President's Column: an Imaginary Interview With Vba's First President, Edward Phelps

• Jurisdiction: Vermont,United States
• Citation: Vol. 2005 No. 12
• Publication year: 2005

Vermont Bar Journal 2005.

December 2005b - #4. PRESIDENT'S COLUMN: AN IMAGINARY INTERVIEW WITH VBA'S FIRST PRESIDENT, EDWARD PHELPS

THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL

#164, December, 2005, Volume 31, No. 4

PRESIDENT'S COLUMN: AN IMAGINARY INTERVIEW WITH VBA'S FIRST PRESIDENT, EDWARD PHELPS

by James C. Gallagher, Esq.

Since 1999, the VBA Journal has published interviews of in-coming bar presidents. We thought it might be interesting to revise the selection process and interview VBA's first president, Edward Phelps of Middlebury, Vermont, and New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Phelps practiced law from 1843 until 1901 and served as VBA president from October, 1878, to the first annual meeting in the fall of 1879. Never daunted by an outlandish request, VBA Executive Director Bob Paolini readily agreed to lend his persona to this fiction. With a blend of basic research, active imagination, and historical license, the following interview is presented for your edification and enjoyment

BP: Good morning, Mr. Phelps. It's not often we are able to interview someone who has been dead for a hundred years and I want to thank you for agreeing to this little talk. Most VBA members know little of the beginning of our organization and I'd like to cover some of this history with you.

EP: Not at all Bob. Glad to do it. I am not really all that busy these days and it's nice to have a change of routine. Please call me Ed.

BP: Great Ed, let's get started. As you know, there was quite a passage of time before American lawyers began organizing their bars. Can you give us a little background about the circumstances that led to the establishment of the Vermont Bar Association in the first place?

EP: Sure. Where to start? I suppose a good starting point is Henry II's twelfth century England, with what may have been the first institutionalized common law courts, followed shortly by the expanded rights in Magna Carta and, later, by equity and the Court of Chancery.

BP: Maybe we could cut through some of this and pick up a little closer to the American experience?

EP: Sorry about that. You know I finished my career teaching law at Yale and I sometimes get carried away with legal esoterica. How about I start right after the Revolution?

BP: Okay, but let's cover the early years fairly quickly and get to the meaty stuff. Our members are more interested in your personal experience as it relates to the founding of the VBA.

EP: Very well. I was admitted to the bar in Addison County in 1843. Most of the fellows who had practiced in the eighteenth century were gone by then. Still, when I first started, some of the older lawyers would occasionally tell stories about Royall Tyler, Jonathan Robinson, and other luminaries of the early days. Interestingly enough, Mr. Tyler and Mr. Robinson served together on the Vermont Supreme Court at the turn of the century. Both were very interesting and accomplished men. I'll tell you a little about Mr. Tyler today. Maybe we can talk...