f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

Love Litigating Lawyers Day/a/k/a Lawyer Appreciation Day, Aug. 31, 2007

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When they “officially” designated (and copyrighted) August 31st as Love Litigating Lawyers Day, the folks at WellCat.com noted: “Love Litigating Lawyers Day — Lawyer jokes abound, but when push comes to shove, these are the folks who can end up saving the day.”

Is the nation ready for Love Lawyers Day? I’m afraid the public response and turnout has not improved since Wiley covered the first Lawyer Appreciation Day Parade at Non Sequitur in September 1993 (see above). As we’ve done in prior years, f/k/a tried to whip up a little enthusiasm for Love Litigating Lawyers Day last week. However, if Google News is right, the mainstream media totally ignored the event. It got only a skeptical notice in the general blogisphere. And, most surprising, even the blawging world overlooked the celebration:

• Bob Ambrogi at Legal BlogWatch might have discouraged crowds along the parade route on Friday, when he reported that two lawyers are about to set a record in Iowa, getting $75 million in fees for work on a class action suit against Microsoft, after claiming to have worked 117,000 hours on the case. Bob also put his spotlight on a court decision from the 6th Circuit federal appeals court that chided lawyers for the State of Michigan on the dreadful job they did trying to defend a ban on bottomless exotic dancers — “for misapplying legal theories, relying on outdated law and inadequately explaining how the ban furthered state interests.”
• At Overlawyered.com, Ted Frank and Walter Olson — who, let’s face it, have gotten famous thanks to litigating lawyers — never acknowledged the Day (despite out heads up to them on Aug. 24th). Instead, it was business as usual, with Walter writing about “Lawyers’ license to defame adversaries” in Tennessee; Ted preferring the European system for litigating medical malpractice; and their co-conspirator David Nieporent knocking A&P for suing over a Youtube video.

update (April 16, 2008): See “we all missed Be Kind to Lawyers Day on April 8, 2008″

Trial lawyers can at least be consoled by Robert Rogers’ brief recognition of their day at BLT: The Blog of Legal Times, saying:

“Hear ye, hear ye: Today is “Love Litigating Lawyers Day.” So here’s to motions practice, discovery disputes, summary judgment (or not), looming trials, potential settlements, and if things go badly, perhaps another chance on appeal. And let’s not forget those litigators on the crim side — prosecutors and public defenders, I think you’d be included, too.

“OK. Now back to suing each other…. “

For our part, the f/k/a Gang points (yet again) to our collection of favorite quotes about lawyers and litigation. and a few one-breath poems (senryu) about lawyers. We can only hope that lawyers will do more of the things over the next year that win the genuine respect of the public (see.e.g., “towards a better Law Day” and ”first thing, let’s quell all the liars“). One Hint: it is not about running around policing your image.

And see: Wiley uncovered “The Worst Job of Market Research” . .

litigation bags –
the associate’s
half-closed eyes

snack room —
the litigator takes
one-third of the donuts

………………….. by dagosan

I confess: Instead of putting together a last-minute Love Lawyers Day parade, on a beautiful last day of August, and marching in downtown Schenectady, New York, I spent the morning creating a collection of wedding haiku and senryu to celebrate the marriage that I wrote about in the posting immediately below this one (“a lovely wedding: hopeful boomers marry again,” Sept. 2, 2007). With a homemade haiku tri-fold brochure, in hand, I then abandoned all thought of celebrating lawyers, and drove to Thacher State Park, for a marvelous wedding party, with gorgeous vistas of the Mohawk and Hudson River Valleys, and a view of the Green Mountains in Vermont. Maybe next year we’ll do a lawyers parade. Maybe.

On a micro- rather than macro-level: If you are wondering about loving a lawyer, check out Should You Marry a Lawyer?: A Couples Guide to Balancing Work, Love and Ambition, by Fiona Travis, PhD (Niche Press 2003), and/or Living with Lawyers, by Frances M. Weiner, et al. (Quarry Publishing, 2001) (and see our posting “lawyers and spouses“).