Lawyer Jokes

Three general surgeons are in the locker room after a long day's work. Two were younger, energetic types; the other, more senior. One of the younger surgeons asked:

"Hey, what's your favorite patient to work on?"

"Oh, hell, that's easy," said the youngest surgeon. "I like engineers. You open them up and all of the parts are labelled numerically. To put them back together you just connect the parts labeled '1' to the other part labeled '1', '2' to '2', and so forth."

The other younger surgeon piped in, "I like artists for the same reason. They're all color-coded. You connect the red pieces, the yellow pieces, the green pieces and so forth."

The crusty old surgeon had heard enough. As he was straightening his tie, he said, "You're all full of shi*. Everyone knows that the best patients to work on are lawyers. Hell, the only have two parts, a mouth and an a**hole, and they're both interchangeable."

I heard this joke years ago. Chuckled, and moved on. No doubt there's plenty of similar jokes about doctors.

But in an interview with the director of media and public relations with the Allegheny County Bar Association, they asked, "What are you going to do about lawyer jokes?"

Seriously.

It seems the Allegheny Bar Association is concerned about this survey:

In a 2002 survey by the American Bar Association, only 19 percent of 450 individuals polled said they had extreme or high confidence in the legal profession. Lawyers ranked second-lowest in the study, just above the media, which garnered a vote of confidence from only 16 percent of those surveyed.

Some of the reasons lawyers aren't respected, according to the survey: They "are more interested in winning than seeing justice served;" "spend too much time finding technicalities to get criminals released;" and are "more interested in making money than in serving their clients."

Most of my neighbors are lawyers. They are very nice people. Really. But lawyers can bill for their time, right down to the minute. The rest of the world gets paid by the hour, but lawyers get paid by the minute. Lawyers are smart and have an inside edge to the legal system here in America, and know how to sue. And they sue sometimes for ridiculously big sums.

But now it's spreading to the Pennsylvania Bar Association, too:

The Pennsylvania Bar Association is also tackling the image issue. It has retained a Philadelphia media consultant to create a three-commercial campaign that will air beginning in April on CBS television affiliates in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, an ABC affiliate in Erie, and on cable stations in central parts of the state.

...

The state bar -- with about $400,000 to spend on its campaign -- also plans radio spots and an improved Web site to get its message out.

So does a marketing campaign by the Allegheny and Pennsylvania Bar Associations that serves to add additional expense to the already high minute-by-minute wages for lawyers and might be considered a "frivolous" concern serve to help or hurt their profession?

-Wes

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Thanks, Kevin for the legal help.

And hat tip to Overlawyered.com.