Delaware Campus Library Blogs

Today’s local legal history site is not exactly a tourist attraction. It is currently a bed and breakfast. Faunbrook, in West Chester, was the home of the Darlington family, including Isabel Darlington, the first woman admitted to the Chester County Bar and one of the earliest woman lawyers in Pennsylvania.

Isabel’s father Smedley Darlington was a Congressman and a wealthy man but an economic panic in 1893 cost him a large part of his fortune. Isabel seems to have decided it would be a good idea if she entered a profession as an independent means of support. She started attending law school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896, finished the three year course in 18 months, and was admitted to the bar on October 4, 1897.

She went into practice with her brother in law, Thomas Butler, in West Chester, handling estate, property and commercial cases. Probably her most prominent client was Pierre S. du Pont. Ms. Darlington handled the transaction when P.S. du Pont purchased Longwood. She practiced law for many years until her death in 1950.

Much of the information in this post comes from this Philadelphia Inquirer article.

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, and grew up in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois when that part of the country was being settled and developed. After working at an assortment of jobs, including being elected to the Illinois legislature, he decided at age 25 to study law on his own. He was encouraged to do so by John Todd Stuart, a legislator and attorney who welcomed Lincoln into his practice in Springfield when he was admitted to the bar three years later. Lincoln was known as a formidable litigator.

He was elected to several terms in the Illinois General Assembly and one term in the U.S. Congress before returning to Springfield in 1849 to practice law. He dealt with almost every type of legal transaction, specializing in cases involving transportation. He is the only U. S. president to hold a patent, granted in 1849 for a “device to buoy vessels over shoals.” Lincoln traveled the circuit of county courts for many weeks each year and appeared before the Illinois Supreme Court 175 times. He entered into politics again in 1854 and established a national reputation, leading to his election as president in 1860.

Written by Mary Jane Mallonee

The following books on Lincoln’s law career are all avaialable in the Widener Law Library.

Dirck, Brian. Lincoln the Lawyer. Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 2007. E457.2 .D575 2007

Richards, John T. Abraham Lincoln, the Lawyer-Statesman. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1916. E457.2 .R5 1916r

Rizer, Arthur L. Lincoln’s Counsel: Lessons From America’s Most Persuasive Speaker. Chicago, Ill., American Bar Association, 2010. KF368.L52 R59 2010

Steiner, Mark E. An Honest Calling: The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln. DeKalb, Northern Illinois University Press, 2006. E457.2 .S83 2006

Nancy Levit, Douglas O. Linder. The Happy Lawyer: Making a Good Life in the Law. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010. KF300 .L485 2010

From the publisher: You get good grades in college, pay a small fortune to put yourself through law school, study hard to pass the bar exam, and finally land a high-paying job in a prestigious firm. You’re happy, right? Not really. Oh, it beats laying asphalt, but after all your hard work, you expected more from your job. What gives?

The Happy Lawyer examines the causes of dissatisfaction among lawyers, and then charts possible paths to happier and more fulfilling careers in law. Eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach, it shows how maximizing our chances for achieving happiness depends on understanding our own personality types, values, strengths, and interests.

Covering everything from brain chemistry and the science of happiness to the workings of the modern law firm, Nancy Levit and Doug Linder provide invaluable insights for both aspiring and working lawyers. For law students, they offer surprising suggestions for selecting a law school that maximizes your long-term happiness prospects. For those about to embark on a legal career, they tell you what happiness research says about which potential jobs hold the most promise. For working lawyers, they offer a handy toolbox–a set of easily understandable steps–that can boost career happiness. Finally, for firm managers, they offer a range of approaches for remaking a firm into a more satisfying workplace.

Read this book and you will know whether you are more likely to be a happy lawyer at age 30 or age 60, why you can tell a lot about a firm from looking at its walls and windows, whether a 10 percent raise or a new office with a view does more for your happiness, and whether the happiness prospects are better in large or small firms.

No book can guarantee a happier career, but for lawyers of all ages and stripes, The Happy Lawyer may give you your best shot.