Brothers In Law by Henry Cecil Read Free Book Online Page B

juniors or QCs, and that a QC has to have a junior?’
    â€˜That’s just about all I do know.’
    â€˜Well, as I was saying, up till a few years before the war, if a junior was led by a QC the junior had to receive two-thirds of the fee charged by the QC. So if you were lucky and led by Carson or F E Smith or someone like that, you might get a fee of 666 guineas for doing a case you’d have been perfectly prepared to do for a hundred, or even less. Doesn’t sound very logical, you say?’
    â€˜I don’t say anything,’ said Roger. ‘I’m listening. I must say, though, I like the sound of 666 guineas. Have you ever had that?’
    â€˜I have not, I regret to say. Well, a few years before the war it was agreed that the two-thirds rule should only apply to a fee of 150 guineas or less. Above that it was to be a matter of arrangement.’
    â€˜No more 666,’ said Roger, sadly.
    â€˜Well, some solicitors were prepared to stick to the old rule. Of course some didn’t. But there’s worse to come. The Committee I mentioned has suggested that the rule should be abolished altogether. The point about the rule is this. By and large, barristers are not overpaid. Indeed much of their work is underpaid. This two-thirds rule is the cream which, when added to the skim milk, makes milk of a reasonable quality. The Committee, while recognizing that barristers are not paid too much, have said something like this: “This two-thirds rule increases the cost of litigation. If it’s abolished, barristers will have nothing to make up for the lowness of their other fees, but none the less let’s abolish it and good luck to you all.”’
    â€˜What’s going to happen?’
    â€˜If you ask me, nothing, but we shall see, my dear fellow, we shall see.’
    At that moment Alec came into the room, took away the papers which were in front of Roger and replaced them with a large bundle.
    â€˜Mr Grimes thinks you’d better look at these,’ he said, and went out again. The brief he left was about six to eight inches thick. Roger looked at it for a moment.
    â€˜D’you think I’ll ever be able to cope with anything of this kind?’ he asked. ‘It makes me despair just to look at it.’
    â€˜Well,’ said Henry, ‘it all depends. If you take to the job and are good enough for it, you’ll be able to tackle anything in due course. But it’ll take time. Let’s hope you only get little stuff to begin with. Otherwise you could come a nasty cropper. When I started I made the most awful bloomer with a case. The solicitors took it away from me in the end, but not before I’d done a lot of damage. Think of a medical student being allowed to play at pulling out a patient’s appendix and grabbing hold of the wrong thing! I don’t even know now whether I was stopped in time. As I said before, it’s funny that we’re allowed to do it. It’s true that the public can’t come to us direct as they can to doctors. But there are plenty of Uncle Georges in the world of solicitors – father Georges even – and, of course, brother Georges – their wretched clients don’t know that it’s your first brief.’
    â€˜But,’ said Roger, ‘one has to start some time. Every professional man has to have his first case, whether it’s a doctor, accountant or a barrister.’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Henry, ‘that’s true enough, but all professional men, except barristers, have had practical experience first. If a barrister couldn’t address the Court until he’s had, say, a year as a pupil, that’d be reasonable. Jolly good experience for you yesterday, but what about the poor client?’
    â€˜I hope he wasn’t there,’ said Roger.
    â€˜Of course,’ said Henry, ‘Peter ought to have been doing it, but he wouldn’t really have been any better than