LAW DEPARTMENTS AND LAW OFFICERS IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS

Authors

John A. Fairlie, University of IllinoisFollow

Abstract

On all levels of government, national, state and local, the need for the services of professional lawyers has been recognized. In addition to the judges of the higher courts, there are other law officers, whose function it is to give legal advice and assistance to the various executive administrative agencies, and to act as attorneys for the government and its officials in proceedings before the judicial courts in the enforcement of criminal laws and in other cases where the government or its officials are parties or are concerned with the legal problems involved. Little attention has been given to the organization of such law offices and the place they should play in the administrative system. General works on public administration, which emphasize the staff and overhead control agencies, have in most cases omitted the law offices, though one recent writer has noted legal advice as one of the staff functions. Writers on the administration of justice have considered the work of public prosecutors in the enforcement of criminal laws as a special field of administration, without recognizing that in this work the prosecuting officials are important agencies in the effective performance of a variety of specialized branches of public administration.

Recommended Citation

John A. Fairlie, LAW DEPARTMENTS AND LAW OFFICERS IN AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS, 36 Mich. L. Rev. 906 (1938).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol36/iss6/3