L.M. Gensman :

Abstract

A study of Gensman's activities indicates that Gensman did not differ greatly from most Western attorneys in the type of law practiced, in the degree of political involvement, or in the pursuit of outside enterprises to augment income derived from legal work. In addition, the records suggest that Gensman was not unique in his level of formal legal training, in his absence of a family tradition in law, in his motive for choosing to locate his practice in a pioneer region, or in his attitude toward reform of the bar that many early twentieth-century, Eastern attorneys advocated.

While studies have investigated the evolution of American legal thought and, in particular, the impact that the market and the corporation had on American law, with the exception of attorneys who became highly prominent public figures, scholars have generally eschewed the undertaking of biographic studies of the more prosaic, small town practitioner of the law; therefore, knowledge concerning attorneys remains scant. Employing the biographic approach, this work endeavors to reflect through L. M. Gensman's professional life some of the individual and group attitudinal and behavioral tendencies of early twentieth-century, Western attorneys.