WHEN WOMEN ARE LAWYERS

Northern Advocate, 3 September 1919, Page 3

WHEN WOMEN ARE LAWYERS

Writing of women and law Margaret Heitland, in the course of an article in the -'Queen," says:—There are special reasons for women to devote their attencion to the solicitors' side of the proiession. it is possible that they may heip other women with best ertect'ii they oegm by entering a solicitor's office, it is to solicitors rather than to barristers that people, including the poor, come for advice and practical help in their difficulties. Women with small means and education often hesitate to consult a solicitor of the hignest standing because they are afraid of the or simply because they are timid. *The y tend to drift into the offices of men who are less competent (and sometimes Jess honest), or • they allow their troubles to get worse. I have long believed that the poor and notably women would gain very much from the help of qualified women as legal advisers. -Not only would many women be glad to have the advice, of a woman lawyer about their own or their daughter's matrimonial perplexities, but they would also seek it with reference to minor business transactions which at present they often do not take to a lawyer at all, and may consequently mismanage. The "Poor Man's Lawyer" is already an established and esteemed official; but he does not exist in many places. I hope to see the "Poor Woman's Lawyer" soon and often. She will be needed as an advocate to plead the cases of her clients in court. But almost greater will be the call for her help in the office and in private. If it were only to explain the provisions of some of the more recent Acts of Parliament she might find plenty to do, since the majority of women have very little knowledge of their position under the law, whether as wage-earners and employees, as traders, as voters, tenants, mistresses or servants, lodginghouse-keepers, taxpayers, or in any other of their various civic and human capacities. If professional etiquette would allow a woman solicitor to open her office under the title of a "Women's Legal Bureau," I am confident that the office would be crowded with applicants whom it might be difficult to restrict to women, and whom even six-and-eightpence would not dismay.

The law, it is a truism to say, has been [hitherto "man-made.' 1 Inasmuch as it has been made for women as well as men, it is right that in future it should be partly womanadministered.