Lawyer bashing on CD

[Kris Verdeyen]

You know, it's that 90 percent of lawyers that give the rest a bad name.

I've noticed that lately, the civilized discourse on these forums has been sullied by repeated attacks on a specific group of people. These people, some wonderful examples of gracious professionalism, have become the example of everything that we FIRSTers shouldn't be.

In post after post after post after post, lawyers are slammed, or more often, simply held up as the de facto example of pure evil. Why? No other profession faces such disparagement on these boards, we are largely a civilized group who are loath to use stereotypes (except occasionally in a self-disparaging sense).

So, what gives? Why do we act in this way with regard to lawyers, and what can be done to bring an end to it? Or is the stereotype a valuable illustration as to how not to look at the rules? I'm not sure. I do know that I cringe every time someone brings up "lawyerism" or some other such nonsense as the reason their interpretation of the rules is right.