in. The writer knew of such a room where these young men, nearly a score of them, and in excess of the available chairs, were licensed to exchange their items of informa- tion and speculative opinions uninterruptedly till nature took its course with each. There are a few successful lawyers who keep a hand out constantly for the best material of the leading law schools, and not only use it to keep the make-up of their firms in a constant state of flux, but send out from their office new firms of importance. Most of the members of heavy law firms dissuade young men from coming to them, and pray there may be a *• close season " of at least three years on young lawyers. There are instances where the merit of new coming young men is impressive, in which prominent lawyers have generously be- stirred themselves to procure beginnings with small firms for the tyros. There are instances too of young men coming into brilliant success and grand prizes by clinging to a big office, but these are a very small percentage of all who try for it. In some such cases men must submit to years of routine of such quality as watching the calendar. In fact, the writer once heard a keen counsel allege in open court, when his opponent's clerk was wanted but could not be found, "Oh, he can't come. My learned adversary keeps that man in his offce just to swear to affidavits all day long to meet the exigencies of his practice." The useful clerk in a large office must not flinch at having to argue in court legal proposi- tions that his employers are hurried into, but which are obviously preposterous. Rivalry between aspirants in the same office is not always inspiriting and generous, but partakes of the nature of a suppressed family quarrel. Sometimes a thoroughbred but anonymous lawyer maintains for years simply a salaried place with a heavy firm, and, lacking the knack to become part of it, faces the cold world when his own blood is no longer of full warmth. Usually after a year