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1 Law Soc'y J. 1 (1929)

handle is hein.journals/lsocyjo1 and id is 1 raw text is: 14eim           o rri of Massarhuaetts 3ournat
Volume I.                           MAY, I929                                No. I
THE LAW SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS
Its Necessity -    Creation -    Objects.
In every walk of life and in every field of endeavor, people are confronted
individually with situations which arise from time to time with which they are
dissatisfied but which they, either through a course of the path of least resistance, or
through a desire not to appear cranky, or for other reasons best known to them-
selves, do nothing to remedy.   It is only when an unsatisfactory situation becomes
more or less universal or, better, when such a situation strikes the majority of any
business or profession, that people form en masse for attack.
The clan and the herd are both the results of an instinct to protect. Lawyers,
from the very nature of their profession, have less of the clan instinct than perhaps any
other calling. They find themselves a great deal on opposite sides of causes and the
clan instinct is not so likely to be found among them. This situation is inherited
from the old form of trial by combat and champions, but concerted action on the part
of lawyers is of as much value to them as such action is to any other occupation or
profession.  An individual's voice may be but a whisper but many whispers in
chorus soon become sufficiently loud to be heard.
The Society was founded by a handful of men in the profession who felt that
much more could be accomplished by concerted action to prevent various abuses and
to stimulate interest for their correction than could be accomplished by individual
grumbling. There are now about one thousand members in the Law Society although
its existence is less than a year. Its objects are to cause the enactment of wholesome,
and to oppose unwholesome, legislation affecting the practice of the law, to prevent
and correct the abuses which may arise in the administration of the law, to prevent
the encroachment upon the practise of the law by non-members of the legal profes-
sion, to resist the invasion into the field of the law by non-professional interests, to
encourage cordial intercourse among its members, generally to do all things to elevate
and maintain the high esteem in which the judiciary and legal profession have always
been held, and to lend cooperation to the several bar associations of the commonwealth.
Every member of the bar who attends the monthly dinner of the Law Society
will vote it an evening well and profitably spent. There he will meet his fellows in
a relationship of cordiality. The spirit of combat will be noticeable by its absence.
The interchange of ideas, views and opinions will be pleasant.     He will meet the
Judges from time to time without their robes and will find the way to a better
understanding between bench and bar. The opportunity to speek freely and to offer
remedial suggestions will be open and when he leaves for his home he will carry with
him a feeling that the law offers more than mere monetary compensation.
THE EDITOR.
A number of the members of the Law Society have deemed it advisable for the
Society to publish a monthly magazine for distribution among its members. Others
have dissented from this opinion. The present publication is necessarily more or less
crude, being the first attempt in that direction.
There is also the question of whether such a magazine, if published, should be
self-supporting by the insertion of advertising matter, or whether it should be sup-

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