Journal of the Southwest

Lawyers of Los Angeles: A History of the Los Angeles Bar Association and of the Bar of LosAngeles County by W. W. RobinsonReview by: Felix F. StumpfArizona and the West, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Summer, 1961), p. 191Published by: Journal of the SouthwestStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40167920 .

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REVIEWS 191

LAWYERS OF LOS ANGELES: A History of the Los Angeles Bar Association and of the Bar of Los Angeles County. By W. W. Robinson. Los Angeles: Los Angeles Bar Association, 1959. 370 pp. $7.50.

reviewed hy

Felix F. Stumpf

Mr. Stumpf is the Administrator, Continuing Education of the Bar, University of California Extension. He resides in Berkeley.

W. W. Robinson is well known in California for his historical writings, particularly for his Land in California. Under the imprimatur of the Los Angeles Bar Association, he has now written a history of Los Angeles lawyers from the

beginnings of the city to the present time. Throughout his account, he has

sought to weave the organizational struggles of the Bar Association into the

history of Los Angeles. A book undertaken as an institutional study is often limited by a necessity

to pay obeisance to the sponsors. Mr. Robinson, however, does not allow himself to be caught in the trap of obscuring all the errors and omissions of the legal profession of Los Angeles; he is, indeed, sometimes rather engagingly frank in

disclosing their shortcomings. But he tends to claim too much for Los Angeles. A minor example occurs on page 224, where he notes that Los Angeles has furnished California with several lawyer-governors. He includes Earl Warren, who was born in Los Angeles. But Warren's legal career was centered in Oakland, where he was District Attorney for many years. Moreover, Robinson's touting of the accomplishments of the Los Angeles Bar Association - commendable as these were and are - eventually becomes as tedious as the advertisements of a local chamber of commerce. The later chapters also bog down at times with long recitals of the names of prominent lawyers and judges.

Intensive historical inquiry into the economic and social backgrounds, and

political activities of California attorneys is yet to be undertaken and mono-

graphic studies completed. Despite this lack, it is remarkable how well Robinson has mustered what information is now available. Furthermore, he contributes fresh data gained from personal interviews. Though the picture he presents is

perforce fragmentary and incomplete, Robinson's book can provide enjoyable and often fascinating reading, interspersed as it is with vignettes of leaders of the bar and entertaining anecdotes and reminiscences not recorded elsewhere. For this alone, it deserves to be in every California lawyer's library.

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