Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 25.pdf/455

 428

The Green Bag

The importance of inquiry into the moral character of applicants for ad mission to the bar was likewise empha sized by Clarence A. Lightner of Michi gan, who addressed the Section. He thought that the mental preparation of applicants had been brought up to a quite sufficient level at the present time, generally speaking. "If these standards should be raised, it is along the lines of general education rather than of techni cal learning." Moral character is of more consequence at present, he said, to the bar and to the public at large. The moral standards of the bar com pare unfavorably with those of the medical profession, and the candidate for admission gains a wrong impression of the requirements of the lawyer's voca tion from the mistaken emphasis laid on fidelity to the client. In the medical profession this relation of fidelity to the client is taken for granted and is not talked about. The medical profession does, however, claim commendation for itself for its eminent services to the public at large. "It results therefrom, at least in large part, that medicine, with its record of service, is the most popular profession with the general pub lic, while the bar, living chiefly for itself and its clients, has become the most unpopular. . . . When analyzed, it is difficult to understand why the lawyer should ask for commendation for loyalty to his client. That is an easy virtue." The difficulty of devising and applying a satisfactory character test for appli cants for admission was discussed at some length. The various methods now in use in different states depend for their efficacy upon the force of the personality that is doing the work, and too often the work is done in a formal or perfunc tory spirit. "Perhaps at this time it may not be practicable, may not be wise, to refuse admission to an applicant

on other grounds than those that would justify his disbarment, if already ad mitted. Consider, however, what a long step forward even this standard would mark." "The Control Exercised by the Inns of Court over Admission to the bar in England" was described by Wilfred Bovey of Montreal in a paper read be fore the Section of Legal Education. The independent position of the Inns of Court in relation to the Government was clearly brought out. England is remark able for this system of a bar whose pro fessional standards and requirements for admission are relinquished by the civil authority to the supervision of private agencies. Mr. Bovey characterized the Inns as "perhaps the most conservative institutions in an ultra-conservative country." Judge Taft likewise addressed the Section, on "The Social Importance of Proper Standards for Admission to the Bar"; and Dean E. R. Thayer of Har vard Law School discussed "Law Schools and Bar Examinations." Edson R. Sunderland of the Univer sity of Michigan asserted before the Association of American Law Schools that the schools had "never taken hold of procedure in a thoroughgoing and comprehensive way. . . . No school teaches procedure under that name. Few teach it at all. . . . The law schools have been too unsystematic with their whole procedural program. They have considered procedure courses as an unscholarly necessity — a form of surrender to popular demands." The report of the Committee on Standard Rules for Admission to the Bar, presensed by Lucien H. Alexander, embodied a draft of rules as outlined in sixteen main principles. These prin ciples were first evolved in the report of the committee in 1911, when action was