Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 22.pdf/17

 The Bar and the Young Man III.

RULES AS TO THE ADMISSIBILITY

we ps?

The Relevancy Rule. The Best Evidence Rule. The Hearsay Rule. The Parol Evidence Rule. Exclusions Based on Public Policy. Admissions and Confessions.

Each of these divisions

must

being tried; you should familiarize your self with the history of a lawsuit from its beginning to its final decision by the highest authority; and you should ac

OF EVIDENCE.

quire a knowledge of the ethics of the profession and of the system of charging

fees. If you mean to become a good lawyer, be

divided into its respective subdivisions,

and not merely an attorney-at-law, and will follow the methods suggested herein,

and so on. This means hard work, but it will pay you many fold before the end.

or some method of your own (provided

If you have the time for it, you should spend a few days in the court rooms,

ﬁnd your period of preparation one of the most pleasant and valuable periods of your legal career.

watching and listening to cases actually II.

it is intelligently thought out), you will

THE BAR AND THE YOUNG MAN

Just a few words now about the atti tude of the bar towards-the young man. As a fundamental principle, I think the bar ought to be extremely careful about

admitting new members.

It is a per

fectly legitimate position for the prac tising members of the bar to desire to keep its ranks as limited in numbers as

possible, because every new recruit neces sitates a new distribution of the business and a consequent lessening of the share of each member; that is, unless, as a young lawyer once remarked to me:

"the more the lawyers the more the litigation." But the lawyers do not make the litigation; at least they do not theoretically, and they should not, prac

tically. Lawyers should keep down liti gation, just as physicians should not cause sickness, but should prevent it.

But there is a more worthy and‘ liberal reason why the bar should guard well its

portals. The public is necessarily bene ﬁted or injured by the quality of its lawyers. Look you at home, or turn your eyes afar, A town is always what its lawyer; arev lOriginal with the writer of this article.

A high patriotism, therefore, should

move those who hold the responsibility for the quality of the new members. No young man should be allowed to take the welfare of other men and women into his hands until he shows himself actually qualiﬁed, both mentally and morally, for that high task.

But the bar should look well that the requirements go directly to the issue,

and are not arbitrary obstacles thrown in the way of the earnest young man, while allowing the more fortunate of circumstance (of parentage it may be) to overcome them easily, regardless of actual qualiﬁcations. To begin with, it

is my opinion that the age of the appli cant is wholly immaterial. Some men are wiser at twenty than others at forty. Besides, time will cure this defect, while a defect of mentality nearly always remains uncured throughout life. If the young man can stand the test, why have any concern for his years? The fact that he can stand it at an early age is good evidence that he is of exceptional ability and will make the bar a valuable member.

In the second place, I think the num