522
The Green Bag
exceptional man. We soon found that he was the quickest man we ever saw in running down authorities, in fact he
was so remarkably fast that at first
man to be somewhat superficial in his amusements and at the University, but in the law ofiices that I have seen there is little or no room for a superficial
looked at the authorities at all—we suspected him of taking his law and
law clerk. Mr. Golightly never learned to take a real and deep interest in the work of the ofiice and his quickness in
decisions solely from the digests.
we doubted
whether he ever really
In
getting away at five o'clock even ex
these suspicions we were wrong, for what he did do was to skim over his
celled all his other efforts. I have spent hours trying to give myself the reason
reading and get the meat out in the
for
time that I would be reading the head note.
Perhaps it was that everything had always been so easy for him that he was bound to make the law business easy also. Perhaps the very breadth of his interests and wonderful abilities took his mind off the serious business of the law. Or perhaps he was merely intellectually lazy, or was so impressed with the greatness of his powers that he hesitated to waste his energies on any work that might ultimately prove to
Now I and all my ancestors have al ways been slow and when I see one of these wonderfully quick men, I always envy him and at the same time always suspect that he is superficial. That, I came to feel, was the real trouble with
our new clerk.
If he were told to look
this
brilliant
man's
up the authorities on a particular point, he would return in an incredibly short time bringing in a few decisions that were
have been unnecessary.
positive in tone and apparently law.
solved the problem.
inefficiency
I have never
When we turned
Upon being asked if they had been over
him loose on a new job he went over it
ruled or modified by any later decisions or statutes, he would reply without
with such speed that he only touched
embarrassment, “Vhy, I don't suppose so, but I can look that up if you wish.” In fact his idea was always “I can look that up if you wish," and sure enough he could. But on the other hand, it
never occurred to him to study and hunt out the problems on his own initiative. In the two or three years that he was with us, I think he never suggested a new theory or a new defense, nor a point of law or fact that had been previously overlooked.
At first I thought Mr. Goiightly's trouble was solely due to inexperience and that in a few months he would understand and appreciate how labori ously and carefully the modern lawyer searches the authorities for support upon every point that can possibly come up. It is all very well for a brilliant
the high places. We would then have to lead him back over the whole ground and point out all that he had overlooked and assure him that we really would like to have him look up this and that point
in addition to the ones that he had regarded as important.
If we held his
hand and told him what to do he could do it with a speed and ability that I have never seen surpassed. But We had something else to do than lead
around and direct a law clerk, and an)" way the process was a bore and we were
not receiving salaries for acting as Mr Golightly's assistants. I have been interested to follow Mr Golightly’s work since he left us to start
in for himself, and I hoped that he could treat his clients’ affairs with a greater thoroughness than he did ours He has never had a great practice but
