London Legal Letter.
29
LONDON LEGAL LETTER. London, Dkcembeu 2, 1895. THE past weeks have been marked by an unusual activity in what may perhaps be best described as the speculative rather than the operative work of lawyers. First of all, and to mark the closing days of the long vacation, the Incorporated Law Society held its twenty-second annual provincial meeting in Liverpool. The work of the society at these gatherings is not unlike that of the American Bar Association at its annual meet ings, but there is a vast difference in the constitution of the two bodies. The Incorporated Law Society is com posed of solicitors only, and is the closest kind of a trades union. Although its recent meeting was only the twentysecond of the series which it has held annually out of Lon don, it is in reality seventy years old, and is the lineal successor of a similar organization which had been in ex istence for nearly one hundred years when the present society took up its work. No solicitor can obtain admis sion to practice in England and Wales without the sanction of the society and without paying tribute to it. It has supreme and absolute control of the examinations of arti cled clerks. It imposes the course of study which must be pursued, it appoints the examiners and, finally, it admits or rejects the candidates. Those whom it elects to admit to practice law (always, it must be remembered, on the solic itor's side of the house, for this organization has nothing to do with the "upper" branch of the profession, which is composed exclusively of barristers) must, under an act of Parliament, pay a registration fee of five shillings and an admission fee of five pounds into its treasury. Unless these requirements are complied with one may not be en rolled as a solicitor, and if one should perform any service as a solicitor without first having been enrolled, he would be subject to dire penalties. More than this the Incorpor ated Uw Society has a standing committee on discipline which exercises its powers under parliamentary authority. To this committee is referred, in the first instance, all com plaints against solicitors. They are carefully and judicially investigated, counsel being admitted to appear for the ac cused. The findings of the committee are reported to the society, and then proceedings are taken in the courts to determine the punishment of the offending solicitor. The society has imposing premises within a stone's-throw of the Royal Courts, in which there are spacious rooms for the convenience of solicitors and their clerks, and for con ference with clients. There is also an excellent library and a banqueting hall, together with a large number of dining and lounging rooms. Altogether, putting it in round numbers, there are 15,200 solicitors in England and Wales, and of these more than 7,500 belong to the Incor porated Law Society, while quite one-half of those who are not on its rolls are affiliated with it through branch societies all over the country. The power of the society is therefore unique, and not paralleled in the world. To make a local illustration, it is as if a central body in New York, for example, should embrace within its membership
three-fourths of all of the lawyers in the State, hold power from the Legislature to compel every candidate for the liar to pass the examination which it imposed, exercise the right of rejecting or admitting such as passed the ex aminations, strike from the roll of practicing lawyers those whom it adjudged guilty of offense against its code of ethics or of morals, and finally, punish those who attempted to practice without first having obtained its permission. This, really, is a fair illustration of the relation the Incor porated Law Society bears to the solicitors of England and Wales. It will therefore be seen that the society is a thoroughly representative organization and that the views of its ruling members as expressed at its annual meetings are entitled to a great deal of consideration. The opening address of its president is not only awaited with interest by the members of the society, but it has wide circulation in the secular press and no little weight of authority among the general public, and particularly that other section of the legal profession — the Bar. Thus far, Mr. Budd, the president, who is a busy com mercial lawyer in London, followed a wide range of subjects in the hour and a half which the reading of his ad dress occupied. While the majority of these possess but little interest for lawyers in America, there were, here and there, throughout the paper and the discussion which followed, incidents which may be entertaining as illustra ting the differences which exist in practice in the two countries. For example, strong objection was urged against compulsory registration of titles to land I At pres ent a system exist, by which titles may be registered if their owners so desire; and in the last Parliament the late Lord Chancellor introduced a bill to extend the operation of the law to all titles by making it compulsory. In Amer ica, where registration is complete and a title may quickly be searched from the records in any county town, there would seem to be no ground here for opposition to the proposed bill. Nevertheless there is opposition, and from some of the most eminent of the London solicitors, such as Mr. Hunter, the late president of the society, and Mr. B. G. I^ake, who has had a good deal to do with American matters. Their contention appears to be that what is easily feasible for American communities is not conform able to the traditions and customs of the English people. Here a deed is a carefully prepared muniment of title. It is engrossed on a piece of parchment of four-timcs-foolscap dimensions, and it is preserved in a "strong box," along with all the similar instruments relating to the title. At every transfer of the land copies of these documents pass between solicitors, and the originals are inspected. A loss of any one of the deeds composing the chain of title would be almost irreparable, and, to say the least, very awkward. Still this system appears to be more favored than one where the record is kept under official super vision. Just what formality is now necessary is illustrat ed by the following question and answer I have taken from a favorite text-book for students preparing for the Bar examination. I may say that the question is one
