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Type
“lawyer jokes” into a search engine and you’ll
get thousands of hits. Yahoo returns 703,000, Google, 410,000
and Microsoft 156,000. Go to Amazon.com for books of lawyer jokes
and it returns hundreds of suggestions: Lawyers Jokes, Quotes
and Anecdotes; Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture;
Blanche Knott’s Truly Tasteless Lawyer Jokes, to name just
a few.
Lawyer bashing goes back at least as far as Shakespeare’s Henry V and the oft-quoted line, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Some legal analysts would have you believe that Dick the Butcher, who uttered those words, suggested that removing lawyers would eliminate an impediment to a revolution, underscoring the profession’s critical role as learned guardians of society. A closer reading suggests that Shakespeare, whose disdain of lawyers shows up in several plays, was setting up a joke for his Elizabethan audience.
But when you need a lawyer, whether it’s closing a purchase on your new home, setting up a family trust, ensuring compensation for injury, acquiring a rival company or, God forbid, defending against a criminal indictment, it’s no joke. A good lawyer can guide you through the increasingly complex maze that everyday life has become, dispensing well-reasoned advice, offering practical solutions and keeping you out of court whenever possible. The question is, where do you find a good lawyer when you need one?
