Synopses & Reviews
The story of the English barristers and the culture of common law between 1690 and 1820 is a complex one. In Professors of the Law David Lemmings provides a wealth of detail about barristers' numbers, education, working habits, reputation, and self-image, and compares them with colonial American lawyers. The broad-ranging conclusion suggests that the bar ultimately failed English society and contributed to the marginalization of the common law.
Synopsis
The story of the English barristers and the culture of common law between 1690 and 1820 is a complex one. In Professors of the Law David Lemmings provides a wealth of detail about barristers' numbers, education, working habits, reputation, and self-image, and compares them with colonial American lawyers. The broad-ranging conclusion suggests that the bar ultimately failed English society and contributed to the marginalization of the common law.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction: Two Stories of the Law Historians, the Law, and Eighteenth-Century Society
Another Story of the Law: the Reputation of Lawyers and the Courts
II. The Work of the Bar and Working Life
Advocacy and Pleading: The Shape of Barristers Work
Counselling and Conveying
Everyday Life
III. Barristers and Practisers: Numbers and Prospects
Barristers and Non Practisers
Practisers: Supply and Demand
The Characteristics of Litigation: A Crisis in Westminster Hall?
Prospects for Barristers: Keeping Life Going
IV. Gentlemen Bred to the Law: Induction and Legal Education
Motives and Qualifications: Hopes and Dreams
The Failure of Institutions: Education at the Universities and the Inns
A Dry and Disgusting Study: Learning the Law
A Cultural Challenge?
V. Practice at the Centre: Westminster Hall and Its Satellites
Starting Out: Launching A Practice
Winners and Losers: The Distribution of Work in Westminster Hall
Getting On: Practices, Fees, and Incomes
VI. Practice at the Margins: The Old Bailey and the Colonies
Tribunes of the People: The Old Bailey Bar Law, Lawyers, and
Ireland and America: Colonial Bars and Barristers
Law, Lawyers, and 1776: Contrasting American Attorneys and English Barristers
VII. Advancement and Independence
Rank and Status at the Inns of Court: Internal Promotion
Patronage, Politics, and Office: External Promotion
Serving the State? The Independence of Bar and Bench
VIII. Conclusion: The Culture of the Bar and the Recession of the Common Law
Collective Life and Rituals 24. Self-Images: Collective Self-Esteem and Legitimating Concepts
Self-Images: Collective Self-Esteem and Legitimating Concepts
Consequences? : The Failure of the Bar and Recession of the Common Law
Appendix A: Methodology and Biographical Notes for Barrister Samples, 1719-21 and 1769-71
Appendix B: A Prescription for Educating a Barrister, 1736
Appendix C: Leading Counsel In Kings Bench, Exchequer, Common Pleas, and Chancery, 1720, 1740, 1770, 1790
Appendix D: A Junior Barrister's Complaints about the Selection and Advantage of King's Counsel, 1750