Professors of the Law: Barristers and English Legal Culture in the Eighteenth Century

by David Lemmings

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198207214
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/13/2000
Pages:	414
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

University of Newcastle

Table of Contents

I. Introduction: Two Stories of the LawHistorians, the Law, and Eighteenth-Century SocietyAnother Story of the Law: the Reputation of Lawyers and the CourtsII. The Work of the Bar and Working LifeAdvocacy and Pleading: The Shape of Barristers WorkCounselling and ConveyingEveryday LifeIII. Barristers and Practisers: Numbers and ProspectsBarristers and Non PractisersPractisers: Supply and DemandThe Characteristics of Litigation: A Crisis in Westminster Hall? Prospects for Barristers: Keeping Life GoingIV. Gentlemen Bred to the Law: Induction and Legal EducationMotives and Qualifications: Hopes and DreamsThe Failure of Institutions: Education at the Universities and the InnsA Dry and Disgusting Study: Learning the LawA Cultural Challenge?V. Practice at the Centre: Westminster Hall and Its SatellitesStarting Out: Launching A PracticeWinners and Losers: The Distribution of Work in Westminster HallGetting On: Practices, Fees, and IncomesVI. Practice at the Margins: The Old Bailey and the ColoniesTribunes of the People: The Old Bailey Bar Law, Lawyers, andIreland and America: Colonial Bars and BarristersLaw, Lawyers, and 1776: Contrasting American Attorneys and English BarristersVII. Advancement and IndependenceRank and Status at the Inns of Court: Internal PromotionPatronage, Politics, and Office: External PromotionServing the State? The Independence of Bar and BenchVIII. Conclusion: The Culture of the Bar and the Recession of the Common LawCollective Life and Rituals 24. Self-Images: Collective Self-Esteem and Legitimating ConceptsSelf-Images: Collective Self-Esteem and Legitimating ConceptsConsequences? : The Failure of the Bar and Recession of the Common LawAppendix A: Methodology and Biographical Notes for Barrister Samples, 1719-21 and 1769-71Appendix B: A Prescription for Educating a Barrister, 1736Appendix C: Leading Counsel In Kings Bench, Exchequer, Common Pleas, and Chancery, 1720, 1740, 1770, 1790Appendix D: A Junior Barrister's Complaints about the Selection and Advantage of King's Counsel, 1750