Animosity toward
lawyers is nothing new. Nowhere in colonial
America were they hated more than in Virginia.
In 1652 the legislature allowed these
“mercenarie attorneys” to practice, but limited
their fees.
Five years later they were forbidden to take any
fee. By 1656, all restrictions were lifted, but
lawyers had to be licensed. Two years later,
attorneys were forbidden to plead in court of
give advice “for any kind of reward or profit.”
It was not until 1680 that law was reinstated as
a legal profession in Virginia.
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Section
42.
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Against Mercenary Attorneys—Virginia,
1658
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Religion and Morals, pgs. 51 - 52
(Hening's Statutes, i. 482, 483.)
Whereas, there doth much charge and trouble
arise by the admittance of attorneys and
lawyers through pleading of causes thereby to
maintain suits in law, to the great prejudice
and charge of the inhabitants of this colony,
for prevention thereof, be it enacted by the
authority of this present Grand Assembly, that
no person or persons whatsoever within this
colony, either lawyers or any other, shall plead
in any court of judicature within this colony,
or give counsel in any cause or controversy
whatsoever, for any kind of profit or reward
whatsoever, either directly or indirectly, upon
the penalty of five thousand pounds of tobacco
upon every breach thereof. And because the
breakers thereof, through their subtlety can not
easily be discerned, be it therefore further
enacted that every one pleading as an attorney
to any other person or persons, if either
plaintiff or defendant desire it, shall make
oath he neither directly or indirectly is a
breaker of the act aforementioned.
