The Public Service of the Future Lawyer

Authors

John C. Park

Abstract

The lawyer has two characters. He is a private personage, and as such cares for his family, contributes to the local improvement and philanthropies and conducts the common business affairs of his clients. He is also a public functionary and as such his usefulness is not confined to appearance in court and the conduct of litigation. From him must be had the counsel necessary in public movements, his brain must plan and his hand write the rules necessary to make right and wrong govern modem conditions. His must be the thought which shall stir the people to action. In him conservatism is justifiable only so far as it shall prevent the people's rushing headlong into political folly. It is not justifiable if it gives assurance that present conditions are well enough, if it shuts its eyes to facts, if it refuses to accept information and lends its aid to the continuation of present evils. The law of private controversy has been fairly well settled. All of the territory of the United States has been organized for judicial purposes and the various states and territories have in their respective statute books and judicial reports complete codes of private jurisprudence. The literature of the law is sufficient in quantity to embrace all the general principles of private rights and wrongs. The law concerning common crimes has been quite fully developed, and there is little necessity in either field for creative work on the part of the lawyer.

Recommended Citation

John C. Park, The Public Service of the Future Lawyer, 8 Mich. L. Rev. 122 (1909).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol8/iss2/3