Legal Profession Commons^™

Note And Comment, Edwin C. Goddard, George Seletto, Edson R. Sunderland, Victor H. Lane, Burke Shartel, George E. Longstaff

Michigan Law Review

Carriers - Second Cummins Amendment - It was seven years after the Carmack Amendment of the Hepburn Act of i9o6 before the Supreme Court began that series of decisions, extending from Adams Express Co. v. Croninger, 226 U. S. 491 (1913), to George N. Pierce Co. v. Wells, Fargo & Co., 236 U. S. 278 (1915), which directly resulted in the First Cummins Amendment of March, 1915. One has only to read those cases, reviewed in 13 Micn. L. REv. 59o, and other notes referred to in 17 MICH. L. Rzv. 183, to see that the language of the Cummins …

Book Reviews, Edwin W. Patterson, Edson R. Sunderland, C E. Griffin

Michigan Law Review

The title of this brilliant little volume might, more accurately, have been, "The Spirits of the Common Law," for it depicts the common law as the battleground of many conflicting spirits, from which a few relatively permanent ideas and ideals have emerged triumphant. As a whole, the book is a pluralistic-idealistic interpretation of legal history. Idealistic, because Dean Pound finds that the fundamentals of the 'common law have been shaped by ideas and ideals rather than by economic determinism or class struggle; he definitely rejects a purely economic interpretation of legal history, although he demands a sociological one (pp. io-ii). …

Book Reviews, Nathan Isaacs, Horace Lafayette Wilgus, Arthur H. Basye, Leonard D. White, Victor H. Lane, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

What does a judge do when he decides a case? It would be interesting to collect the answers ranging from those furnished by primitive systems of law in which the judge was supposed to consult the gods to the ultra-modern, rather profane system described to me recently by a retrospective judge: "I make up my mind which way the case ought to be decided, and then I see if I can't get some legal ground to make it stick." Perhaps the widespread impression is the curiously erroneous one lampooned by Gnaeus Flavius (Kantorowitz). The judge is supposed to sit at …

Judicial Statesmen, John B. Waite

Articles

KNOWLEDGE of the Common Law "doth no way conduce to the making of a statesman. It is a confined and topicall kind of Learning calculated only for the Meridian of WestministerHall, and reacheth no further than Dover. Transplant a Common Lawyer to Calice, and his head is no more usefull there than a Sun-dyal in a grave." So an anonymous individual placarded England, some three hundred years ago, in protest against the election of lawyers to Parliament. It is unquestionably true, today, that knowledge of the common law-in its customary connotation of precedent--does not in and of itself make a …

Legal Education And Admission To The Bar, Henry M. Bates

Articles

From Conclusions: "We cannot close this report with some general remarks concerning standards of admission to the bar. An examination of the Proceedings of the American and the various state bar associations during the last few years will show a constant expression of dissatisfaction with the comparatively low standards for admission which prevail ..."

Reinstatement Of Disbarred Attorney, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

The petitioner asked to be reinstated. The court, excepting Justice Fellows, who concurred in the result but expressed no opinion, said they would be glad to reinstate him but for the fact that he was a non-resident, which in their opinion made him ineligible, but they gave their endorsement of his good character by vacating the order of disbarment. The questions which occur are these: 1. Did the court have the power to vacate its order of disbarment after the time for opening, amending or vacating judgments had passed? 2. Did the vacation of the order of disbarment operate ipso …

Patent Law, John Barker Waite

Books

The comparatively small size of the book is not due to any conscious superficiality of treatment nor omission of pertinent subject matter. It purports to cover only the substantive law of patents, their nature, validity, effect, and their characteristics as property. Matters of procedure in securing patents or suing on them, and the difficult subject of the amount of compensation recoverable by suit, would require a volume for themselves and are not included here. But of the matter which is included, it has been my desire to present every issue which has come before the courts....

This book is intended …

Attorney's Lien For Services - Set-Off Of Judgments, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

Anglo-Saxon judges, as members of the legal profession, have shown an admirable freedom from professional bias and class selfishness in dealing with questions involving the rights and privileges of members of their profession. With every opportunity offered for treating lawyers as a favored class, they have been able to maintain a detached and objective attitude toward them. Indeed, the courts seem to have preferred to be charged with excessive severity in dealing with their brethren of the bar rather than give the slightest ground for suspicion that they were capitalizing their power in the interest of the legal fraternity.

Privileged Communication Between Attorney And Client-Question Of Whether The Relation Exists Left To Jury-Party Allowed To Assign Error On Ruling Violating The Privilege, Victor H. Lane

Articles

This procedure was justified in the opinion in State v. Snook (Court of Errors and "Appeals of N. J., 1920), 109 Atl. 289. Snook was on trial for manslaughter charged as having been committed by the reckless driving of an automobile. After the act, Mimmick, one of the persons in the automobile, and afterward a witness for the defense, went to an attorney and had some conversation with him, the substance of which, as testified to by the attorney, was a recital by M. of what had occurred and an inquiry by him of the attorney as to what he …

Book Reviews, John B. Waite, Edwin C. Goddard, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

The purpose of this book is, to quote from the preface, "to present a clear, accurate, and impartial study of the law in the hope of offering assistance to those who are attempting to choose a career or who are about to enter upon the profession. This necessitates a review of the nature of the law, present day legal conditions, personal and educational requirements, the dangers and disadvantages incident to practice, the high professional demands made upon the lawyer, the varied fields of service open to him, his probable earnings and emoluments,--in a word, all that has a distinct and …

Admission To The Bar, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

This article is written in the belief that the hour is here when some changes in admissions to the bar should be urged and urged again, when some things often thought and discussed in certain assemblies should be openly and frankly talked over with the profession at large.

Legal Education, Henry M. Bates

Articles

Bates describes the growth of law schools and the changing nature of legal education: "The outstanding fact in legal education in this country during the past twenty-five years is the shift from the law office to the law school as the avenue of approach to the bar.... This increase in the number of institutions teaching law and in the number of students preparing for the bar in this way makes on the whole for improvement, but the ointment is not without its flies..."

The Bar Examination - Its Proper Time And Length, Edwin C. Goddard

Other Publications

IN our day and countery the bar examiner is the St. Peter of the legal heaven. He to whom the legal St. Peter openeth not must go below and live without the legal brotherhood. It was not always so. Not so long ago the admission gate (or bar) was kept by any member of the bench. This meant it was not kept at all, for no one was denied admission, and there is still at least one of the states of our Union where every voter of the state of good moral character has the constitutional right to admission as …

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, Edgar N. Durfee, Werner W. Schroeder, Arthur A. Morrow, Harry B. Sutter, Russell H. Neilson

Michigan Law Review

Estates in Fee Tail - Quite generally estates in fee tail under the STATUTE DE DONIS were recognized by the states as a part of the common law. Statutory provisions in the way of modification and abolishment of such estates, however, are very common. The nature and scope of the statutory provisions have varied. See the states classified according to the character of the legislation in BREWSTER, CONVEYANCING, § § 142, 143.

What Is The Outlook For The Lawyer?, Henry M. Bates

Articles

This is a question which is being asked with frequency and painful anxiety all over the country by young men expecting to go to the bar and by many who have only recently been admitted. To the veterna practitioner at the bar it may seem presumptuous that devoting his entire time and energy to law school work should undertake any sort of answer to the question thus propounded. Nevertheless, I venture to say the opportunities for studying and estimating the conditions and factors which must be taken into account in reaching and answer are in some respects quite good for …

A Four Year Course In Law, Henry M. Bates

Articles

In the February, 1914, number of The Alumnus, devoted in part to the Michigan Law School, some account was given of the large number of new courses which had been added recently to the curriculum. The courses commented upon in that discussion, besides one advanced course in procedure, deal mainly with what may be called extra-legal or at least extra-professional subjects, such as the History of English Law, the Philosophy of Law and advanced courses in Roman Law and Jurisprudence. Prior to this period of expansion in the law curriculum many other additions had been made to the list of …

Should Applicants For Admission To The Bar Be Required To Take A Law School Course?, Henry M. Bates

Articles

If the requirements for admission to the bar had been advanced in any thing like equal degree with the progress made in law schools, there would be unqualified reasons for rejoicing in the prospect. Unfortunately, however, this is far from the case, though some notable advances even in this respect have been made. It is remarkable and unfortunate that in America and in Great Britain, whose system of law is undoubtedly the most difficult of all systems in the world to master, we require no institutional or school training of the men who are to fill the important functions of …

Some Myths Of The Law, Walter Clark

Michigan Law Review

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." These words of the great Apostle to the Gentiles apply to every calling and to every profession under the sun save only that of the law.

Lay Tradition As To The Lawyer, Roscoe Pound

Michigan Law Review

We all know the lay tradition as to the lawyer. Mike Monaghan rhymes lawyer with trier. He tells us that the Probate Court is instituted to see that "iviry mimber of the bair gits a fair chanct at phwat the dicaysed didn't take wid 'im." In the timeworn anecdote of the epitaph "here lies an honest lawyer" everyone is ready to say, "that's Strange."' Laymen, who, sitting as arbitrators, will insist on technicalities which the law would instantly reject, and in corner-grocery discussions will argue that a contract signed with a lead pencil is void for informality, are quite sure …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

The Trial Brief, Edson R. Sunderland

Book Chapters

From the chapter Introduction: "The object of the preceding chapters is to show the brief maker where to find the material for his brief, how to find it, and how to select out of the mass of material found that which will be suitable for his use.... The purpose of this lesson is to outline a course of investigation suitable to the preparation of a case for trial, and to suggest methods of making the material collected during the search for authorities readily available." [p.353]

Cases On Procedure, Annotated. Common Law Pleading, Edson R. Sunderland

Books

“No subject is more intimately connected with the history and development of our law than common law pleading. In sharp contrast with the other great system of law, that founded by the Romans, the common law has not been the product of legislation, but of litigation. It has grown up in the atmosphere of courts of justice. Such a genesis would necessarily give it a strong procedural favor, and would tend to emphasize remedies at the expense of rights. Procedure might therefore be expected to play a much larger part in the development of the common law than in the …

Defects In Our Legal System, Henry M. Bates

Michigan Law Review

That the practice of law and the administration of justice are under a fire of popular distrust and criticism of extraordinary intensity requires no proof. A fact of which there is evidence in numerous contemporary books, in almost every magazine, in the daily papers, in the remarks, or the questions, or it may be in the sneers, of one's friends, requires no further demonstration. The only questions of importance to be answered are to what extent this criticism and this distrust are well founded, what are the remedies for such defects as exist, and how and by whom should they …

Defects In Our Legal System, Henry M. Bates

Articles

That the practice of law and the administration of justice are under a fire of popular distrust and criticism of extraordinary intensity requires no proof. A fact of which there is evidence in numerous contemporary books, in almost every magazine, in the daily papers, in the remarks, or the questions, or it may be in the sneers, of one's friends, requires no further demonstration. The only questions of importance to be answered are to what extent this criticism and this distrust are well founded, what are the remedies for such defects as exist, and how and by whom should they …

Recent Important Decisions

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions.

Popular Discontent With Law And Some Proposed Remedies, Henry M. Bates

Articles

That the practice of law and the administration of justice are under the fire of popular distrust and criticism of extraordinary intensity requires no proof. A fact of which there is evidence in numerous contemporary books, in almost every magazine, in the daily papers, in the remarks, or the questions, or it may be in the sneers of one's friends, requires no further demonstration. The only questions of importance to be answered are to what extent this criticism and this distrust are well founded, what are the remedies for such defects as exist, and what are we lawyers going to …

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, Paul P. Farrens, Newton K. Fox, Leonard F. Martin, Albino Z. Sycip

Michigan Law Review

Provability in Bankruptcy of Claims Arising out of Alimony Decrees or Separation Agreements Between Husband and Wife; The Scope and Function of the Federal Employer's Liability Act; Control by the Judiciary Over the Chief Executive of a State; What Constitutes an Appearance in an Action for Divorce; The Question of the Validity of a Stipulation for Attorney's Fees Under the Negotiable Instruments Law

Cases On Procedure, Annotated. Trial Practice, Edson R. Sunderland

Books

“The present volume is intended to develop and disclose the rational basis for the main principles of practice employed in the trial of civil actions at law. Recourse has been had to the whole body of American case law, and the choice of cases has been determined by the clearness with which the court has shown a logical justification for the decision made….

“The cases have been very freely edited, and everything not germane to the subject for which the case was chosen has been omitted….” --Preface

The Art Of Legal Practice, Edson R. Sunderland

Articles

In one respect the law is the most perplexing subject with which a man can deal. It shifts and changes so rapidly that only a nimble and diligent student can keep abreast of it. One is likely to wake up any morning and find that the legislature has repealed a good part of what he knows, and he is in constant danger of having his most carefully formed opinions completely upset by a new decision of the Supreme Court. These violent changes are not due to any new discoveries, such as constantly enliven the scientific world, but merely to the …

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Attachment--Power of Notary Public to Take Affidavit Where He is an Attorney for One of the Parties; Bankruptcy--Effect of Discharge--Res Adjudicate; Bills and Notes--Presentment and Demand by Telephone; Constitutional Law--Commerce--State Regulation of Interstate Telegrams; Constitutional Law--community Property--Alienation Without Consent of Wife; Corporations--Criminal Responsibility--Imputation of Intent and Knowledge; Corporations--Dividends--Compulsory Declaration; Corporations--Stockholder's Right to Examine Books--Motive; Easements--Grants for Pipe Lines--Rights Acquired--Telephone Line; Evidence--Character of Disbarment Proceedings--Use of Deposition; Evidence--Uncorroborated Testimony of an Accomplice; Fraudulent Conveyances--Voluntary Conveyances--Solvency and Insolvency of Grantor; Homestead--When Liable for Debts; Husband and Wife--Exception to Presumption of Coercion--House of Ill Fame; Injunction--Action on Note by Attorney Against Client--Remedy at …