By Marshall L. Gates, Esq.
 

The practice of law has changed greatly since I was admitted to the Bar in 1973.

 When l was looking at careers during my college days in the 1960s, the attraction to the law was to assist people with their problems. I did not understand or appreciate the social and collegial aspects of the profession. But the effect on the practice of law is profound and personal in ways that could not have been envisioned a generation ago when computers were unknown.
 

When I started out in law practice, l did not even have a resume. I simply asked around and I located a position with a small firm as an associate. My salary was $10,000 a year plus one-third of what I brought in. The largest firms in our area had four or five lawyers. I worked for the small firm for a few years and learned the ropes.
 

Early in my career l learned there had been minimum fee schedules set by the local bar association. The hourly billing rate ranged from $35  to $50  per hour in our area in the 1970s. My boss was very accommodating and suggested that I might go to the Public Defender's office to handle assigned cases. I was in court nearly every week and tried numerous cases. I gained experience and I was assigned more serious cases, eventually handling murder and death penalty cases. I found that if I treated the clients fairly, they would refer many of their friends who had the ability the pay or had civil matters.
 

The interactions among attorneys were very different then. My boss took me to the courthouse  on a motion day and l met most lawyers from our county. Every motion required oral argument. Within a few months,  I felt that I knew almost everyone and they knew me. The local coffee shop across the street from the courthouse was like a clubhouse. It wasn't quite like Abraham Lincoln  sharing a boarding house, but it was a gathering place for lawyers. We discussed cases and the news of the day, sports and our families.
 

Personal computers, email and Zoom did not exist at the time. Older lawyers dictated to a secretary who took shorthand. Typewriters and carbon paper were the way to produce letters and pleadings. When fax machines came out, they used rolled thermal paper.

At that time in our area, most of the lawyers were general practitioners. Most did a varied practice: negligence, real estate closings, divorces, debt collections, tenancies, wills, light criminal cases, general civil matters. There was no advertising. Clients came on word of mouth and personal referrals.
 

There was no such thing as arbitration or mediation. Lawyers would talk with each other and try to work out settlements. The full extent of mediation would be a conference with a judge before the case got to  trial. We used to report every Monday at the courthouse  for civil and criminal calendar calls. The criminal court worked a little better because the prosecutors had their list and many of the defense cases were with public defenders and other local lawyers. Most cases could be worked out and the others were set for trial.
 

When I bought my first house in the 1970s, an attorney's fee was $500 for the buyer. The house cost about $60,000. Today, all these years later, the price for the same house has multiplied about ten times, but attorney's fees have only approximately doubled.

This is clearly not proportional and has led to certain lawyers developing specialized volume real estate practices. Whereas, early in my career, many lawyers did a few closings now a few lawyers do many closings.

In the 1970s, our county had six judges handling all civil, criminal, and family court matters. The volume of cases has increased enormously and with it, the personal touch of knowing adversaries and judges has been greatly reduced. The reliance on technology and short message blurbs is changing the   written word. Lawyers can expect to receive text messages at all times of day and night. Much of it is nearly indecipherable gibberish.
 

Attorney courtesy is different when you do not know your adversaries. Often, I get an email  from an adversary who I do not know, when a simple phone call could possibly have solved the problem. In past years, we would have called each other.

I recently had a case with two other veteran lawyers. We all knew and trusted each other for over 30 years. In short, although the practice of law has greatly changed, it is the culture of the law practice which has changed even more. It is less personal and less collegial.

Organizations like NJAJ are helpful, but with reliance on Zoom for meetings necessitated by the pandemic health concerns, it is more and more difficult, especially for veteran practitioners. It would be unrealistic to say that the “good old days”  were really so good, but certainly it is different today.
 

Let's all try our best to return to the days when civility was the norm and when being a lawyer was a profession and not just a business.

Marshall L. Gates, Esq. has been a member of NJAJ for many years and is a Certified Civil Trial Attorney practicing in Morris County, Sussex County, Warren County and Northern New Jersey. He can be reached at mlgateslawoffice@gmail.com or at 973-584-2255.