Lincoln the Lawyer

Samuel Grubb, a bridge builder, was bound for Springfield when the vehicle he was riding in overturned into the bed of a creek. Grubb was seriously injured. He could not be revived for 15 minutes on the scene and was transported to a hospital, where he was confined for several weeks.

He retained counsel, who alleged that the vehicle in which he was riding was not fitted with proper lighting in the pre-dawn accident. The lawyer argued that the defendants were liable for "want of due care and attention to their duty."

The plaintiff's lawyer appeared with his witness and depositions in hand on March 21. A default judgment was entered when a representative for the defense did not appear. Two days later, the defense tried to set aside the default judgment, but the court reaffirmed that a hearing with a jury would be convened March 26 to determine the proper amount of damages. Instead, the case was settled in the next 48 hours for an undisclosed sum, and the defendant, the largest stagecoach company in the Midwest, also paid the court costs.

The year was 1853. The plaintiff's lawyer was Abraham Lincoln.

The name evokes images of stovepipe hats and a lanky, bearded, distinguished individual who rose to the presidency of the United States in 1860. His signing the Emancipation Proclamation was then an unpopular but most cour­ageous and unselfish act.

Even the story behind his signing it on Jan. 1, 1863, demonstrates a self-assured man who put others first. Noticing a minor error in the original copy, he sent it back to the State ­Department to make the correction. He had greeted so many New Year's Eve well-wishers at the White House that his arm was stiff and numb, but he did not want his signature to appear the least bit shaky. Flexing his arm, he signed his full name, not the typical "A. Lincoln" that appears on so many documents.

It is interesting how we are witnesses today to history repeating itself in many ways. President Barack Obama kicked off his campaign in Springfield, at the very place where Lincoln started his run for the country's highest office. They are both trailblazers in standing up for what is right, reaffirming the principles of freedom, and putting this country on a path toward becoming the great nation that it is. Prior to his ascending to the presidency, Lincoln practiced law in the Midwest, particularly in Illinois, for nearly 25 years.

I was intrigued to learn that he handled dozens of tort cases. Lincoln and his partners represented injured plaintiffs in at least five personal-injury cases involving public transportation companies, including railroads and, as noted above, stagecoaches.

But his practice was eclectic — divorce, bank­ruptcy, probate, breach of contract, ­mech­anic's liens, debt collection, corporate fraud, patent infringement, criminal cases. Sometimes he found himself on one side of the aisle, the next time he may represent the opponent in another case. As Professor Mark E. Steiner, a scholar of Lincoln's life and career put it, "Lincoln took business as it came."

Some may be surprised to find that as likeable and knowledgeable as he was, he was not a man without faults. Often using his stove­pipe hat as a briefcase, he once admitted to losing important court documents when he bought a new hat. His office, as depicted in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, shows a complete mess — papers scattered everywhere, his sons jumping on his desk, throwing inkwells around the room, while Lincoln studied, lounging on the couch.

He may not have followed what are today's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which incidentally were not effective at that time, but he was known for his quick wit, his intense concern for his clients and his intelligent approach to his cases. My firm, Clifford Law Offices, is sponsoring a free continuing legal education program at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield on Feb. 10, which is also available to all lawyers on the web to examine the ethics of Lincoln the lawyer, a subject that fascinates me.

Steiner, professor at the South Texas College of Law, along with Professor Emeritus Vincent Vitullo of DePaul University College of Law and Professor Roger Billings of the Salmon P. Chase College of Law of Northern Kentucky University will examine the ethics of Lincoln the lawyer.

I look at him as a man who was not afraid to be an independent-thinking person willing to do the right thing, no matter how ­unpopu­lar it might be. I like people like that. I would like to think that Lincoln and I might have been friends had we been contemporaries. He liked to take on the role of David in a Goliath fight. He thought that he could do a lot of good for people. We need more people in this world like that. He had so much more to accomplish and, of course, as everyone knows, his life was cut much too short. But his life as a lawyer is one that scholars and historians appear to just be scratching the surface of all who he was and how his practice of law impacted him as the 16th president of the United States.

Although there certainly will never be another Abraham Lincoln, he still serves as an example to which we all can aspire, despite his faults and frailties. Happy Birthday, Abe.