Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 08.pdf/234

 Legal Ethics.

209

LEGAL ETHICS. By W. E. Glanville, Ph.D., LL.B. FROM a time to which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, it has been popular to regard the members of the legal profession as a set of gentlemen who prostitute the business of their calling to the enrichment of unscrupulous greed, oppres sion and robbery. The litigants in a case have been likened to the two dogs who fought over a bone, while the attorney in the case has been likened to the sleek, sharp dog who ran away with the bone and retained it for his private use. It is re ported that there is a club or confraternity of lawyers in connection with one of the Inns of Court, London, which has been named by its members " The Devil's Own." This sententious appellation probably expresses the popular idea concerning the legal pro fession. How this idea originated and why it is so prevalent is perhaps not difficult to determine. The usual explanation is that the personnel of the profession is of generally dubious character; that the Bar is the resort or rendezvous of persons of lawless propen sities who believe that in the practice of this profession there arc unusual facilities for ministering to their rascality. It is not denied that the legal profession affords many inducements to rapacity; but it is denied that it affords greater inducements than many other vocations. In the matter of fees the charges of attorneys in this coun try .compare most favorably with those of counsel in other countries, and in some cases the fee is. fixed by statute. In fiduciary re lationships, as trusteeships, guardianships, and receiverships, where •temptation to ex tortion is strong, the greatest protection is afforded by courts to the beneficiaries, wards and creditors, and a strict accounting is re quired at regular intervals. Of course, if a person is destitute of principle and is con

scienceless, he can make the profession of the law serve his ends to some extent. But the " tu quoquc " argument applies here, and it would not be difficult to cite similar cases in political life, in almost every walk in commercial life, and in the professions of medicine and the ministry also, in which persons have a supreme regard for the shek els and a supreme disregard for any question of principle or conscience that would con demn their unlawful propensities. There are black sheep in every calling, and I am not aware that there are more in the legal profession, in proportion, than there are in other walks in life. To judge all by one argues a lack of ordinary intelligence and discrimination. Still it must be admitted that the popular impression credits the legal profession with an unenviable notoriety in this respect. To assert that the legal pro fession is lucrative is neither here nor there. There are prizes in the legal profession as in others. In the front rank of the med ical and political professions there are men who realize as much " per annum " from their respective professions as men in the front rank of the legal profession do. A little reflection has led me to the conclusion that the explanation of this popular idea of the avariciousness and lack of principle in the profession of the law arises from the very nature of the profession itself. To a great degree it is necessarily concerned in disputes, animosities and rivalries that arise from the litigating spirit which is characteristic of human nature in its earthly mould. Sir Walter Scott, himself a lawyer of no mean parts, puts into the mouth of one of his le gal characters in " Guy Mannering," the fol lowing wise and sensible language: "It is the pest of our profession that we seldom see the best side of human nature; people come