Viewing "Bench and Bar of Norman County." (1918)"Bench and Bar of Norman County." (1918)This history of the legal community of Norman County contains biographical sketches of lawyers and judges who worked there from the 1880s to the First World War. Two historic patterns emerge. First, almost all lawyers beginning practice in the county from the 1890s onward had attended a law school. The era of education by apprenticeship was over. Of the ten members of the Norman County bar in 1918, when this history was published, nine had attended a law school. The second pattern seems to be typical of rural counties in this state during this period: they had difficulty retaining young lawyers. Lawyers started a practice but after a few years moved to larger cities in Minnesota or to North Dakota, Montana, Oregon or Washington. |