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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Julia Virginia Jones, October 6, 1997. Interview J-0072. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

Differences between smaller and larger legal communities determines the degree of legal cooperation

Jones explains the importance of a legal community's size in cultivating friendly work interrelationships. Unlike the work ethic in larger towns, small town lawyers tend to engage in symbiotic working relations and focus less on making lots of money.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Julia Virginia Jones, October 6, 1997. Interview J-0072. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

NANCY S. FRIEDMAN:
What do you see . . . . You hear all these things about the change in legal community, about it once being tight net friendly and now it's moved away from that. Is that your impression?
JUDGE JULIA V. JONES:
Well, I think size has a lot to do with everything. I think people are very pragmatic. I have a friend, who for years professed that she did not believe in God but she thought that the golden rule was the economic rule that made the world go around, and that you do unto others as you would have done unto yourself. That was the whole basis of world economy basically. My theory is that if I am in a small town and there are ten lawyers, and you and I are against each other on this case, and I need a continuance because my client is sick or just because he acted as a jerk, or because I wanted to go on vacation, that you are going to say okay because next time you're going to need the same from me. So, when you pull away from that, and you are dealing with lawyers in all different towns, and they think you're not ever going to see them again after this little case, they are not inclined to be amenable.