It is no surprise that in America, the general public strongly despises lawyers. We see it in many forms. Threats against the profession from high office, threats to litigators and judges (often in family court) even instances of lawyers being shot to death in their offices by disgruntled opposing parties (see Doug Lewis, Esq., 2022 in GA). It’s unfortunate that much of the general public does not give the profession the respect it deserves but it wasn’t always this way.
Back the 1960s and 1970s, the legal profession and lawyers in general were seen as community pillars—Thanks, Perry Mason. But today, it’s a much different perception. As far back as 2002, the majority of Americans, 60% to be precise, believed that lawyers were “Overpaid” and a significant percentage of those respondents also deemed lawyers as “Dishonest” (see FindLaw Forum on CNN.com 4/17/02). While there many reasons for this disdain, I think the chief rationale behind this shift is due to the growing adversarial nature of the profession. Often times when a normal average person encounters a lawyer they are going through a very difficult life experience like a divorce, a car accident, being sued or having to sue someone, etc. All of these experiences create negative associations when someone thinks “lawyer.”
Add to that today’s ever increasing economic reality for the bottom 70%-80% of income earners in America and it’s no surprise that a certain anger arises when a client opens up that first or second past due invoice from a law office. Despite these factors, I remain convinced that the general public hates us for the wrong reasons.
The reality is, and this may be hard to hear, but the average client believes he or she possess way more knowledge than he or she actually does. I have seen in my own law practice that clients with 0 legal experience or expertise think they have it in them to better navigate their case than the expert they just paid thousands of dollars to— AKA, yours truly. Contrary to popular belief, this isn’t a “the customer is always right” line of work. Attorneys are required to follow strict guidelines as determined by the State Bar Association on how to navigate cases in an ethical and efficient manner including how to treat opposing parties and their attorneys. This may not always align with the average client’s expectation of “advocacy.” Add to that, lawyers dwarf their general work force counterparts in terms of average salary (see US Bureau of Labor Statistics)and it’s no surprise that normal everyday Americans (And I’m really talking about the bottom 80% of income earners here) sees lawyers as systemic agents of a society they feel has wronged them economically. It’s a broader problem that manifests itself in vitriol towards gatekeepers of the legal system. Until next time, stay leveraged.
- Leveraged, Esq.