lawyers!

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

[was: RE: [PEN-L] Back to slavery]

I wrote: 
> That said, I don't think lawyers are totally unproductive; 
> trashing lawyers is a major indoor sport in the US but 
> ignores those who are the heroes of John Grisham books (while 
> often forgetting the truly evil corporate lawyers). As long 
> as there are laws and conflicts, people will need lawyers. On 
> the other hand, lawyers often seem to create demand for each 
> other: I need a lawyer because the other guy has one, so 
> their efforts cancel out. 
 
Sometimes I think that people hate lawyers for the same reason that the Russian peasants that populate statistics books hated doctors: the latter hated doctors because they're associated with disease, blaming the symptom for the cause. 

I should mention, BTW, that JKS is the type of lawyer who would be a hero in a John Grisham book. He's too modest to mention this.

Jim