As many people in the legal profession are intimately aware, numerous individuals hold a dim view of attorneys. Some folks call lawyers “ambulance chasers,” and others think that attorneys are money-hungry fiends who only care about their bottom lines. In addition, as already discussed by this column, many people treat attorneys differently because of preconceived notions about individuals in the legal profession.
I will readily admit that some lawyers do not act in the most ethical fashion and contribute to the negative perception of the legal profession. As most of us are aware, lawyers have been known to steal clients’ money, run Ponzi schemes, and commit a number of other crimes. However, attorneys are not the only professionals who can be jerks.
Many people have great opinions about physicians. This is likely due to the fact that doctors usually help people and are highly educated individuals. However, we all probably understand that not all doctors are honest in the same way that not all attorneys are as ethical as we might expect.
Many doctors over the years have committed Medicare fraud, and a number of physicians have been sent to the slammer for these crimes. Numerous doctors have also gotten into trouble for over-prescribing narcotics, and some physicians have even been caught prescribing drugs directly to dealers for resale on the street.
Other doctors have committed even more heinous acts that have had more monumental impacts on their patients. I remember reading about one surgeon who was guilty of carving his initials in patients upon whom he operated. In fact, I read a while ago about a surgeon who intentionally maimed and killed patients who entrusted him with their care. I am sure we have all heard stories of physicians intentionally or negligently committing other bad acts.
Even if we can all agree that there are a number of “bad apples” in the legal profession, few things a lawyer does in the course of their practice rises to the level of maiming or killing someone. As a result, I’m not too sure why lawyers are held in such low esteem and doctors are almost universally praised.
One reason why doctors are typically extolled is that the medical profession helps others, which is a worthy pursuit. However, there are tons of lawyers in public interest fields who forgo larger paychecks in order to promote the public good. Many lawyers in the private sector conduct pro bono work, and all lawyers at least putatively promote our system of laws, which is a good thing. As a result, I’m not sure public service is a good reason to extol physicians and crap on lawyers.
Furthermore, some people dislike lawyers because they think attorneys are only motivated by money. As this column has detailed at length, most lawyers do not make as much money as people might think, so this is not a good reason to crap on attorneys. Also, plenty of physicians enter certain fields, like plastic surgery, because these are more lucrative pursuits. So, the love of money doesn’t seem to be a convincing argument to hate lawyers and not dislike other professionals.
Many people I have interacted with also hold ill-will toward lawyers because of how much money they paid an attorney over some legal issue in their lives. I completely understand how some lawyers charge way too much money, and this can leave many former clients with a bad impression of the legal profession. However, physicians also charge a ton of money, and in some ways, the fees billed by doctors are way worse than those charged by attorneys. Oftentimes, patients are not aware how much money a doctor’s visit will cost, and are shocked when they finally get the bill. Of course, most medical costs are typically covered by insurance, but the direct and indirect costs of medical visits are substantial, and fees are not a good basis to exclusively hold ill-will toward attorneys.
Pretty much any profession you can think of has “bad apples.” Although people almost universally praise teachers, not a month goes by when I do not hear about some teacher having inappropriate contact with a student. Most of us respect members of the clergy, but anyone who has seen the movie “Spotlight” knows that “people of the cloth” can violate our trust. And we have all heard stories about how accountants, bankers, dentists, and other professionals have done something unethical or illegal.
In the end, one of the realities of being a lawyer is that other people will dislike you. Sometimes this ill-will manifests itself in bad lawyer jokes, and sometimes people make negative assumptions about you simply because of your profession. However, it is unfair to judge the legal profession based on a few unethical attorneys, since other professionals can be jerks too.
Jordan Rothman is the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a personal finance website discussing how he paid off all $197,890.20 of his college and law school student loans over 46 months of his late 20s. You can reach him at Jordan@studentdebtdiaries.com.
Other Professionals Can Be Jerks Too curated from Above the Law
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