AMERICAN CODE OF LEGAL ETHICS by the attorneys and counsellors, the bar risters did not need to advertise; and the American lawyer, who is attorney, counsellor, and barrister combined, has inherited the prejudice against advertisement which governed barristers. There is a growing feeling at the bar that in America a legiti mate solicitation of business may be made by self-respecting and high-minded lawyers, but it is doubtful if that feeling will cause the American Bar Association to amplify the rule above quoted. The dangers of amplifying it are too great. The conserva tism of the bar is nowhere more in evidence than in this matter of advertisement. The attorney is now ready for his first case. Under none of the codes is he to hunt it up, for by them all the stirring up of strife and litigation is condemned. It is to be hoped that the American Bar Association's Code will be explicit on this point. It seems that in some parts of the country certain lawyers who are what is known as "ambu lance chasers" or have partners who are such, and certain lawyers who have men employed to drum up business for them, are in good standing at their local bar. Such men correspond in the legal profession to the quacks of the medical, and if they are in good standing at an}' local bar, then that bar needs the moral awakening which the American Bar Association code is sure to bring. As that association's committee said in its report of 1906 : "With the marvelous growth and develop ment of our country and its resources, with the ranks of our profession ever extending, its fields of activities ever widening, the lawyer's opportunities for good and evil are correspondingly enlarged, and the limits have not been reached. We cannot be blind to the fact that, however, high may be the motives of some, the trend of many is away from the ideals of the past, and the tendency more and more to reduce our high calling to the level of a trade, to a mere means of livelihood, or of personal aggran dizement. With the influx of increasing numbers, who seek admission to the pro fession mainly for its emoluments, have come
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new and changed conditions. Once possible ostracism by professional brethren was sufficient to keep from serious error the practitioner with no fixed ideals of ethical conduct; but now the shyster, the barratrously inclined, the ambulance chaser, the member of the Bar with a system of runners, pursue their nefarious methods with no check save the rope of sand of moral suasion so long as they stop short of actual fraud, and violate no criminal law. These men believe themselves immune, the good or bad esteem of their colaborers is nothing to them, provided their itching fingers are not thereby stayed in their eager quest for lucre. Much as we regret to acknowledge it, we know such men are in our midst. Never having realized or grasped that indefinable ethical something which is the soul and spirt of law and justice, they not only lower the morale within the pro fession, but they debase our high calling in the eyes of the public. They hamper the administration, and even at times subvert the ends of justice. Such men are enemies of the republic; not true ministers of her courts of justice robed in the priestly gar ments of truth, honor, and integrity. All such are unworthy of a place upon the rolls of the great and noble profession of the law. "' As the lawyer's first case may be civil or may be criminal, and the two are supposed to present somewhat different problems, let us take up first the handling of a civil suit. When the client comes with the case the attorney's first duty is to get as full a state ment of the case as the client can give him in the time at their joint disposal. It may be that prompt action must be taken to get out an attachment, a writ of replevin or an injunction, to get immediate personal ser vice of summons, or for some other reason; but as full a statement as is possible under the circumstances should be obtained in order that the lawyer may be in a situation to advise properly at the outset and to deal • adequately with each emergency which arises. One who has not experienced the difficulty of getting an accurate and full statement of the facts of a case from a client can have no appreciation of its magnitude Quoted in Report of 1907, p. 7.
