PLAN No. 654. HE BECAME A LAWYER’S LAWYER
For years he had been a very successful trial lawyer, and because of that success he had been approached by many lawyers to take up their cases and put it through to a final success. He finally put his entire time at the disposal of the lawyers of his city. He found in the city in which he was practicing, had a population of about 400,000, that young lawyers who have been in the practice for years have but little experience in the trial court, and often have had but few cases and for that reason make many mistakes. He was loyal to the attorney who employed him and saw to it that they were not placed in an embarrassing position. This brought him large and lucrative business.
I well remember his advice when in the university, how to prepare a statement of facts. He first had the client make his statement, and after it was made would ask the client to go home and prepare it in his own hand-writing and submit it to him. He would have this typewritten and later examine and question the client concerning it, and then he would have him wait a few days and re-state the entire case again to him. After this he would go over and make a statement of facts of the case himself, and would repeat this from three to four times and have it typewritten until he had an accurate statement of the facts, upon which he built his theory of the law. He felt that no attorney had done his duty until he had gone over the statement of facts in this manner.
From this plan alone, he realized more than $500,000.
There is an opportunity in many communities for attorneys of good standing to render this kind of service to his fellow attorneys, and there are always young men in the community who will avail themselves of such services if you render this to them in a way that will not discredit them before the bar and the court.