Wis. State Bar offers CLE on "Lawyer Jokes and the Public Perception of the Legal Profession"
Wisconsin Law Journal
February 19, 2007

As comedian Jerry Seinfeld might quip: What's the deal with all the lawyer jokes? Four panelists tackled the topic at a Wisconsin State Bar CLE seminar on Feb. 14, titled "Lawyer Jokes and the Public Perception of the Legal Profession. " Attorneys Bruce F. Ehlke, of Hawks Quindel Ehlke & Perry, S.C.; Charles E. McCallum, of Warner Norcross & Judd, L.L.P. in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Marc Galanter, law professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School; and Gregory J. Van Rybroek, director of the Mendota Mental Health Institute, offered their perspectives on why lawyer jokes are not necessarily a laughing matter in today's society.

Changing Humor Lawyer jokes have circulated for centuries and for the most part, the jabs were gentle and occasionally slightly complimentary. "A lawyer, a scientist and a minister are adrift at sea. With land in sight, the breeze subsides, forcing one of the men to swim to shore. The lawyer volunteers and agrees to pull the other two in from shore. As he begins to swim in, the minister notices a shark's fin above the water headed toward the lawyer. At the last minute, the shark darts out of the lawyer's path. The minister exclaims, 'Thank God for the power of prayer. ' The scientist turns to him and says, 'Prayer? That was just professional courtesy. '" Aside from the art of deception often associated with sharks, the joke has underlying appreciation for an attorney's tenacity and ability to perform risky feats for the betterment of others, said Galanter who wrote the 2005 book "Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and the Legal Culture. " Galanter noted that early humor regarding lawyers played on their verbal discourse and economically advantageous nature. "One hundred years ago, the core of jokes and cartoons were based on how lawyers twisted language around in ways which the average person didn't understand, or how they would fleece a client in a humorous manner," said Galanter. Why in the last 25 years have tongues become more acidic when joking about lawyers? Galanter partially attributed the nastier connotations to the legal explosion in the early 1980s. A rise in litigation, automated legal materials and the number of practicing lawyers soured the public, and especially the upper echelon of society, on the value of the legal culture. "Suddenly attorneys were seen as destroying social assets, where as they had been viewed as pillars of the establishment in the past," noted Galanter. "In the late '80s lawyers became perceived as morally deficient and enemies of prosperity. Everyone was suing everyone and there was a dramatic increase in the legalization of society. " All Joking Aside Van Rybroek noted the transition has been aided by public perception of lawyers more as "suits" than human beings, a notion rooted in older stereotypes of greed and conceit. "You can't just be a lawyer," said Van Rybroek. "There has to be more to you because it's harder to attack a good person. " Personalization is especially crucial as the majority of attorneys today are working with businesses and corporations, rather than individuals. "I think there is more dependence on lawyers now than ever before, which makes a lot of people uncomfortable," said Galanter. "We're in this funny situation where on one hand people disparage lawyers and don't want to depend on them, but on the other hand when they have some kind of problem, they want someone to solve it. "

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