1870
The rise of formally organized bar associations in the second half of the nineteenth century was an integral development in the history of the legal profession. The first bar association in the United States was founded in New York City in February 1870 in direct response to instances of judicial corruption and declining ethical standards among members of the bar.[1]
Reflecting the anti-elitist attitudes of the Jacksonian era, the New York State Constitution of 1846 established low barriers of entry to the legal profession, providing merely that “any male citizen of the age of twenty-one years, of good moral character, and who possesses the requisite qualifications of learning and ability is entitled to admission to practice in all the courts of this State.”[2] While an oral examination was required, it was often casually administered by a friendly judge or practicing lawyer.[3] As to good moral character, affidavits and attestations of reputable persons were generally sufficient.
The minimal admission requirements made a career in the law “an attractive route for men on their way up in the world,” but at a time when few law schools existed and aspiring lawyers had to rely on whatever training they could obtain through apprenticeships with practicing lawyers the influx of newcomers to the bar often lacked adequate preparation.[4]
While the system was lax and bad, and bore its legitimate fruit, nevertheless strong men and great lawyers were not lacking under the old regime. Nor was the bar as a whole weak; its equal was not probably to be found in the country. But weak and bad men could get in—that was the unfortunate feature; in fact, they could not easily be kept out, so few were the safeguards.[5]
One of the bad men who got in was William M. “Boss” Tweed, the corrupt leader of Tammany Hall who was certified as a lawyer by Judge George G. Barnard, a crony of Tweed’s who would go on to be impeached and removed from office in 1872. Tweed, who never received any legal training, used his law office as a cover to extort money in return for political favors that he disguised as legal services.
The Erie Railroad War of the late 1860s seriously tarnished the reputation of the bench and bar as robber barons Cornelius Vanderbilt on one side and Stephen Drew, Jay Gould and James Fiske on the other employed competing armies of lawyers to help them buy favorable decisions and rulings from compromised jurists in the state courts. The Erie Railroad litigation spurred more than 200 of the city’s leading lawyers to form the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. William M. Evarts, a highly respected, public-spirited private practitioner and former United States Attorney General, was elected President. The City Bar’s first Vice-President, Samuel J. Tilden, the reformer who would soon bring Boss Tweed to justice, addressed the assembled lawyers.
It cannot be doubted—we can none of us can shut our eyes to the fact—that there has been, in the last quarter of a century, a serious decline in the character, in the training, in the education, and in the morality of our bar, and the first work for this association to do is to elevate the profession to a higher and a better standard. If the bar is to become merely a method of making money, making it in the most convenient way possible, but making it at all hazards, then the bar is degraded. If the bar is to be merely an institution that seeks to win causes, and to win them by back-door access to the judiciary, then the bar is not only degraded but it is corrupt.[6]
The City Bar’s constitution defined its mission: “To maintain the honor and integrity of the profession of the law, to increase its usefulness in promoting the due administration of justice, and to cultivate social intercourse among its members.”[7] Tilden expounded on the new organization’s mission and goals, warning that if New York expected to remain the nation’s commercial and financial capital “it must establish an elevated character for its Bar, and a reputation throughout the country for its purity in the administration of justice.”[8]
Under Tilden’s leadership, the City Bar investigated the judicial corruption scandal swirling around Boss Tweed. Its 1872 report led the State Assembly to impeach Judges George G. Barnard and John J. McCunn, both of whom were duly convicted and removed from office by the New York Court for the Trial of Impeachments. A third judge, Albert J. Cardozo, resigned from office before he could be impeached.
With its formal constitution and by-laws, organized committees and published proceedings, the City Bar model was soon replicated around the country, starting with the New York State Bar Association in November 1876 and the American Bar Association in 1878. The City Bar successfully advocated for the legislature’s creation of the State Board of Law Examiners in 1895 to administer a uniform bar exam to all lawyers seeking admission to the bar.[9] In 1892, the City Bar also investigated and publicly opposed the appointment of Isaac Maynard to the Court of Appeals following his nefarious role in the Stolen Senate election cases of 1891.
Throughout its history, the City Bar has been led by nationally respected lawyers and judges, including U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of State William M. Evarts; corporate lawyer Joseph H. Choate; Secretary of State Elihu Root; Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Charles Evans Hughes; U.S. Attorney General George W. Wickersham; Court of Appeals Judge and noted reformer Samuel Seabury; Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson; U.S. Solicitor General John W. Davis; U.S. Solicitor General and Court of Appeals Judge Thomas D. Thacher; U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell; and Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance. The City Bar’s leadership has continuously advocated for reforms to elevate the quality and integrity of the legal profession, promote access to justice and improve the administration of justice.[10]
[1] Wheeler H. Peckham, “The Association of the Bar,” History of the Bench and Bar of New York Vol. I, New York History Co., 1897, at 197.
[2] New York State Constitution of 1846, Art. VI, Sec. 8.
[3] Susan Katcher, “Legal Training in the United States: A Brief History,” Wisconsin International Law Journal, July 2006, at 346.
[4] Deborah S. Gardner & Christine G. McKay, Of Practical Benefit: New York State Bar Association 1876-2001, New York St. Bar Assn., 2003, at 6; see also Henry Wyans Jessup, “Legal Education in New York,” History of the Bench and Bar of New York Vol. I, New York History Co., 1897, at 179.
[5] Jessup at 179.
[6] Wheeler H. Peckham, “The Association of the Bar,” History of the Bench and Bar of New York Vol. I, New York History Co., 1897, at 196.
[7] Id. at 198.
[8] Edwin G. Burrows & Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, Oxford Univ. Press, 1999, at 968.
[9] L. 1895, ch. 946.