Kill all the lawyers?

One of the most famous lines from Shakespeare is "THE FIRST THING WE DO, LET'S KILL ALL THE LAWYERS." It is amazing how a line written 500 years ago so powerfully resonates with our modern society. The public's perception of lawyers is quite complex. On the one hand, there is this idea that lawyers are the root of all evil in America, with their crazy lawsuits leading to all sorts of consequences from dumb disclaimers ("hot coffee is hot") to rising insurance and health care costs. On the other hand, lawyers are idealized in pop culture with a myriad of works glorifying their profession. Arguably, lawyers have surpassed doctors for the title of the #1 "power" profession.

When I was a boy, my grandmother urged me to become a doctor, and why not? Doctors had prestige, financial security, ability to set their own hours, Wednesday golf outings, etc. However, thanks in part to lawyers and insurance companies, the medical profession isn't what it once was. HMO's, PPO's, malpractice insurance, high student loans, and the like have made the medical profession less desirable. Certainly there are very few doctors who are on welfare. However, the medical profession just ain't what it used to be.

Lawyers, on the other hand, seem to have it all, if you believe what you see on TV. Meaningful jobs, lots of sports cars, lots of intra-office romance, and the utmost respect of society (except maybe for divorce lawyers). The interesting thing is that the truth doesn't quite match up to perception.

Exhibit A: A few years ago, I was at a wedding where I was talking to an old buddy from school who had gone on to become a successful attorney. From talking to him, it sounded like his whole live was consumed by his job: 80 hour weeks, no time for vacation, no time for a social life, etc. I'm sure he was making a good amount of money doing what he was doing, but unless you absolutely love what you are doing, you can't live like that without some sort of drug addiction.

Exhibit B: Everywhere you turn, you hear about lawyers who have dropped out the profession to go into less "stressful" or more "meaningful" careers. The lawyer who went back to culinary school to become a chef. The lawyer who bought an old Victorian and turned it into a B&B. The lawyer who started a home-based business selling quilts. The examples of this sort of thing are endless. Maybe it is because there are so many lawyers that there are a lot of ex-lawyers, but you rarely hear about doctors doing the same thing. So maybe there is something to my grandmother's advice to become a doctor. Yes, maybe it isn't the same as it was decades ago, but at least I would be happier than the lawyer down the street.

[Editor's Note: I am neither a doctor nor a lawyer, and no doctors nor lawyers were harmed during the writing of this post.]