Unlawful Practice of the Law Must Be Prevented

• Published date: 01 May 1922
• DOI: 10.1177/000271622210100107
• Author: Julius Henry Cohen
• Date: 01 May 1922
• Subject Matter: Articles

44
THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY
services are emphatically not the
entitled to perform any of the essential
cheapest.
functions of the lawyer. They would
Worry about improving legal educa-
be ineligible to judicial office. Their
tion derives partly from the belief
education would not be a matter of
that the inferior law schools are too
great public concern. This would
strongly intrenched to be ousted or
preserve a field for inferior law schools,
reformed. This remains to be seen.
subject to competition from the uni-
As for a division of the bar, it is sub-
versities which have added special law
mitted that the only division conceiv-
courses for students in commerce,
able is one between counselors and
transportation and executive training.
advocates. But this cannot grow out
It is a good thing to have a knowledge
of two kinds of law schools. It is
of law widespread in the commu-
possible that in time advocacy will
nity, providing the rights of clients are
emerge as a recognized specialization
not jeopardized. This &dquo;outer bar&dquo;
in a bar of greater solidarity than now
would be as favorably situated to hold
exists, just as the College of Surgeons
public offices as is the lawyer himself
emerged from the American Medical
and thus the imagined danger of an
Society. But in such case the advocate
aristocracy of brains and knowledge
would have to rely on superior ability
monopolizing statecraft and legislation
to try cases. There is no prospect
would be laid.
that the general practitioner will ever
But whatever the outcome we must
be deprived of his traditional power to
aim to establish such standards of
conduct litigation.
education and ethics that the word
There is another way in which these
lawyer will always and everywhere
difficulties might be resolved. It lies
signify genuine competence and abso-
in encouraging the study of law, not
lute fidelity. This is no mere counsel
with a view to serve clients, but to fill
of perfection. It is entirely practical.
the places now taken by &dquo;house law-
And as we progress we will be looking
yers&dquo; in private employment. A new
toward a golden age when the legal
designation would have to be found
profession will be useful and respected
for this class. They would not be
to a degree now barely foreshadowed.
Unlawful Practice of the Law Must Be Prevented
By JULIUS HENRY COHEN
Counsellor-at-Law, New York City, Author of Law and Order in Industry, and The Law: Business
or Profession; Chairman, Committee on Unlawful Practice of the Law and Member,
Committee on Professional Ethics, New York County Lawyers’ Association.*
CHESTER S. LORD, Chancellor
of
said in an address to the Chamber of
the Board of Regents of the
Commerce of the State of New
York on
University of the State of New York,
February second last: &dquo;Quack doctors
and quack dentists have been driven
* Mr. Cohen is also author of Commercial
from the state. The
Arbitration and the Law (Appleton-19); and of
regents are called
An American Labor
on
Policy (Macmillan-19). He
constantly to prosecute illegal
contributed to the Annals in September, 1917,
practitioners and to revoke licenses for
(" Administration of Business and Discipline by
law violation.&dquo;
the Courts") and in July, 1920 ("Collective
He reminded us that &dquo;not so very
Bargaining and the Law as a Basis for Industrial
Reorganization"). The Editor.
long ago no educational test was re-

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UNLAWFUL PRACTICE OF THE LAW MUST BE PREVENTED
45
quired of a dentist. Young men
bar produces one, even unlicensed.
entered offices and learned the business
For many years in our large cities the
by experience. Some of them became
poor, especially those who came from
very good dentists toward the end of
foreign countries, where the notary
their lives but meantime their...