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Author:   David Lemmings (Head of Department of History, Head of Department of History, University of Newcastle, Australia)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.30cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 24.20cm
Weight:   0.861kg
ISBN:  

9780198207214

ISBN 10:   0198207212
Pages:   414
Publication Date:   11 May 2000
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

I. Introduction: Two Stories of the Law Historians, the Law, and Eighteenth-Century Society Another Story of the Law: the Reputation of Lawyers and the Courts II. The Work of the Bar and Working Life Advocacy and Pleading: The Shape of Barristers Work Counselling and Conveying Everyday Life III. Barristers and Practisers: Numbers and Prospects Barristers and Non Practisers Practisers: Supply and Demand The Characteristics of Litigation: A Crisis in Westminster Hall? Prospects for Barristers: Keeping Life Going IV. Gentlemen Bred to the Law: Induction and Legal Education Motives and Qualifications: Hopes and Dreams The Failure of Institutions: Education at the Universities and the Inns A Dry and Disgusting Study: Learning the Law A Cultural Challenge? V. Practice at the Centre: Westminster Hall and Its Satellites Starting Out: Launching A Practice Winners and Losers: The Distribution of Work in Westminster Hall Getting On: Practices, Fees, and Incomes VI. Practice at the Margins: The Old Bailey and the Colonies Tribunes of the People: The Old Bailey Bar Law, Lawyers, and Ireland and America: Colonial Bars and Barristers Law, Lawyers, and 1776: Contrasting American Attorneys and English Barristers VII. Advancement and Independence Rank and Status at the Inns of Court: Internal Promotion Patronage, Politics, and Office: External Promotion Serving the State? The Independence of Bar and Bench VIII. Conclusion: The Culture of the Bar and the Recession of the Common Law Collective Life and Rituals 24. Self-Images: Collective Self-Esteem and Legitimating Concepts Self-Images: Collective Self-Esteem and Legitimating Concepts Consequences? : The Failure of the Bar and Recession of the Common Law Appendix A: Methodology and Biographical Notes for Barrister Samples, 1719-21 and 1769-71 Appendix B: A Prescription for Educating a Barrister, 1736 Appendix C: Leading Counsel In Kings Bench, Exchequer, Common Pleas, and Chancery, 1720, 1740, 1770, 1790 Appendix D: A Junior Barrister's Complaints about the Selection and Advantage of King's Counsel, 1750

Reviews

Given the performance of the task taken up here, and given the analytic results, we can only applaud David Lemmings for the accomplishment. Paul Halliday, University of Virginia, H-Net Book Review This is a book thick with description, layer upon layer drawn not only from the usual sources for the study of the profession - court records, papers in the Inns of Court - but also from an amazing number of personal archives scattered from Aberystwyth to Maidstone and from Cumbria to Exeter. Examples culled from letters and diaries put meat on the bones of statistical analyses plotting the decline of admissions to the Inns and the rise of barristers' fees. Lemmings does more than chart the decay of a profession; he lets us hear what this meant to lawyers who succeeded nonetheless, and more often, to those who did not. Paul Halliday, University of Virginia, H-Net Book Review With the marvellous possibilities of legal history in mind, it would be a shame if so-called legal historians were the only readers of David Lemming's book. For his exhaustive treatment of the world of barristers should shake up eighteenth-century studies, flying hard as it does in the face of continuing fascination with the seeming modernity of that century. Paul Halliday, University of Virginia, H-Net Book Review Particularly strong on the working life of the bar both in the central courts at Westminster and in the provinces and colonies ... Unusually for a scholarly work Professors of the Law, is at least in places, also a 'very good read'. Andrew Hudleston's fatherly worries about his wastrel son and Charles Pratt's letters to his fiancee help to give the material a life that it would otherwise lack ... Dr Lemmings has written an excellent book on the history of the legal profession. Legal History Dr Lemmings has written an interesting and important book on the culture of English law during a critical period ... Certainly historians of the legal profession will find this book extremely rewarding. Moreover, it will provide scholars interested in the growth of practical parliamentary supremacy with a stimulating twist to a familiar story. Parliamentary History Historians of the long eighteenth century, and of the legal profession, are strongly encouraged to read it. The Cambridge Law Journal Professors of the Law is a superb achievement, an example of the highest quality of legal-historical research and writing. Based on an impressive array of manuscript and published sources and written with clarity and style, the book contains insights, elegantly expressed, on nearly every page. The Cambridge Law Journal Lemmings paints a detailed, interesting, yet most unflattering picture of eighteenth-century English barristers ... all those seriously interested in English constitutional and legal history should welcome it. History Meaty study ... Professors of the Law is a treasure trove of new analysis and information about the working lives and cultural impact of barristers in the long eighteenth century. Penelope J. Corfield, Times Literary Supplement

Particularly strong on the working life of the bar both in the central courts at Westminster and in the provinces and colonies ... Unusually for a scholarly work Professors of the Law, is at least in places, also a 'very good read'. Andrew Hudleston's fatherly worries about his wastrel son and Charles Pratt's letters to his fiancee help to give the material a life that it would otherwise lack ... Dr Lemmings has written an excellent book on the history of the legalprofession. Legal History Dr Lemmings has written an interesting and important book on the culture of English law during a critical period ... Certainly historians of the legal profession will find this book extremely rewarding. Moreover, it will provide scholars interested in the growth of practical parliamentary supremacy with a stimulating twist to a familiar story. Parliamentary History Historians of the long eighteenth century, and of the legal profession, are strongly encouraged to read it. The Cambridge Law Journal Professors of the Law is a superb achievement, an example of the highest quality of legal-historical research and writing. Based on an impressive array of manuscript and published sources and written with clarity and style, the book contains insights, elegantly expressed, on nearly every page. The Cambridge Law Journal Lemmings paints a detailed, interesting, yet most unflattering picture of eighteenth-century English barristers ... all those seriously interested in English constitutional and legal history should welcome it. History Meaty study ... Professors of the Law is a treasure trove of new analysis and information about the working lives and cultural impact of barristers in the long eighteenth century. Penelope J. Corfield, Times Literary Supplement

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