The Gazette 1983

GAZETTE

J ULY / AUGUST 1983

of sharp practice be aroused by my disclosure that a Wall Street day can have 27 hours, true though that often seems, I should quickly explain that the computer accepts aggregations of more than one day's billing which an attorney may for convenience assign to a simple day!). My work was divided between both sides of the practice, but it was felt that as an intending barrister I should spend my time principally with the litigators. Judges were extremely courteous in welcoming me to their courtrooms, readily giving permission to sit at 'counsel's table' and lamenting the loss of the wig and gown and the awe that these Anglo-Irish accoutrements supposedly inspire among the laity. At the federal court in Brooklyn, I met one of the very few black judges on the federal bench, who had plenty of time to show me around his exquisitely appointed chambers, a riot of plush leather and mahogany panelling, while his work was being done by three beavering law clerks and a spanking new Lexis terminal. The state court, where leather and mahogany are as absent as wig and gown, is not highly regarded. A visit to the Staten Island version showed me that the suave word-wizardry of Wall Street lawyers has a diametrical opposite in legal bush country. The surprise of the hole in the opposing lawyer's gleaming white trousers was exceeded only by the shock of hearing him fumble the most elementary facts of his brief. I did feel complimented that he chose to address our side as 'learned counsel' rather than the customary 'Counsellor' or simply 'Mr'. That case, incidentally, illustrated the crippling burden of costs in U.S. courts. It was worth $10,000 to the client, but cost $12,500 to bring to court. Amazingly, U.S. courts do not (unless deliberate abuse of the legal process by your opponent can be shown) award any costs to the winning side. It is futile to venture into a Wall Street office with a case worth less than $15,000 unless you persuade someone to act on a contingent fee basis (the lawyer is paid only if he wins the case) — a popular American practice which is nevertheless regarded by Wall Street firms as smacking of professionalism. T.V. advertising has helped the rise of the so-called 'fast-food' law firms. One of them, Jacoby Myers (which is actually known as the McDona l d 's of U.S. law), was celebrating its tenth year of existence last summer by urging viewers between bits of the 'The Lucy Show' to get their divorces before Oc t ober 1st and save 50% on normal fees. CLE To take their minds off the seriousness of working life, U.S. lawyers can dip into the gossip-drenched pages of their very own scandal sheet, 'The American Lawyer'. It has instituted what it grandly calls the 'Ammy Awards' for the best and worst annual performances by a lawyer in each of a string of categories of practice — Best Antitrust Lawyer (usually a Wall Street Preserve), Worst Civil Rights Lawyer (also perhaps a Wall Street preserve!), Best Criminal Defence Lawyer, Worst Matrimonial Lawyer, and so forth. They can benefit also from something that is sorely lacking in this jurisdiction — continuing legal education, or CLE as it's called, which the American Bar Association organizes on a huge scale. I can hardly conceive of senior counsel in this country taking time out to lecture the junior bar on their

the vital 'support services'. New technology is constantly arriving and the spirit of inter-firm competition is such that no rival can be allowed to gain the slightest advantage in this area (not easy when the latest word processing equipment will be obsolete in six months). Already the word processor is standard, a boon to fastidious attorneys who may require as many as twenty drafts of a single client letter (the abolition of typist's cramp, however, has brought word processor operator's blindness in its wake, since the work always expands to fill the machine capacity available). Legal research is speeded by the 'Lexis' system, a computerized treasury of all current federal and state law. Even as the attorney is interviewing a client, he can use his desk-top Lexis terminal to call up the latest law on any given problem - type in a request for 'all cases on contributory neglig- ence decided by Judge Doe in 1982', and the cute little machine obliges (at enormous cost, I might add). All client billing is also computerized. Instead of the rather quaint 'bill of costs' supplied by an Irish solicitor, the Wall Street corporate client receives a lengthy computer printout detailing hour-by-hour what the attorneys have been doing on its behalf. Filling out timesheets (using a special computer code which requires full-stops before the abbreviation— prep .lgl .memo on .q of .pit's .elm) was by common agreement the most aggravating activity in a busy legal week. One senior litigation associate billed 27 hours for one day in September, thereby confirming the impression I had formed that New York lawyers have somehow broken the ancient laws of time that govern lesser mortals (of course, lest any suspicion

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