Detroit College of Law - Forum Yearbook (Detroit, MI)

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FORUMi THE LAW IN BUSINESS By HERBERT H. GARDNER, '16 If.rrt'u!ff'r' I'frc'-Prcsidrrit Highland Park Trust Cu. The student-body of our law schools has increased apace during the last decade. The Commencement Day Exercise witnesses the departure of thousands of young men and women from the class room. their places to be taken shortly by other and increasing numbers. In an already crowded profession, where is there room for all of them? This is no new query. but has been put many times through many years. It is obvious that the profession itself does not and could not absorb them. It is equally apparent that a large proportion of enrolled stu- dents have no thought of ever applying themselves to the practice of law. A check of stu- dents in any school of law will reveal numerous instances of men and women who have en- gaged in some line of business and then given up their occupation to study law. In the Eve- ning Schools are many who are engaged in various business pursuits during the day. with their free hours given up to the acquiring of further educational equipment through the study of law. Our mercantile. industrial and financial organizations have as employees and officials an ever-increasing number of persons who are educated in greater or lesser degree in the law and such are apt to be found in the places of larger responsibility. The Law School has be- come a place of preparation for a business career and as such its contribution to business is as great as to the legal profession. The man or woman who is well-grounded in the fundamentals of the law or who has perhaps addressed himself or herself to some specialized subjects peculiarly adapted to the solution of particular business problems is regarded as a distinctly valuable addition to the staff of business organizations in many and varied lines of activity. The reason is easy to determine. Organized business is no longer operated along haphazard lines. Facts. as they apply to the particular business at hand. are essential to the formulation of intelligent decision. XVho is better trained than the lawyer to search out and classify facts? Policies are based on principles developed through years of experience. In the application of such principles to established facts. who is better qualified than the able lawyer? XYhen business was a matter of opportunism. of seizing the advantage as it appeared at the moment. there was more of craft than of intelligence required. XYith the newer order of things many branches of business have virtually taken on the aspects of the professions. In such undertakings the lawyer naturally tits, for he represents the traditions and dignity of an ancient and honorable profes- sion. He knows that the great body of our law which knits together the social structure was 1101 conceived or developed in a day. but is the work of centuries and the product of the best minds of those centuries. In the held of business he knows that enduring growth and pros- perity must be built upon clear conceptions. sound policies and intelligent administration. Such are consistent with the traditions he has been taught to respect. High executive position in business is no longer a place for the amateur, nor in this day of super-organization does the uneducated. untrained man face as easy a prospect of vaulting into the position of authority and affluence as in an earlier day. Business is involved. but its complications are not beyond the powers of solution of the individual who has successfully mastered the intricacies and sometimes obscurities of the law. Business is enmeshed at every hand in legal requirement and technicalties. Happy the management that has at its disposal one to whom the mazes are familiar ground. The problems of modern business call for the law-trained man, but let him look well to the sufficiency of his training and equipment. for it is still true that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. .-Xntl let him remember. too. that he is not a legal practitioner. There is a line of demarkation between the lawyer in business and his brother of the bar which should and must be observed. and this is true whether the need of the moment is for the ounce of prevention or the pound of cure. To this end let the lawyer in business continue to look to counsel for the advice and assistance necessary to supplement his own experience and judg- ment. And so they pass out of the doors of our law schools, some to assist in marshalling and directing the forces of business and some to assume the responsibility of adjusting. com- promising and settling the differences arising from the clash of interests of those forces. Page One Hundred Twenty five

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lFORUM Exclusive photo showing impression Proj. , Hall frequently I1 fNote the dense void! im 35355332 5 'i 1' Em .. El Wayne Norman, markable ezcampl .,1dg,, CDD as of his class in wills. Showing where the more prosperous students park. Jr., night class. A re- I e of trick photography. Morris Karp reclining on campus. Page One Hundred Twenty-siz