Why I don't like the legal profession

Lawyers are neither more nor less likeable, I suppose on average, than anyone else.  This is not personal.

When I was in high school, being outspoken, loquacious, and opinionated, I was many times told I should be a lawyer or even that I might make a good lawyer.  At the time I would shudder and stay silent -- I had already formed my opinion of the profession.

If someone is smart and goes to college, one is presented with a number of possible career choices.  One can become a teacher if one is idealistic and likes children and is not too much worried about making a lot of money.  Or one can become a doctor if, again, one is idealistic and perhaps fascinated by blood and gore, but at the same time wants to be affluent.  Or one can become an architect or artist or musician if one is into beauty and would like to be well off but is more interested in appreciation and even fame.  Of course if one is nerdy or likes mathematics, one can go into computers or engineering or science.

There are, then, many choices.  The ones who go into law are a little different.  They too are smart, but not idealistic and very much interested in money.  The other group who also fit this are of course those who go into business schools.

The similarities between the two groups are considerable.  The thing I want to bring out though is they both have a certain tendency to rationalize unethical behavior, so long as there is a good chance they will get away with it.  Of course I am sure there are exceptions to this, but the exceptions are not typical.

People self-select and lawyers are people with this personality trait.  Their training makes it even worse.  Under the rationalization that even the worst criminal is entitled to good legal representation at trial, they confuse juries and distort evidence and in the end the most competent of them help celebrities get away with murder.

So also, and even worse, is the tort bar, where the lawyer creates and seeks out litigation, slowing the economy and increasing costs for everyone not winning the tort lottery.  The rationalization is fair compensation to those injured, but that lawyers and litigation can be done without is demonstrated by worker's compensation systems and other similar experiments -- but the lawyers in the legislature prevent such arrangements from being put into place for most litigation.

The end result, especially in the United States, is a country bursting at the seams with lawyers making comfortable and in some cases outrageous amounts of money off litigation and the threat of litigation, generating in my view a general decline of the country (it would be more noticeable except lawyers elsewhere do similar things) and a lower standard of living for the population, and, in many cases, especially medical care, a level of expense that makes not having insurance an insane proposition, as insurance premiums go higher and higher.