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This Just In: It's National Be Kind to Lawyers Day!

Did you know there WAS a National Be Kind To Lawyers Day? Kudos to Above the Law for bringing this to our attention! According to Above the Law's blog post, the day was actually lobbied for by a non-lawyer, Steve Hughes, in St. Louis. He created the day by registering it with Chase's Calendar of Events, a McGraw-Hill publication. He evidently had to fill out forms and make several efforts to convince the Chase's people that he was in earnest. You can read the interview Mr. Hughes gave to Above the Law at their blog post.

Then, he created a website devoted to the holiday.

Steve Hughes, a mild-mannered non-lawyer from St. Louis had been working with attorneys for several years in the presentation skills arena. He liked his job and the clients who hired him.

However, whenever Steve mentioned to friends and neighbors that he worked with lawyers he was met with crinkled up faces, snide remarks and sarcastic sighs. They would say things like, "Lawyers? I bet that's a treat." Or, "Lawyers? You poor thing." (Can't you just feel the animosity?) Suddenly he found himself playing defense counsel for an entire profession.

Then one day as Steve was putting away the decorations from National Bubble Wrap Day (late January) his thoughts drifted to National Ice Cream Day (late July) and then it struck him. Why not a special day for lawyers? Lawyers are just as good as bubble wrap and ice cream, in fact, they're better. Thus, the idea for NATIONAL BE KIND TO LAWYERS DAY was hatched.

After extensive planning, detailed research and countless reviews by a team of legal experts, NATIONAL BE KIND TO LAWYERS DAY was established as an annual holiday celebrated on the second Tuesday in April. This date was chosen because it is strategically sandwiched between April Fool's Day and Tax Day April 15th.

So now lawyers of every stripe can be honored and treated like regular people for at least one 24-hour period every April.

Thank you for taking the time celebrate.

The website has a number of ideas for celebrating (it's almost too late this year unless you go for belated celebrations... and they also list a number of "cool lawyer facts." It's a fun website, with a totally unexpected -- and very refreshing take on one of our favorite professions here at OOTJ! Yay, Steve Hughes!

Full post as published by Out of the Jungle on April 14, 2009 (boomark / email).