Legal Commentary

another reminder: August 31st is Love Litigating Lawyers Day

By David A. Giacalone

Snoopy or Sharky?

snack room ?
the litigator takes
a third of the donuts

???????.. by dagosan

When you think “lawyer,” which image comes to mind: Snoopy or Sharky? You don’t have to read the study ?Public Perceptions of Lawyers? (ABA Section of Litigation, 2005), nor our Shakespeare on Lawyers, to know how most people react to the L-word. Therefore, although the f/k/a Gang prefers mediation to litigation (and have gathered many stinging quotes about litigation and trials), we’ve done our best the past few years to remind our readers and blogging colleagues that August 31st is Love Litigating Lawyers Day. It is no surprise, however, that LLL Day (which was created by Wellcat.com), like the similar April 8th celebration of Be Kind to Lawyers Day, just doesn’t seem to be catching on with either the public nor the Bar. Indeed, Wiley has noted this problem in several Non Sequitur cartoons, such as this one and that one.

It is not at all clear what we can do to make lawyers (not to mention litigation) more popular. Over at EdHelper.com, August 31st and Love Litigating Lawyers Day have been turned into a Career Day theme for Grades 7 to 12. However, I’m not too sure that the suggested Lesson Plan for the day — a vocabulary list — is going to lure many youngsters into the profession:

Vocabulary - challenging words: articulate, himself, lethargic, problem, anyhow, watcher, abreast, all-important, never-ending, glamorous, passionate, solution, ever-changing, ongoing, meaningful, position

This approach might work better:

tagging along
with an ice cream cone
the senior partner

… by Barry George

I’m not even sure that this lovely “Lawyers Do It In Front of a Jury of Their Peers” t-shirt (via George Lenard) will help improve the popularity of the legal profession, despite the prevalence of dirty old men in the general population and the Bar.

mid-argument -
opposing counsel crosses
her legs

. . . by dagosan

As you may recall, not even trial lawyers want to be call trial lawyers any more. But, we would have thought that Walter and Ted at Overlawyered.com would want to toast the profession that has made them famous in the blogisphere. The closest we could find to a celebration of litigators this week at their website is Walter Olson’s coverage of “Biden and the Trial Lawyers” (Aug. 23, 2008) — which tells of the Democratic nominee for Vice President’s close ties to the plaintiff’s bar, and recalls Joe Biden’s affectionate “bottom-feeders” line (via Point of Law):

“I’ll pay the bottom-feeders to go out and get these big fees to stop bad guys from doing bad things.”

.

That reminded me, of course, that the Democratic National Committee should love litigating lawyers a lot. (See, e.g., CampaignMoney.com, which shows that Democrats have received 80% of of all political contribution by trial lawyers since 1999; and “Cash Bar - How trial lawyers bankroll the Democratic party,” National Review, August 20, 2001.) If they hurry, on the last day of their National Convention, perhaps the Dems can hold a quick, early celebration in honor of Love Litigating Lawyers Day.

If you need an even better reason — beyond the Sermon on the Mount — to love litigating lawyers, check out Carolyn Elephant’s post at Legal Blog Watch, “Litigation as Profit Center” (Aug. 26, 2008). Carolyn points to an article in The Columbus Business Journal, which ” describes the range of different revenue sources that have developed around the Franklin County Courthouse.” And, she concludes, “Ah, profiting off of litigation — isn’t that the American way?”

. . . . . . . . . . .

That’s all the time I’m going to spend convincing you to do a little something nice for a lawyer on August 31st (even the non-litigating ones). Try hard to curb your enthusiasm. You know how much the Bar treasures its image of dignity.

litigation bags ?
the associate?s
half-closed eyes

… by dagosan

clear and cold
the snap
of her attorney?s briefcase

… by Ed Markowski

Full post as published by f/k/a . . . on August 28, 2008 (boomark / email).