Legal Research

Shakespeare quotation: Let?s NOT Kill all the Lawyers?

Excerpt (quote):

?? ?Service to others is a worthy goal for an aspiring professional and the best response all lawyers can make to our critics. We might also urge the bashers to read their Shakespeare more carefully

The words, ?Let?s kill all the lawyers,? were not spoken by a disgruntled litigant (or even by Henry VI?s press secretary). They were uttered by the conspirators in Cade?s Rebellion, who planned to overthrow the English government, destroy the ancient rights of English men and women, [as such ?rights? were available to women at that time], and establish a virtual dictatorship.

Through the rebels? threat, Shakespeare reminds the groundlings that lawyers, as protectors of that system of ordered liberty, are as much an obstacle to a rebellion that would curtail liberty as any garrisoned castle. Thus, Cade?s path to oppression leads inevitably over their bodies??. ? John J. Curtin, Jr., Esq., President, American Bar Association, published in the ABA Journal, September, 1990. ??

(link to full f/k/a post)

See also here for another view and comments.

Full post as published by Oregon Legal Research on August 14, 2008 (boomark / email).