Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS^ GUIDE.





Yol. XX.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAT, DECEMBEE 8, 1877.





No.  508.





Published Weekly by

W'^t %ml €'BMt %uoxti %%Bat:mimx,

TERMS.

ONE YEAR, in advance....$10.00.

Oommunicafcions should be addressed fco

C.  W.   SW^EET,

Nos. 345 Ann 347 Broadway.

PROFESSIONAL CHARGES AND PROFES¬
SIONAL HONOR.
The tone of a community is said to depend
upon the inteUigence of the masses, but with
equal cei-tainty, we think, it may be averred
that the inteUigence of the masses depends largely
upon the dignity, abUity and purity of the learned
professions. With all our boasted advantages of
free education and the extensive diffusion of
inf oi*mation among the people, ifc is certain that
large numbers of our mercantUe and manufac¬
turing classes f aU to attain the benefits of a liberal
and enlightened education, and, in point of fact,
are lacking in du-ecfc sympathy -with it. The
limitations and exactions of mercantUe, manu¬
facturing and mechanical calUngs seem to pre¬
clude the indulgence or gratification of any aspi¬
rations for a broad and comprehensive cul¬
ture outside of the technics of the particular
sphere in which the individual's acti-vity may be
exercised. The system of subdivision into spe¬
cialties, which seems to be so rapidly extending
in aU callings, favoi's this exclusion of breadth
and substance in education, and the inteUectual
life of the mosfc active workers in the community
is graduaUy di-if ting into narrower and narrower
grooves. To the great professions, such as law,
medicine, divinity, journalism, architecture and
kindred degrees, is conceded the privUege of
enjoying a really wide horizon of inteUectual
view. The high discipUne and broad culture
belonging to the learned professions so exclu¬
sively are active forces for good or evU; for the
highest good if devoted to noble purposes, but
terribly productive of evil if superior knowledge
and enUghtenment are used to hamper the inter¬
ests and antagonize the welfare of the dependent
and comparatively ignorant classes.

It is a deplorable and unwelcome reflection that
the learned professions faUed to escape the
maUgn and demoraUzing influences of the recent
period of inflation and extravagance, which
worked such tremendous havoc in the lower
spheres of finance and trade. There are not
lacking in this community instances of financial
madness on the parfc of clerics who have caUed
their flocks to the assumption of staggering debts,
which have, in the end, crushed and weU nigh
annihUated many a prominent city congrega¬
tion. There are few heads of famiUes in the
middle or upper walks of lif© but know the
terror of the fashionablo physician and the mag¬
nitude of his annual biUs. Arohiteots, journaUsts
and kindred professions have had their peculiar
indulgences in fanciful and exorbitant charges.
But, in the largest degree, we believe the ques¬
tionable distinction belongs to the legal prof es-
sion of haviag part£ik9& of the fullest fruits of
the prolonged ersirof 6Spaaded aud specuktiTO





values and charges. The public has been made
familiar of late with some of the vagaries of
professional charges in the atfcempted collection,
by suits at law, of bUls for single services repre¬
senting the fabrdous amounts of $60,000^- .$75,000
and $100,000. It has been facetiously said of one
profession thafc its diplomas are, in too many
cases, merely legal Ucenses to kiU. In the light
of recent developments, it would seem war¬
rantable to conclude of another that its diplomas
ai-e construed as legal licenses to rob.

The interests of real estate dealers and ope¬
rators ai-e intimately and vitally concerned in
the proper administration of the legal  profes¬
sion.   Scarcely a step can be taken, certainly no
large or important contract can be entered into
or consummated, without the assistance or advice
of competent legal counsel.   It is of signal im¬
portance to dealers to know that their interests
when once confided to counsel wUl be  inteUi-
gently and faithfuUy dealt with, and of no less
importance that the charges for such services
wiU be fail-, reasonable and even moderate.   It is
provocative of serious apprehension and painfid
comment that the divergence and deflection of
the legal profession from its primitive and well
recognized standards of practice have been prin¬
cipaUy in the direcfcion of a discreditable cupidity
and a sordid and reckless overreaching after gain.
There are no present  indications of a lack of
professional culture or a diminution of the intel¬
lectual status of the profession.   On the contrary,
efforts have been constantly made duilng the
past    few    years    to   elevate    the   standard
of    requirements   for   admission   to   the   bar.
In cases that have come under our observation,
the older and more respected members of  the
profession are the more readUy contented with
moderate fees, whUe it is the juniors and sub¬
ordinates that  have  engaged persistently and
heartUy in the race for extravagant  fees.   But
stiU, so largely and generaUy has this propensity
for extravagant charges been indtdged that the
whole prof ession may be said to have been inoc¬
ulated with the virus of a fatal poison.   Counsel
too frequently come to regai'd their cUents as
victims rather than as wards, and their estates as
fit subjects for depletion—very much as the old
style physician would regard the circulation of a
fever-stricken patient.

With counsel fees in general we have little to
do, and care to have less to say, inasmuch as
these are private individual concerns, interesting
principaUy to the counsel and his cUent. In the
interest of real estate dealers at large, we do feel
caUed upon to criticize fuUy and frequently the
subjects of professional charges in real estate
transactions. These belong to our special pro¬
vince* and affect not two individuals alone, but
the hundreds and thousands who are accustomed
yearly to embark in real estate ventures. It is to
the prominent and influential members of the
profession that we would address our expostula¬
tion and complaint. That the profession at large
has unconsciously descended from the high plane
upon which it was accustomed to stand, and has
tacitly discredited those nobl© Haaxims of pro¬





bers.   AU this might be accounted for as a legiti¬
mate product of the times in which our lot is
cast, and ultimate recovery might be expected
and confidently ijredicted.   But there is a res¬
pect in which this evU example may have a last-  .
ing effect and perpetuate itself through stUl an¬
other generation.   In every oflfice in this city a
generation of young men has been trained un¬
der the influence of erroneous and extravagant
ideas, and under the still more pernicious influ¬
ence of the predominant spirit of  gi-eed.   The
rule of conduct impressed upon their minds has
been that compensation outranks honor and dis¬
tinction, and to whatever extent these false con¬
ceptions have been adopted, so far has the next
generation of the legal profession been contami¬
nated and compromised.   For the professional
success and welfare of these rising young men—
the counsellors of the future—it is desu-able that a
new code of practice should be immediately in¬
stituted, or that the old sfcandard of honor before
compensation shoiUd be restored.   We know that
the customory arguments advanced in favor of
high charges, increase in the cost of Uving,  de¬
mands of cUents for more sumptuous and luxuri¬
ous legal headquarters, and more exacting and
devoted ser-yices in great speciUative transactions,
have aU seemed to justify the expansion of fees ;
but the excuse and the provocation have both
subsided, and the profession will consiut its own
dignity, honor and usefulness by readapting its
scale of charges to the present altered circum¬
stances of the people.   As a proof that the rule
of high charges is not being perpetuated or per¬
sisted in, we cheerfuUy give our testimony thafc
in many of the leading offices in this city the
fees exacted for examination of real estate titles
and preparation of papers connected with real
estate have been made of late perfectly satisfac¬
tory to cUents who frequent those offices. In fact if
we were caUed upon to give the information we
should be compeUed to say that the most careful
examinations, together with the most moderate
charges are to be found in the office of a firm
whose chief is also a high officer of the Federal
Government.   We are well aware that in saying
as much as this we run the risk of incurring the
displeasm-e of the estimable and modest gentle^
man who presides over the real estate departs
ment of that office.   It is eminently more than
.creditable to a profession when gi-eat learning
and reputation go hand in hand with great for^
bearance in the matter of charges.   This is no
more than the ancient rule and practice, and
one that however seriously departed from must
I again assert itself and become predominant in
' the most reputable and influential offices.   The
[ honor  and  good name of  the   profession are
I deeply concerned in this matter of the prop-
' er adjustment of legal charges.    We shall faU
in our estimate of its amour propreit there is
any lack of effort on the part of leading and con¬
servative counsel to regain the vantage ground
already lost and to recaU more youthful and in¬
experienced members back to those ancient and
revered practices and rules of action which have
80 largely moulded and governed the professional





fesaionaJ.duty set up by Blackstone and Kent, ' careers of mea aow gray with age ancl covered
-will be freely and sadly admitted by older mem-' "tnt^ honors.