Etiquette and English Barristers

Etiquette holds that a barrister may not “tout” for retainers nor “hug” for business.

The barrister, Mr. Willis, who took dinner at the Judge's lodgings on Tuesday, gave me some interesting information concerning the relations the attorneys and barristers have toward one another. A barrister may not “tout” for retainers nor “hug” for business. If, on the circuit, he must not eat at the same table with the attorneys. If, he chances to stop at the same inn, his meals must be served in his own apartments; he must not ride in the same coach with a solicitor or attorney, nor smoke in the same room, nor bestow, nor receive any hospitality from him. 

It would be a gross breach of professional decorum for a barrister to waltz or dance with any member of a solicitor's family, for this would be a gross example of “hugging” for business. The phrase “briefless barrister” came to me with a meaning and emphasis that were new to me. After several years of circuit riding without a retainer, the young barrister is apt to conclude that he has missed his vocation, and he betakes himself to the colonies, or does newspaper, or magazine, or other literary work in London or the provinces. It has been stated recently, on what seemed to be good authority, that only about 10 percent the young men who are called to the bar, succeed in making their way.—Indianapolis Journal, 1894

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