<< But: all lawyers play this game [it's sort of a meta-game, since
only the lawyers get any enjoyment out of it on either side], so
don't tell me there are "good lawyers" and the like.
>>
OK, I won't say that Clarence Darrow, Arthur Kinoy, William Kunstler, Leonard Weinglass, Thurgood Marshall, or Jack Greenberg (just to name a few) are good lawyers. You can explain to Mumia, or to the 35 or so exonerated death row prisoners who met in fall 1998 at Northwestern that all lawyers are scum. Or you can explain to the relatives of the guy murdered by the Chicago cops and paramedics whose case my judge let go forward that their lawyers, suing the city for violation of his constitutional rights, are evil parasites.
When I was in law school, my dentist told me at at dentist conventions they tell lawyer jokes. I pointed out to her that lawyers don't sue dentists, patients sue dentist. By rights they ought to tell patient jokes.
--jks