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I've been in meetings where the lawyers start going at it with each other (just playing devil's advocate or trying out arguments) and it freaks out the normal people who don't realize that it's just an academic exercise. Then when the lawyers are finished they act like there wasn't even an argument and that freaks the other people out even more.
LOL! I have totally seen that!
And it did freak the other people out...I found it entertaining.
You do have a point though - but I think it's not really an argument "style" that they teach in law school (to the extent they teach anything in law school, typically they don't).
Trial lawyers especially love to argue and see it as a sport, and as a result they are very good at it - too good for some people. Sometimes they forget that an argument isn't universally viewed this way or that most other people don't have the thick skins developed through the ritualized verbal abuse they got from professors in law school - one of the few practical things that get taught there.
"Normal" people tend to take things personally that lawyers would just shrug off, and a lot of lawyers can't just "turn off" that function when they leave the office...
I've been in meetings where the lawyers start going at it with each other (just playing devil's advocate or trying out arguments) and it freaks out the normal people who don't realize that it's just an academic exercise. Then when the lawyers are finished they act like there wasn't even an argument and that freaks the other people out even more.
This is an excellent point. Attorneys recreate during conversations by arguing, whether it be Lebron vs. Jordan, or the efficacy of the exigent circumstances rule for warrantless searches. Non-lawyers do not find this enjoyable.
Also, the idea that lawyers argue for the sake of arguing, or for sport, or just to beat opponents into the ground is way overblown thanks to portrayals in the media. Most attorneys never sniff a courtroom, and are forced to abandon the good argument for the one that will persuade the other side to capitulate, or give ground.
Those professions only have to hire the lawyers because Law makers want it that way.
Many laws are written by non-lawyers, and they're usually the laws that foretell quite unintended and undesirable consequences. There's a reason that legal training helps when you're writing laws, just like there's a reason pharmacists counsel you on how your medicines interact.
Many Lawyers are good people who sold their souls to an institution that promotes litigiousness (greed). It is a career that pays well but in my opinion creates a bog in American culture. Lawyers are a impediment to progress.
Many Lawyers are good people who sold their souls to an institution that promotes litigiousness (greed). It is a career that pays well but in my opinion creates a bog in American culture. Lawyers are a impediment to progress.
Were you sued recently or something?
And lawyers get paid, on average, about as well as dental hygienists.
What was interesting about the whole process is that it had nothing to do with getting to the truth. Just manipulating facts. And in the end, even the plaintiff got screwed...but the lawyers walked away with cash in their pockets.
It was a thoroughly fascinating process...like the most interesting colonoscopy you ever had.
Then I was called as an expert witness in another case...and again, it was interesting how nothing was about truth or justice...it was about proving little points that would, as a whole, hopefully influence a bunch of jurors.
Honestly, I would love to go to law school (and my lawyer relatives/friends tell me I'd love it and be great at it) just for the mental exercise. It's really quite interesting to me. I just would never do it as a job.
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