Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

and immediately said, "We are very pleased to inform you . . ." I said,
"Read no more," because I knew that that was the key sentence.
When they say,
"We are pleased to inform you . . ." you would know you had passed it. So
then I came back to Chicago and I worked for this lawyer until January and I
got my license on January 20, 1947.
Q: What type of work did you do for him during that . . .
A: Well, I briefed cases, answered calls in courts for him: you know, the
continuance in cases and look up files and that kind of thing, General leg
work, more or less, plus some briefing of cases. If there was some paint he
wanted to know about, I would go into the library and write him a brief for it.
A: Then what did you do in January?
A: Then I just started practicing with him as a lawyer in his office.
Handling some of his cases and began to get a few af my own and started
practicing.
Q: What type of cases were these?
A: Well, he had a general practice but he more or less specialized in criminal
law and domestic law. And that's how I got started with him,
Q: What was the first case you handled? Of your own.
A: I can't remember that, frankly. (pause) I don't remember. I wouldn't
remember the first one of mine from the first one of his, hut he had me trying
cases very--right from the beginning I started trying cases. But I had been
with him for three or four months and I had watched him, so I had a feel for
it; and then we had had trial technique in school, so I knew something about
what you were supposed to do.
Q: What court did you work in on most of your cases?
A: We had both criminal and civil. I had some criminal and some civil.
Q: And where was the court physically located?
A: Well, the criminal court is at 26th and California and the civil court was
right down here in this building.
Q: Where was your office then?
A: We were at 3518 State Street.
Q: Oh, that's right downtown here then.
A: No. Thirty-five hundred south, on State Street.
Q: Oh, 3.518, I see, yes. (pause) How long did you continue with Mr. Clayton?