dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (08/19/83)
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From parsec!sheppard Aug 16 14:04:00 1983
Yeah, but I can't help feeling that there is something basically
wrong with ANYONE who makes their living from the misfortunes of
others (particularly lawyers).
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<flame on>
Now HOLD IT one second. Would you make the same statement about doctors?
After all, they make their living from other people's sickness.
Lawyers do not make their living from the misfortunes of others.
The legal profession is a *service profession*, and lawyers make their
living from (1) advising clients how to deal with a society which is
extremely complex, and (2) arguing on behalf of clients who are less
familiar with the system and less able to argue on their own behalf.
The criminal lawyer helps ensure that his client gets a fair
and impartial trial. (He himself is not impartial, of course; the basis
of the adversarial system requires that both sides present their case
as strenuously as possible.) The real estate lawyer ensure that his
client gets a good title to the property he is buying, or a valid and
enforceable mortgage, or whatever. The corporate lawyer negotiates
on his client's behalf to make sure that the client gets what he
wants in his contract. The tax lawyer helps his client achieve
business goals without attracting more tax than the system requires.
If lawyers didn't fulfill a useful role in society, we would
soon be out of business. And don't give me any more of this "lawyers
create more laws to give themselves more business". The laws and
regulations are created by politicians in response to lobbying
from every imaginable special interest group in society. If we're
to have the multi-faceted society that we do, it's probably unavoidable.
And much of what lawyers do (negotiating and drafting contracts,
suing people, defending persons accused of crimes) has very little
to do with the complexity of our statutes and regulations.
<flame off for the time being>
If anyone wants to go ahead and create net.legal, I'll be happy to
continue the discussion there.
Dave Sherman
The Law Society of Upper Canada (utcsrgv!lsuc!dave)
Toronto
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{allegra,cornell,floyd,ihnp4,linus,utzoo,uw-beaver,watmath}!utcsrgv!dave