d'affaires of the United States, in the country to which he is accredited, or before one of the following officers commissioned or accredited to act at the place where the acknowledgment is taken, and having an official seal, viz.: any consular officer of the United States; a notary public; or a commissioner or other agent of this state having power to take acknowledgments to deeds. SEC. 2. Every certificate of acknowledgment, made without the United States, shall contain the name or names of the person or persons making the acknowledgment, the date when and place where made, a statement of the fact that the person or persons making the acknowledgment knew the contents of the instrument, and acknowledged the same to be his, her or their act; the certificate shall also contain the name of the person before whom made, his official title, and be sealed with his official seal and may be substantially in the following form: Before the undersigned.... (name of country). .. (name of city, province or other political subdivision). (naming the officer and designating his official title) duly commissioned (or appointed) and qualified, this day personally appeared at the place above named.. (naming the person or persons acknowledging) who declared that he (she or they) knew the contents of the foregoing instrument, and acknowledged the same to be his (her or their) act. Witness my hand and official seal this.. [SEAL] ..day of 19.... .(name of officer). ..(official title). When the seal affixed shall contain the name or the official style of the officer, any error in stating, or failure to state otherwise the name or the official style of the officer, shall not render the certificate defective. SEC. 3. A certificate of acknowledgment of a deed or other instrument acknowledged without the United States before any officer mentioned in Section 1 shall also be valid if in the same form as now is or hereafter may be required by law, for an acknowledgment within this state. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS. To the American Bar Association: The Committee on Publications submits the following report: Pursuant to vote of the Executive Committee the publication of the AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION JOURNAL was commenced in 1915, and placed under the general supervision of your committee, and the editorial charge of its chairman. Three numbers have appeared (for January, April, and July) and we leave them to speak for themselves. It will be perceived that this new quarterly covers the ground previously occupied by the annual bulletin of the Bureau of Comparative Law, and the issue of such bulletin has been accordingly discontinued. The committee would welcome suggestions at any time for the improvement of the JOURNAL, from any member of the Association. All of which is respectfully submitted. SIMEON E. BALDWIN, Chairman. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL ETHICS. To the American Bar Association: Your Committee on Professional Ethics respectfully submits the following report: During the past year this committee has received no further replies to its circular letter, referred to in its last report, to all state and local Bar associations of which it had knowledge, asking for information as to the ethical activities of those associations; and no matters have been brought before the committee which in its opinion call for recommendations to the Association. at this time. No further state associations, so far as the committee has been informed, have adopted Codes of Ethics during the past year; but in several states the subject is under consideration and action may be expected in the near future. The situation as to the discipline of the offending members of the Bar remains in much the same condition as was described in the committee's last report-a state of vigorous, healthy and high-minded activity on the part of some Bar associations, especially in certain large cities, where the need of such activity is most crying, and of serious neglect in many others. Making all allowances for the different treatment which the subject calls for in Bars of different sizes and degrees of homogeneity, this committee still believes that in many parts of the country much. more attentive and systematic action by Bar associations is called for. Past experience gives ample assurance of the success of such efforts when properly exerted. This committee wishes to renew at this time the assurance to all state and local Bar associations of its desire to assist them in such work in all ways in its power. As stated in its last report, "It seems reasonable also to hope that the standing committee of this Association may help in this work by facilitating the inter change of information among other associations and thus acting in a way as a clearing house." The unlawful practice of the law by unauthorized persons has been the subject of efficient action by certain associations which have realized that statutes forbidding such practice cannot in their nature accomplish much unless the hands of prosecuting officers are upheld by the Bar. Prominent in this field has been the continued activity of the New York County Lawyers' Association, fruits of which may be seen in the recent opinion of the Supreme Court, Appellate Term, in L. Meisel & Co. vs. National Jewelers Board of Trade, 152 N. Y. Supp. 913. Recent statutes of Missouri (Missouri Sessions Acts of 1915, pp. 99, 265) forbid any association, corporation or unlicensed person, to "engage in the practice of law or do law business," and define "law business" as "the advising or counseling for a valuable consideration of any person, firm, association or corporation as to any secular law or the drawing or the procuring of or assisting in the drawing for a valuable consideration of any paper, document or instrument affecting or relating to secular rights or the doing of any act for a valuable consideration in a representative capacity, obtaining or tending to obtain or securing or tending to secure for any person, firm, association or corporation any property or property rights whatsoever." The language is very comprehensive, covering, as it would seem, the collection of claims as well as the preparation of all legal documents. The Kansas City Bar Association has appointed a committee to assist in the enforcement of these acts. Another statute (Missouri Sessions Acts of 1915, p. 170) limits the power of a trust company to act as executor under a will drawn by a salaried employee of the company. The Committee on Professional Ethics of the New York County Lawyers' Association has continued with diligence its interesting work of advising inquirers upon questions concerning proper professional conduct; and the result of the year's work has been carefully set out in the report of the committee presented to the Association, May 8, 1915. This committee deeply feels the loss which it and the whole association have suffered in the recent death of General Thomas H. Hubbard. His interest in everything that made for higher professional standards never failed, and his service to the cause was devoted and generous, although hidden, so far as possible, from the public eye. This service included tireless labor on the committee which framed the Code of Ethics for this Association, the contribution from his pocket of the entire cost of reprinting Chief Justice Sharswood's classic treatise and publishing it among the proceedings of the Association, and a handsome endowment of a foundation on legal ethics in the Albany Law School. One of his last works was the interesting and important report of the Committee on Professional Ethics presented at the meeting of the New York State Bar Association on January 22, 1915. EZRA R. THAYER, Chairman. JULIUS HENRY COHEN, WILLIAM O. HENDERSON, JOHN B. SANBORN, Committee. |