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 The Green Bag July, 1911

Volume XXI II

Number 7

Judge Rodenbeck and the Proposed Reform

of Procedure in New York "The New York bar may well command the intellectual respect of the nation. Any bar that have been able to practise law under the Code of Civil Procedure in the state of New York with a degree of success which enables them still to receive comfortable emoluments from their clients have earned no mean distinction." -Attorney-General Wickersham, a! last annual banquet of New York State Bar Association. “That immediate simpliﬁcation of the procedure is imperative is apparent to all serious-minded members of the profession. Our present system in many respects is so antiquated and cumbersome as frequently to result in a denial of justice. We are far behind the states of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, and much more backward than England in this regard." — Rzport of Committee on Law Reform, Judge A. T. Clearwalar, Chairman.

T cipate last there thatisthe good revision reason of the to anti— New York Code of Civil Procedure which has long been inel’fectually discussed will in the next few years be success

fully carried out. The legal profession of the state is now thoroughly awake

this important undertaking.

For this

task he possesses conspicuous qualiﬁ cations. His was the guiding hand which directed for years the gigantic labor of classifying and consolidating the general statutes, the successful out come testifying to his great industry,

will pass both houses at this session.

zeal and learning. This work proved Judge Rodenbeck a jurist of rare analy tical and constructive powers. He has long devoted much study to the intri cate details of the complicated problem

This bill continues in existence the able

of procedure.

Board of Statutory Consolidation which

planning a revision of the code, and the thoughtful paper which he read at the last annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association was at once one of the most notable of recent contributions to the literature of the subject and an eminently practical dis

to the necessity of this reform.

A bill

has been introduced in the New York Legislature of which we have the very best assurance, at this writing, that it

not long ago completed the task of con solidating the general statutes, and di rects it to report a plan for the revision of the civil practice in New York. At the head of this Board of Consolidation,

assuming that the bill is enacted, will be Judge Adolph J. Rodenbeck of Rochester, whom we think ourselves justified in pronouncing the best ﬁtted lawyer in the state to take charge of

Two years ago he was

cussion embodying a perfectly feasible plan of reform. The prospect of Judge Rodenbeck's now giving the state the

full beneﬁt of his personal equipment is