Lawry

Situated beteen the Dukes Palace and the main government buildings, Lawry is home to most of the legal profession of Morton, dealing with affairs in the Tithing Courts, in the old castle buildings adjoinging Duke's Square, and the Dukes Court, which occupies one arm of the Palace.
Although densely packed, the buildings of the Lawry are rather larger than most in Morton, reflecting the inhabitants position in the world as well as the document storeage space that many of the more established firms require. Thus stone is the main material visible in the facades seen from the streets of the ward. Most legal enterprises are run from the ground floors of the lawyers' dwellings though a few yards have been converted into purely business space, used by those who base themselves elsewhere (whether coming to the Lawry each day from other parts of town, or based in other towns of the duchy but maintaining an office and a clerk or two in the nation's capital).

Demographics

The population of the Lawry is rather more cosmopolitan than that of many of the Wards of Morton, as many of the residents have moved from other parts of the Duchy to study, before returning home, or to practice, especially in the courts of Appeal and of Estates. It is however almost entrirely Mor and of middling class urban or landowning rural sorts. Few other than those directly involved in the courts and their households live in the Lawry and most of the minor tradesmen who ply the streets make their homes in Highgate or Corfield and some of the more junior members of the legal profession are now to be found persing their trade in Scrivens.

Government

As might be expected from its primary line of business, the government of the Lawry is dominated by adversarial disputes. Any decisions from the election of the Alderman to contracting for street repairs are liable to be disputed and while resolving local disputes is a part of any Alderman's role, it is commonly the larger part of the day for the Lawry Alderman.

Guilds and Factions

Like many of the inner wards of Morton, the business of the Lawry is dominated by a single trade - that of the law, but the lawyers have never formed a guild. Some say that this would require more co-operation with each other than they are capable of. There are however sets of alliances constantly in flux - those based around a single yard or set of buildings will have a degree of co-operation. The main split is between those dealing with crime and those dealing with property for the Duchys laws make enough distinction that these are effectively separate trades and both regard the other as charlatans and con men.
With no Guild for their business, the Lawry Wardhall fulfills most of the roles of a guildhouse and is consequently larger, more ornate and in more constant use than many of the other Wardhalls. It also has extensive cellars that are rented out for additional archive and document storeage purposes.

Architecture

The buildings of the Lawry are almost entirely residential, and larger than is typical of Morton due to the ground floors of most being given over to office space with the household living in the upper storeys. The facades onto the streets and roads are normally stone faced, even when the back walls (facing the yards that form between the streets) are brick built, on in some cases even timber framed.

Type

Ward

Alderman

Noragh Noragh Caddock is the current alderman of the Lawry ward. In her late thirties she is young for an alderman, coming to the post after a long and bruising campaign between two heavyweights of the ward had failed to come to a conclusion, the ward having split on the civil/criminal divide. Noragh was a late arrival to the contest and many believe that her post is owed to the protest vote of an electorate who just wanted the campaign over. Though she started with good intents her business is clearly starting to suffer for the amount of time she feels she needs to put into local dispute resolution.