Through the Years
The earliest ads by local lawyers appeared in the nineteenth century. These were "cards" published in the local newspapers, city directories, and on county maps. These cards never went beyond the attorney's name, address, and "Practice in all Courts, State and Federal."
An 1897 Bibb county map has cards from forty five Macon lawyers, virtually the entire Bar. The attorneys' section is separated from ads by various businesses, including one ad by a notary public, who cheerfully offers to collect accounts, and "draw contracts, deeds, wills, etc." cheap.
In the early twentieth century, State and local bar regulations began to restrict attorney ads. With the coming of telephone classified ads in the 1920's, a few venturesome local attorneys placed their names in bold fact type. Only two names, out of about sixty attorneys' entries, so appear in the 1945 directory. By 1948, the number in bold type had risen to five. This practice was frowned upon by the Bar, and by 1953, there were no bold face entries at all.
Restrictions on lawyers' ads were overthrown on free speech grounds, and by 1979, the telephone Yellow Pages had, in addition to bold face ads, seven cards for lawyers, none larger than 1/4 page. Then things really got rolling.
In 1992, there were nineteen and a half pages of Macon lawyers listed in the Yellow pages in various type. Fifteen of these ads were 1/4 page or larger.
In the latest local telephone book, there are thirty-two pages of lawyers's ads, nineteen of them ½ page or larger, some in spectacular colors. There are also, of course, newspaper ads, TV spots, and great orange floodlit billboards. Bring on the frogs and the lizards.
Frank McKenney
Bar Historian