Legal Profession and Socialization: A Reply to Dean Robert G. Storey
![handle is hein.journals/abaj37 and id is 347 raw text is: The Legal Profession and Socialization:
A Reply to Dean Robert G. Storey
by Warren Freedman Instructor in Law, Rutgers University
n Professor Freedman requested space in the Journal to reply to the article by Dean
Robert G. Storey entitled The Legal Profession versus Regimentation: A Program To
Counter Socialization, which appeared in the February, 1951, issue of the Journal
(37 A.B.A.J. 100). He does not agree with Dean Storey that the British Legal Aid and
Advice Act, 1949, is a trend toward socialism or regimentation of the legal profes-
sion, and discusses Mr. Storey s article point by point to show why he disagrees.
n While I have not attended the
International Bar Association mneet-
ing in London nor talked with
outstanding solicitors and barristers,
both in and out of government serv-
ice, representing the Conservative
and Labour Parties of England, as
has my illustrious colleague, Dean
Storey, I venture to say that I have
devoted sufficient time and study to
the Legal Aid and Advice Act, 1949
(13 Geo. 6, c. 51), having recently
authored an article entitled A Read-
ing of the British Statute on Legal
Aid and Advice in 39 Kentucky
Law Journal 151-183 (January, 195 ]),
to answer the critical review of the
British plan given by Dean Storey.
In the first place, I have read the
statute, consulted the primary sources
of materials an-d endeavored to un-
derstand the arguments, pro and
con, for the adoption of such a legal
assistance plan in the United States.
However, I seek here only to correct
the misinterpretations therein with
respect to the Legal Aid and Advice
Act, passed by Parliament on July
7, 1949.
My interest in the British plan
stems purely from academic roots. I
am equally adamant as Dean Storey
that the inroads of governmental
regimentation upon the legal profes-
sion be halted. I too favor an in-
dependent Bar and judiciary un-
hampered in the administration and
practice of law. However, before I
publicly object to what plans our
English democracy has enacted in
the field of universal legal assistance,'
I should prefer to have read the
Legal Aid and Advice Act, 1949,
under my own power. I am not so con-
servatively set in my views as to con-
tend that the British Legal Assist-
ance Act (undoubtedly Dean Storey
means the Legal Aid and Advice Act,
1949) is a trend toward socialism or
regimentation of the legal profes-
sion (page 101). I would first note
that Viscount Jowitt, the Lord Chan-
celor of Great Britain, has written:2
I do not think that even the most
die-hard Tory can suggest that we are
nationalising the Law or interfering
with the course of Justice.
Perhaps the obvious truth is that we
have not heeded the sound comments
of Judge Albert Conway of the New
York Court of Appeals in an address
before the New York State Bar Asso-
ciation in 1947:3
Sometimes we see things more clear-
ly by lifting our eyes from our sur-
roundings and viewing what is occur-
ring elsewhere. In England a commit-
tee consisting of leaders of the bar and
in social reform headed by Lord Rush-
cliffe was appointed in London on
May 25, 1944, curiously enough when
the war was at its height .... In May
of 1945, one year later, there was
made the so-called Rushcliffe Report.
I recommend most earnestly a
reading of it, and of the recommenda-
tions contained therein. Believing as
we do in our democracy and its con-
stitutional provisions for the equal
protection of our laws for all, what
answer as a profession can we offer if
we do not make those provisions work?
There is an immediate need here in
the United States for a well-inte-
grated plan for legal assistance for
the hundred million or more peo-
ple4 who do not have good access to
lawyers' services. In the United
States less than 2 per cent of people
in the $2500 or less income group,
constituting the bulk of bur popula-
tion, actually consult lawyers.' The
experience of the British people with
universal legal assistance should be
comprehended by the legal profes-
1. The following primary and official sources
are recommended: Report of the Committee on
Legal Aid and Advice in England and Wales'',
presented by the Lord High Chancellor to Parlia-
ment in May, 1945 (CMD 6641); Summary of the
Proposed New Service, Legal Aid and Advice Bill,
1948, (CMD 7563); ''Legal Aid and Advice Bill,
1948 (12 Geo. 6); and Legal Aid and Advice
Act, 1949 (13 Geo. 6).
2. 24 N.Y.U.L.Q. Rev. 757, 769 l1949).
3. Report of the New York State Bar Associa-
tion (1947) 319.
4. Supra, note 3 at page 320.
5, Elson, The Rushcliffe Report, 13 U. of Chi.
L. Rev. 131, 141 (1946).
May, 1951 - Vol. 37 333](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/abaj37&div=108&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Legal Profession and Socialization: A Reply to Dean Robert G. Storey
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