The early nineteenth-century bar had low entry barriers and embraced all work

Evidence

Law was an easy profession to get into. Lawyers scrambled for any kind of work they could get. They investigated real estate titles; they defended petty criminal cases; they collected debts. They oozed into any crack or cranny of the business world they could find. They bought land and sold land, on their own or for investors. George Gale, a Vermont lawyer who settled in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, in 1851, “acted as a kind of real estate broker … as a one man mortgage company … as a collec­ tion or serving agent on the lands.” Lawyers also went into politics, and took political jobs when they could. — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law, 1223

Categorization

• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Early nineteenth-century lawyer fame rested on courtroom oratory — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 1221; Bar preparation requirements weakened across the nineteenth century — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1884; Bar openness coexisted with class stratification even in the nineteenth century — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1821 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Bar preparation requirements weakened across the nineteenth century #expands (0.85) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1884
• Bar openness coexisted with class stratification even in the nineteenth century #complicates (0.85) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1821