In the United States, a country lawyer or county-seat lawyer is an
attorney at law
Attorney at law or attorney-at-law, usually abbreviated in everyday speech to attorney, is the preferred term for a practising lawyer in certain jurisdictions, including South Africa (for certain lawyers), Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and the Unite ...
living and practicing primarily in a
rural area
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...
or
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
, or an attorney pursuing a rural or small-town legal practice. In such areas, the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
is an important center of government and home to the
county courthouse
A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...
, the forum for local criminal trials and civil litigation. The legal community may be small and close-knit (at the extreme, with only one who may be personally known to the community), and each individual attorney may handle a wide variety of legal matters as local needs dictate.
Historically, such an attorney may have been more likely to have joined the bar by
reading law
Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the ...
rather than attending school, and in modern times may have (or may be assumed to have) graduated from a
lower tier legal program. (The professions of law and medicine had this in common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, as country doctors of that day sometimes trained by "reading medicine" with established doctors, effectively in an
apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...
, with minimal or no medical school training and hospital residency.)
Consequently, the term carries with it certain connotations – both pejorative and complimentary – regarding the attorney's education, economic status, and even moral stature. The term may be applied to one's self, where it may indicate self-deprecation or humility. The term may also be used to describe a person who at one time practiced law in a humble setting, and later went on to do other things but (presumably) remained influenced by the country lawyer experience in later life and work.
In contrast, a city lawyer or big city lawyer would work in an
urban area
An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...
, one of many thousands of other attorneys specializing in a single practice area, possibly the graduate of an expensive and prestigious law school and the member of a
law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...
, potentially responsible to corporate clients whom she has never met in person, and, like most urban denizens, not personally acquainted with most of the other people living nearby. This term, too (especially ''big city lawyer''), may carry pejorative connotations.
According to Francis Lyman Windolph in his 1938 book ''The Country Lawyer'', the term turns more on the general nature of the attorney's practice than on the locality in which he practices:
Robert H. Jackson
Robert Houghwout Jackson (February 13, 1892 – October 9, 1954) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Unit ...
offered his own description in his 1950 essay "The County-Seat Lawyer", focusing both on the attorney's education and social values:
Notable examples
The country lawyer's image – and mythology – has become that of advocate and protector of the common man. Notable American examples include:
*
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
(1767–1845),
frontier
A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...
lawyer (1787–1796), 7th U.S. President (1829–1837)
*
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
(1809–1865),
prairie
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
lawyer, 16th U.S. President (1861–1865),
*
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow (; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was a leading member of t ...
(1857–1938), leading member of the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
*
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer ...
(1872–1933), country lawyer (1897–1916),
State Legislator (1907–1908), Mayor of
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Northampton (including its outer villages, Florence and Leeds) was 29,571.
Northampton is known as an acade ...
(1910–1911), Massachusetts State Senator (1912–1915), President of the Massachusetts State Senate (1914–1915), Lt. Governor of Massachusetts (1916–1919), Governor of Massachusetts (1919–1921), U.S. Vice-President (1921–1923), 30th U.S. President (1923–1929)
*
Robert H. Jackson
Robert Houghwout Jackson (February 13, 1892 – October 9, 1954) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Unit ...
(1892–1954), last
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
justice (1941–1954) not to have graduated from law school, chief U.S. prosecutor at the
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945 ...
(1945–1946).
*
Deane C. Davis (1900-1990),
Governor of Vermont
The governor of Vermont is the head of government of Vermont. The officeholder is elected in even-numbered years by direct voting for a term of 2 years. Vermont and bordering New Hampshire are the only states to hold gubernatorial elections every ...
.
*
Sam Ervin
Samuel James Ervin Jr. (September 27, 1896April 23, 1985) was an American politician. A Southern Democrats, Democrat, he served as a United States Senate, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A native of Morganton, North Carolina, ...
(1896–1985), Democratic U.S. Senator (1954–1974), and leading member of Congressional committees involved in discrediting
McCarthy in 1954 and
Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
in 1974. (Ervin eventually graduated from Harvard Law School three years after being admitted to the bar, but still self-identified as "a simple country lawyer".)
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Strom Thurmond (1902–2003), Edgefield (South Carolina) Town and County Attorney (1930–1938), Circuit Judge, Governor of South Carolina (1947–1951), United States Senator (1956–2003), Presidential candidate (1948).
*
Bobby Lee Cook
Bobby Lee Cook (February 12, 1927 – February 19, 2021) was an American defense attorney from Summerville, Georgia, in Chattooga County.Curriden, Mark:Bobby Lee Cook, ABA Journal. March 2009. Accessed July 8, 2011. He had practiced law since ...
(1925–2021), defense attorney from
Summerville, Georgia
Summerville is a city and the county seat of Chattooga County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,534 at the 2010 census.
History
Summerville was founded in 1838 as the seat of the newly formed Chattooga County. It was incorporated as ...
, reputed to have been the inspiration for the television character
Ben Matlock
Benjamin Leighton Matlock is a fictional character from the television series, '' Matlock'', played by Andy Griffith. Matlock is a renowned, folksy yet cantankerous defense attorney who is worth every penny of his $100,000 fee. Known for visiting ...
[{{Cite news, url=https://www.superlawyers.com/georgia/article/the-bobby-lee-cook-show/9bf73fef-d07e-4ea7-8a8f-2e79e625c5ef.html, title=Bobby LeeCook - Georgia Lawyers - The Bobby Lee Cook Show, work=Super Lawyers, access-date=2018-08-11, language=en]
Notable Canadian examples include:
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John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...
(1815–1891), 1st Prime Minister of Canada (1867–1873)
*
John Sparrow David Thompson
Sir John Sparrow David Thompson (November 10, 1845 – December 12, 1894) was a Canadian lawyer, judge and politician who served as the fourth prime minister of Canada from 1892 until his death. He had previously been fifth premier of Nova Sco ...
(1845–1894), 4th Prime Minister of Canada (1892–1894)
*
Robert Borden
Sir Robert Laird Borden (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I.
Borde ...
(1854–1937), 9th Prime Minister of Canada (1911–1920)
References
Lawyers by type