Smigel, Edwin O.

English

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Lawyers and Their Work: An Analysis of the Legal Profession in the United States and England, by Quintin Johnstone and Dan Hopson

Indiana University Bloomington Maurer School of Law

Indiana Law JournalVolume 43 | Issue 4 Article 9Summer 1968Lawyers and Their Work: An Analysis of the LegalProfession in the United States and England, byQuintin Johnstone and Dan HopsonEdwin O. SmigelNew York UniversityFollow this and additional works at: http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/iljPart of the Legal Profession CommonsThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the LawSchool Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been acceptedfor inclusion in Indiana Law Journal by an authorized administrator ofDigital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contactwattn@indiana.edu.Recommended CitationSmigel, Edwin O. (1968) "Lawyers and Their Work: An Analysis of the Legal Profession in the United States and England, by QuintinJohnstone and Dan Hopson," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 43: Iss. 4, Article 9.Available at: http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol43/iss4/9BOOK REVIEWSconclude with the observation that much more study and speculationon the needs and possibilities for use and development of what has beencalled transnational law are needed.A. A. FATouRostLAWYERS AND THEIR WORK: ANALYSIS OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION INTHE UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND. By Quintin Johnstone and DanHopson, Jr. Indianapolis, Kansas City, New York: Bobbs-MerrillCo. 1967. Pp. x, 604. $10.00.The task Johnstone and Hopson set for themselves is monumental.They seek to determine the goals for the legal profession; to present apicture of its work and specializations; to offer alternatives for providinglegal services; and to describe the legal profession in England, primarilyas a mirror which might point up the strengths and weaknesses of theAmerican legal system. Their primary purposes are to identify theproblems of the legal profession and to suggest solutions to some of them.Lawyers are a powerful and important group in this country. Theirinfluence is felt in every sector of national life, from entertainment toindustry, from the family to the government. What lawyers do is,therefore, important to all of us. But what they do is not easy to describe,because lawyers are involved in many different tasks and work in andwith a great variety of organizations. The city solo practitioner,' forexample, is usually, because of different origins and types of practice,isolated from the large firm lawyer.2 The former takes what is oftenconsidered the leftovers of the law: criminal, divorce, and negligencework; the latter can be selective.While there are a number of studies, mainly researched by socio-logists,3 which describe the work of lawyers, none of these examinationst Professor of Law, Indiana University.1. J. CARLIN, LAwvRas oN THEIR OWN (1962).2. E. SMIGEL, THE WALL STREET LAWYER (1964).3. In addition to the studies cited above, sociologists have also written: J. CARLINLAWYER's ETrics: A SURVEY OF THE NEW YORK CITY BAR (1966) (ethics of lawyers);H. O'GORMAN, LAWYERS AND MATRIMONIAL CASES (1963) (matrimonial lawyer);A. WOOD, THE CRIMINAL LAWYER (1967) (criminal lawyer); W. Hales, The CareerDevelopment of the Negro Lawyer, 1958 (unpublished doctoral dissertation in Universityof Chicago Library) (negro lawyer) ; D. Lartie, The Striving Young Lawyer: A Studyof Early Career Differentiation in the Chicago Bar, 1958 (unpublished doctoraldissertation in University of Chicago Library) (young lawyer) ; W. Thielen, Socializa-tion Processes Among Law Students, 1965 (unpublished doctoral dissertation in ColumbiaUniversity Library) (student lawyer); Ladinsky, Careers of Lawyers, Law Practice,and Legal Institutions, 28 Am. Soc. REv. 47 (1963) (Detroit lawyer).4. Although sociologists have not provided an overview of the legal profession,INDIANA LAW JOURNALprovides an overview of the legal profession. Each looks at the professionmainly in terms of the segment he studied. Here we are offered a largerview, not only describing what the 250,000 practicing lawyers do, butalso the conditions under which they do it. One important conclusionJohnstone and Hopson reach is that the number and proportion oflawyers employed by corporate law departments will increase, as will thoseworking for government. Thus the number of attorneys working togetherwill increase, and the number of solo practitioners will decrease.This trend has many implications for the legal profession. It meansthat the broad tasks lawyers perform (which are discussed under thefollowing headings: advice, negotiation, drafting, litigation, investigationof facts, legal research and analysis, lobbying, acting as broker, publicrelations, adjudication, emotional support, immoral and unpleasant tasks,acting as scapegoat, and business getting) will remain largely the same.However, the way these tasks are performed, under what canons ofethics they are performed, and by whom they are performed are subjectto vast changes.As law has developed into many areas of specialization and becausethese areas are relatively narrow, a system of standardized legal forms isevolving. Once the lawyers prepare the forms, a lay person can work withthem. The result is that now the layman can perform certain legal tasksbecause the smaller segments are easier to understand and to handle. Infact, the authors believe that in many instances lay people can performsome legal work more efficiently, more cheaply, and faster than lawyers.One alternative to the use of lawyers is found in mortgage revieworganizations. Here, according to the authors, specialized lay clericalworkers are displacing lawyers. In one such company, seventy percent ofall mortgages were not seen by lawyers. Ten percent were spot checked,and twenty percent were sent directly to lawyers because they were un-usual. Another alternative described is the big plant title insurer.This ancillary use of laymen in legal capacities is considered by theauthors to be good for the profession rather than threatening. If laypeople were employed to perform para-legal functions, this would thenfree the trained professional to direct his educational experience to thatpart of the law which he is best equipped to handle. Medicine has alreadyrecognized the need to divide its labor so that jobs which once wereperformed by physicians are now accomplished by a variety of layspecialists, e.g., the x-ray and laboratory technicians, the nurse, thephysical therapist, and so on. It may be time for the lawyers to followsuit.lawyers have. A BLAUSTEIN & C. PORTER, THE AMERICAN LAWYER: A SUMMARY OFTHE SURVEY OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION (1954).BOOK REVIEWSOne of the more interesting and provocative chapters deals with thearchitects as advocates and adjudicators as well as creators of standard-ized legal documents. Much of the legal work in the construction industryis performed by architects. Both tradition and the client seem to preferhim to the lawyer. The demands of time are given by the authors as onereason for this most interesting phenomenon. Also, the architect is there-he knows both the client and the contractor, and he understands theconstruction industry. He has established an historical professional role asan impartial adjudicator even though by contract he performs an advocaterole for the client. The potential conflict of interest does not seem todeter his use as an adjudicator.Out of these roles usually considered the monopoly of lawyers, thearchitects, through the American Institute of Architects and with anassist from lawyers and various other associations involved, have drawnup a series of standardized legal forms. These forms which can be com-pleted by lay people tend to minimize the position of the lawyer and thecourts as the appropriate agents to minimize and settle constructionconflicts.English legal practices also attract the authors' interest. But thetransition to the discussion of the four chapters on the English legalprofession is abrupt and traumatic. It is not until one reads the closingsection on proposals for change that this material is related to the rest ofthe book. The sociologist, however, is able to derive valuable information(we know so little about professional associations), from the detailedmaterial on the Law Society which was founded in 1825 and representssolicitors.The scope of the authors' thinking about the profession is seen in the123 specific problems which they feel should concern the legal professiontoday. These problems are posed in question form and are listed underthe following headings: occupational entry and preparation, occupationalorganization, work allocation, work performance, occupational incen-tives and controls.The authors, however, do more than ask questions; they alsopropose answers. Some do relate to the British bar; the majority, how-ever, are concerned with the American legal system. Many of thesolutions, especially those suggesting the use of lay persons for legalwork, are provocative. Solutions to the variety of problems posed rangefrom legal work to be handled on a mass volume basis to the use ofunadmitted law clerks, and from eliminating governmental incompetence,especially with those agencies lawyers regularly deal with, such as thepolice, the courts, etc., to suggestions about continuing education, such asproviding concentrated short courses in specialized areas of the law.INDIANA LAW JOURNALLawyers and Their Work is an important, useful, and challengingbook. It provides a wealth of material presented in a straightforwardway. While the authors interviewed 400 people, the respondents were"informants" rather than a scientifically selected sample. These respon-dents are important to the book, especially as examples, because a goodportion of it depends on their statements, but no claims are made thatthe interviews are representative. The senior author, because of hisknowledge of the legal profession and his expertise in real property law,is especially qualified in two of the significant areas covered in thiswork. Together the authors have questioned the existing norms of thebar associations, stirred up controversy, and asked for reconsiderationof legal practices in this country. This combination of pure informationand stimulating speculation should be of immense value to lawyers andstudents of law who are seriously concerned with the legal profession.ERwIN 0. SMIGELtCIVIL RIGHTS, THE CONSTITUTION AND THE COURTS. By Archibald Cox,Mark DeWolfe Howe, and J. R. Wiggins. Cambridge, Massachu-setts: Harvard University Press, 1967. Pp. 76. $2.95.This little book of seventy-six pages was in a sense an anachronismeven before its publication in 1967. The murder of Dr. Martin LutherKing, Jr., on April 4th of this year may well have cast it upon the sea ofhistorical relics. Save for the paper by the late Mark DeWolfe Howe, thebook is little more than a view of what might have been.In the opening paper, Professor Archibald Cox focuses his attentionon "Direct Action, Civil Disobedience and the Constitution." The ques-tion Professor Cox seeks to answer is whether or not the activist wing ofthe civil rights movement will lead us closer to justice for all. He notesthe existence today of a major block of people who believe that civildisobedience of unjust laws is the only viable road to reform. In opposi-tion to that position, he of feris what I would assume he considers a rhetor-ical suggestion, that the widespread use of civil disobedience has under-mined the charismatic foundation of American law.At the outset Professor Cox seeks to define with a lawyer's particu-larity the general terms "direct action," "civil disobedience," and "non-violent action." Unfortunately, the definitions, as is so often the case, be-come the argument. Immediately dismissed are what he considers to bet Chairman, Department of Sociology, New York University.976

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Lawyers and Their Work: An Analysis of the Legal Profession in the United States and England, by Quintin Johnstone and Dan Hopson

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