Columbia Law School professor Michael C. Dorf just reported the other day on the Columbia Law survey of Americans’ attitude toward lawyers. The good news has arrived along with the bad. Happily, we are believed to be more honest than politicians. After years of The Monica and Bill Show in Washington, that is like saying people would rather buy a used car from a used car salesman than a politician.
So, before your chest swells knowing you are perceived less dishonest than the Washington group who passes our laws, know that 39 percent of those polled think you’re dishonest. I’ve never understood if Americans who think lawyers are dishonest think their lawyer is honest and feel it is all the remaining lawyers who need a remedial ethics course. Stated another way, if your lawyer exercises a legal loophole to your benefit, that is good lawyering. If your opponent’s lawyer does the same for his client, he is a lowdown crooked snake. Enough of honesty, let us cut to what the survey has to say about compensation.
Only two percent thought lawyers are underpaid. What does this tell us? That two percent of those asked are associates at large firms. Sixty percent felt lawyers are overpaid. What does this tell us? Sixty percent of those responding have had to pay a lawyer. So far we have learned from the survey that most folks think we are overpaid for being dishonest. Perhaps honesty is the best policy but the survey seems to argue the big bucks are elsewhere.
Another area of inquiry was whether lawyers play a beneficial role in holding corporate America accountable to the law. Fifty percent believe lawsuits against corporate America are a good thing to keep big business playing within the white lines. I guess the other 50 percent have never had a Firestone tire blow out, a polluted water source, bought stock in Enron, received financial advice from Merrill Lynch, taken Fen Fen, been prescribed Baycol, dealt with an HMO, smoked — but I ramble. Suffice it to say that about half of those asked would rather rely on the good graces of corporate America to do the right thing. Who said advertising doesn’t work?
Dorf writes that the root cause of distrust of lawyers may be a distrust of the law itself. How could this be? Would a Supreme Court, which stepped into the middle of a hotly disputed presidential election and voted along straight political lines to award the presidency to the candidate who lost the popular vote, have anything to do with it? Would the continuous stories of innocent men on death row add to the skepticism? Perhaps.
If Dorf is correct then a titanic campaign is needed to turn the tide so Americans regain faith in the lawyers. In the end it is the lawyers who are the custodians of the law. It therefore falls to them to improve the public’s perception. This daunting task will be achieved one lawyer at a time. Just do the right thing, and as Mark Twain said, “You will gratify a few and amaze the rest.” And contrary to popular opinion your compensation may rise.
— Larry Glenn is an attorney in St. Louis and a member of The Levison Group, which provides columns for this newspaper.
He may be reached at [email protected].