What They Didn't Teach Me At Yale Law School [antikvár]

George Bernard Shaw once quipped, 'All professions are conspiracies against the laity.' Now, 1 don't know how seriously Shaw meant his remark to be taken. I do know, however, that it comes pretty close to summarizing the feeling that many people — maybe most people — have about the men and women who make up the profession of law. In the general view, lawyers are a clubby group who, with the benefit of an arcane body of knowledge and under the smokescreen of an elaborate system of professional courtesies and rituals, look out for their own - at the expense of the rest of us. Successful lawyers wield more power than most people. They make more money than most people. Typically, they are called in after ordinary reason has failed, when people are already angry, disillusioned, and ready for a fight. For all these and other reasons, lawyers are the targets of an enormous amount of resentment. Much of that resentment is well deserved. The terrible truth is that lawyers - to be blunt — tend to be a real pain in the neck. In a world where time is money, lawyers are masters at stalling. In business contexts, where clear communication is crucial, lawyers hide behind mumbo jumbo that nobody else understands. In a society where justice, in theory at least, is held up as the highest ideal, lawyers are always looking for technical and sometimes dubious means of bending the law to their advantage.