All Jokes Aside, the Grumbling is Probably Good News by Christopher Gatewood, Esq.
People like to talk about their dislike for lawyers. But if you dig a little deeper, even the grousing is mainly good news for the profession. Meet someone at a party or business function, and quickly enough the conversation comes around to the obvious question: "So, what do you do?" someone will ask. "I am a lawyer," I will say. "Oh," and the eyebrows will rise, "I'll try not to hold it against you. Har har har." I usually just shrug or roll my eyes like "I've heard that one before," not wanting to agree, but also not wanting to get into an argument off the clock.
When I can, I will continue the conversation long enough to hear the reason for these comments. The knee-jerk negative comments about lawyers or the more angry kinds of lawyer jokes make me curious about their origins. What I find is that the person doing the har-har-harring is voicing an opinion they have formed after some experience with the judicial system. The person joking about their dislike for lawyers may have been tied up in a piece of commercial litigation for a while, or sometimes it was their own divorce that was their primary involvement. They consider themselves scarred, but smarter for the experience. But here is the good news; With the occasional exception, the wiseacres really like their own lawyer. They just don't like the other side's lawyer. (And sometimes they really, really, don't like the other side's lawyer.)
Whatever their experience has been, the joker will almost always say that they were taken care of by their own lawyer, and that they are eternally grateful for their lawyer's help. But if they ever run into that other lawyer who worked for their ex-wife / former employer / competing company, then so help me (and so forth).
These kinds of conversations tell me that for the most part, all is right with the profession. If a business person or an individual client appreciates his own lawyer but bears some resentment for opposing counsel, that sounds about right. It sounds like the kinds of impressions that you would expect to be left by zealous advocacy, or by someone helping her client drive a hard bargain. And as long as it's within the rules, that's what lawyers should be doing. If we can get our clients to their best results with everybody smiling, that is great. It is also pretty unusual. So if our clients love us and hate the other guy's lawyer, and if the other guy doesn't like us so much at the end of the day, we should expect the grumbling and the lawyer jokes to continue. And that is just fine with me.
© 2010 Christopher Gatewood, Esq.
Chris Gatewood is an attorney with Hirschler Fleischer focusing on the areas of copyrights, trademarks, web development and software licensing, music and entertainment law, and franchising. In 2009, Chris was recognized with Style Weekly Magazine's Top 40 Under 40.
Updated: Mar 09, 2010
