Recent Supreme Court decisions dealing with advertising by lawyers have focused new attention on the question whether lawyers perform services that are standardized or susceptible of standardization. The author examines the concept of standardization as applied to lawyers’ services and suggests five indicators that might reveal the extent to which such services are or could become standardized. He also discusses bow advertising could accelerate the standardization of lawyers’ services and briefly raises questions about what this will mean to lawyers and the public.

Intent to commit a crime has in recent times been used as a basis for assigning fault and making appropriate correctional decisions. The author defines attempt to commit a crime as “engaging in conduct with the specific intention to produce forbidden consequences while aware of the possibility that the circumstances that render such consequences criminal may exist.” The author develops and defends the thesis that inchoate crime is more than merely anticipatory guilt. Mens rea in inchoate offenses is not merely a condition of fault-it is a component of the danger of criminal harm that determines the need for forceful intervention.

Grievances and restlessness among convicted prisoners led to legislation–in 1943 in Massachusetts, in 1957 in Connecticut–establishing sentence review boards composed of three judges of the trial courts of first instance. The authors explore in these two jurisdictions how often and under what circumstances sentences are appealed and modified and what effect, if any, these modifications have on the sentencing practice in the trial courts. They also appraise the value of the Connecticut requirement that the review board state the reasons for its decisions. The authors explore the function of the review boards in the broader context of the need for reducing sentence disparity.