David Lemmings. Professors of the Law: Barristers and English Legal Culture in the Eighteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press. 2000. Pp. xiv, 399. $85.00. ISBN 0-19-820721-2.

Abstract

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