The Indianapolis Journal

THE LAW BUSINESS.

It Is Degenerating from a Profession to a Money-Making Trade.

'Gath,' in Cincinnati Enquirer.

Coming up in the elevated railroad car the same day I met General Henry L. Burnett, well known in Ohio. I asked him about the law. Said he: 'I think the most exacting occupation in this country is that of the newspaper writer, if he pursues his work with zeal. The law is also hard labor. In this country commerce is the great pursuit. Even in the practice of law the commercial spirit is getting the upper hand. That is to say, our most successful lawyers are not men who go into court, or who dip deeply into the science of the law, but men who have the commercial instinct, and whose law-offices are real business places.'

'Give me an instance,' said I.

'The most successful firm in New York, I suppose, in making money,' said General Burnett, 'is Alexander & Green. The head of this firm is what might be called a promoter, or an organizer of business enterprises. He or his firm is counsel for probably fifty corporations, some of them very strong, like the Equitable Life Insurance Company. He helped to make that company, drew its papers, and is the resident counsel and attorney. As he forms these companies, or assists to form them, he takes stock in them, and by virtue of his stock-ownership becomes a salaried man, or the firm receives an annual fee. The same kind of lawyer is Mr. S. L. M. Barlow. He also negotiates as much like a merchant as a lawyer, takes contingent cases, acts the diplomatist, and his office is organized like a factory. In this way the most successful lawyers nowadays are organized on the commercial basis.'