You may be interested in a man named George Wythe.

Something to remember is that British law was the law of the colonies, so lawyers at the time of the revolution had been brought up following those laws. As a basis, many of those laws were carried over into the founding of the new nation.

George Wythe was the first signer of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia and continued to practice law and work on legislation afterwards.

For a reference to how a more well known founding father acknowledged him:

"No man ever left behind him a character more venerated than George Wythe," Thomas Jefferson wrote. "His virtue was of the purest tint; his integrity inflexible, and his justice exact; of warm patriotism, and, devoted as he was to liberty, and the natural and equal rights of man, he might truly be called the Cato of his country."

As for what kind of work needed to be done, he fought against slavery (which was an institution under British law and was carried over into the founding of the United States).

He ruled that Virginia's Declaration of Rights -- written by Mason and adopted in 1776 -- included African Americans among the "all men" born free and equally independent. "They should," Wythe said, "be considered free until proven otherwise." His ruling did not survive appeals.