Remembering… Law Practice in Birmingham–1960, 0915 ALBJ, 76 The Alabama Lawyer 314 (2015)

• Author: By Maurice Rogers
• Position: Vol. 76 5 Pg. 314

Remembering… Law Practice in Birmingham–1960

Vol. 76 No. 5 Pg. 314

Alabama Bar Lawyer

September, 2015

By Maurice Rogers

I recently found a 1960 Birmingham telephone book and after slowly reading and remembering the 500 or so lawyers listed in the Yellow Pages, I decided to write an article about my law practice that year.

I never throw away anything, and I found my 1960 records pretty much intact, including case files and an exact record of income and expenses. This was my 11^th year of practice and my work as a solo practitioner was about 80 percent civil and 20 percent criminal. Recorded fees earned in 1960 were:

Divorce

$850

Probate

$4,550

Damage Suits

$7,057

Collections

$7,110

Criminal

$2,425

Real Estate Closings

$2,110

Prepared Wills

$725

Real Estate Individuals

$3,618

Civil Defense

$1,100

Debtors Court/ Bankrupt Petitions

$362

Miscellaneous

$2,025

Total

$31,932 My office deductible expenses were $9,405 (29.5 percent of income,) leaving net income of $22,527.00. I did uncontested divorces for $125, simple wills for $25 and deeds for $10. The good news was that a loaf of bread sold for 20 cents, a new automobile sold for $2,600 and the average house cost $12,700. My largest fee payment recorded on my 50 weekly reports was $1,600, and I found one payment of 90 cents. In the office, there was no computer, fax machine, electric typewriter, copier, telephone answering machine, portable telephone, calculator or cell phone–not even a word processor yet. The wonderful world of forms was mostly on the horizon and it was considered class for most papers to be typed in detail. Typewriter mistakes were corrected on the original and carbon copy with rubber erasers, necessitating frequent dusting of the rubber bits out of the typewriter. I had a crude belt Dictaphone, but all serious dictation was to a secretary who used Gregg shorthand. Almost no lawyers ever touched a typewriter and that included me. A good thing every day, regardless of the work load, was that everyone took a coffee break at 10 a.m. and at 3 p.m. sharp. These 15-minutes breaks often ran into 20 or 30 minutes as employees at offices near a restaurant went out for these breaks. The boss was expected to be at work before 8 a.m. and leave after 5 p.m. Nobody ate lunch in the office as the office coffee...