Sure! Doesn't everybody, even other Lawyers?

Lawyers can tie you up in court costing you great baskets of money upon the flimsiest of allegations. Even if they loose, they have caused you trouble and kept you from doing other things that make money.

Companies fear lawyers, individuals don't, this is why they have companies

Hmm. you sound like one of them, even your name sugests it (what a thief ?).

Lawyers don't help anybody except the trouble itself. $$$

Yahlasit

When lawyers are done being lawyers, they become politicians so they can make up laws for their lawyer friends. It's a circle-jerk.

I am a guest on this formu and not a lawyer but I have recently decided to go to law school at the age of 53. I am a former Engineer (electronic) for General Electric. This discussion caught my eye and reminded me of something my grandfather told me.

"No body likes lawyers until they need one, then you hope like crazy that you can get a good one"

I hope to be a good one.

It is quite simple, politicians frequently have a need in their early careers to be perceived as highly competent to compete in lower level (entry-) local political scenes against the more basic entrenched politicians who tend to be real estate agents, school teachers and local land developers. A JD has the appearance of prestige to the general public while being very rapid and easy to obtain compared to a MS in Science or Engineering (way easier than a MD). A JD will get you out into political networking early on and makle you competitive against the only established politicians. I have to admit, after seeing how innane high school teachers are, we have 3 sitting on our city council and we have had 2 embezzlements in the last 3 years totally over 1.3 million, I would definitely prefer someone a little more educated. So I am sure the general public perceives the Lawyers as vastly superior to their other political options at the local levels. Once you get to State assembly levels then you have to compete against farmers and big developers, so the appearance of education and knowledge, even if it was cheap and easy, is a huge selling point to the public.

Now the down side. If you appear too intelligent, educated or smart you paint a target on yourself and the general public wants to see you get knocked down. The thing with Lawyers is I believe most people think they too could be a lawyer if they just put forth the time and effort and recognize that it is not a select few of the more intelligent people in society that receive JDs. However, most people think a PhD in Chemistry is someone who is inherently intelligent beyond the general publics understanding or capabilities and only a select few are capable of that level of education. Thus there is a elitist perception that can form, even if there is no exclusivity beyond the capabilities of those in the field.