Geoffrey Bindman QC salutes a Grand American
Attitudes to fees have changed. The fiction that the honour and dignity of the lawyer’s calling precludes the right to demand payment was observed by the Romans and survived in the English Bar. It fitted the image of the English gentleman as one who did not need to earn his living. Gambling on horses, cards, and virtually anything else also belonged to the gentlemanly way of life but for English lawyers betting one’s fee on the outcome of a case was always unacceptable, and remained so until 1997.
This tradition began to break down when Labour introduced the conditional fee to justify removing legal aid from personal injury claims. Lord Justice Jackson’s recommendation that contingent fees should now be permitted is a further step in the transformation of the profession.
Across the pond
Americans aren’t gentlemen. Their law took much from ours in form and content and a few American lawyers have tried to ape the style and customs of the Inns of Court—occasionally with absurd results. I once visited an office in a Chicago skyscraper with stained glass windows depicting mediaeval
