Solo Practice

My friend, Scott Greenfield, unleashed a firestorm of 'public' response on his blog Simple Justice when he criticized John Stossel's 20/20 report about a young couple in New York City (happened to be lawyers) who felt compelled to sue their next door neighbor for smoking and/or not preventing smoke from getting into their hallway and other common areas in their apartment building. They were concerned for the well-being of their four year old as it related to the toxic nature of second-hand smoke. He didn't like Stossel's condemnation of the lawyers and said so here. 

Scott was assailed by commenters denigrating lawyers, particularly these lawyers as plaintiffs, and this then turned into a mantra, 'lawyers are a plague on society." (And Scott doesn't take anything from anybody and his responses to commenters reflect this. So, make sure you read the comments.)

I don't choose to enter the fray, but it begs a very important issue new lawyers face:  What do you say when you meet someone who is, shall we say, less than impressed with what you do and feels no qualms about telling it to? 

So, I'm asking you.  What do you say?