I swear, they aren't all like that. Hey, some of my best friends are even lawyers. But I will certainly grant you that there's probably a higher-than-average ratio of assholes among the mega-firm, six-figure-salary-straight-out-of-school set, though. (And particularly among the crowd that gets free tickets from their firms for events like that.)

Lawyers are rent seeking parasitic scum as a rule who spend too much time with papers and obtuse word-parsing. Generally speaking, they are the smelly Nerds of the business world who never got laid, but have gotten rich by sucking away value (ex the value from the system of property rights provided in the aggregate).

Lawyers are one step up from accountants on the sexiness scale as far as I'm concerned, you hire an accountane to count beans and then hire a lawyer to dispute the number.

Well, I suppose this means my new veneers are working.

dear e,

you make me feel so much better for not having gone to law school.

thanks.

--raf*

Ewwww. It's a good thing those alpha retards have the $, because they sure as hell aren't getting laid based on charm or conversation...

Does it actually work?

Yeah - of course it works. If they're good looking enough. If I was single and feeling up for it and some incredibly good looking guy (Roger Moore in the Saint or Chris Noth kind of level) tried this move or an even cheesier one, I definitely would.

And some women would do it just because they were rich, even if they looked like George Costanza. But not me - I'm not that shallow about money. Just looks ;)

Well, looks are always nice. That banker in my building was certainly handsome.

However, my own empirical observations suggest that my tolerance for hotness alone (i.e. without the slightest glimmer of intelligence) is only about 1.5 dates.

What about hotness and a certain intelligence, but no soul?

Souls are overrated.

A good friend once referred to my soul as "that little blackened thing in your chest" (endearingly, of course).

A good friend once referred to my soul as "that little blackened thing in your chest"

Best get that checked out.

Entertainment value.

I am sure the Banker would have been far more entertaining. Such generally requires more interesting social skills, depending of course

Banker was not drooling on himself, but he may not be terribly clever either. No idea, really.

thank god you weren't in a room full of linemen.

Feh. As you're able to differentiate between 57 different kinds of Muslim, you ought to be able to distinguish the basic phenotypes of lawyers.

Most of the people you're meeting at these parties are "billing fodder." Four years from now, these people will be doing conveyancing in Medicine Hat. In a big U.S. law firm, perhaps only 1 person out of a hiring class of 50 will eventually make it to partner.

Even making partner doesn't make you a big shot -- far from it. It is conceptually impossible, for example, to use the words "powerful" and "tax attorney" in the same sentence.

You'll seldom run into more interesting types of lawyers at these massive corporate "parties" because these people typically have something much better to do with their time. These lawyers have much demand on their "face time" and are loathe to spend it in a large room in a sea of other attorneys. They'd rather spend it visiting clients . . . on their yachts.

The thing that differentiates attorneys from all the other professionals is that attorneys know the rules. And if you don't know the rules, you can't cheat properly.

You'll seldom run into more interesting types of lawyers at these massive corporate "parties" because these people typically have something much better to do with their time. These lawyers have much demand on their "face time" and are loathe to spend it in a large room in a sea of other attorneys. They'd rather spend it visiting clients . . . on their yachts.

Well this is terribly inconvenient for me.

You'll seldom run into more interesting types of lawyers at these massive corporate "parties" because these people typically have something much better to do with their time. These lawyers have much demand on their "face time" and are loathe to spend it in a large room in a sea of other attorneys. They'd rather spend it visiting clients . . . on their yachts.

Well, let's just say you have a very different idea of which kinds of lawyers are interesting than I do. I've known tons of lawyers, some of them quite interesting, but none of them with a yacht.

The combination of all this images is essentially:

"Elmer Fudd, Lawyer Esquire. I own a mansion and a yacht."

FTR, the yachts typically belong to the clients, not the lawyers. The lawyers under discussion here typically don't get yachts until they semi-retire as yachts and boats require either their own full-time crews or an unacceptably large time commitment.

Do these mythical "interesting" lawyers ever go to bookstores? If so, what section?

"Do these mythical "interesting" lawyers ever go to bookstores? If so, what section?"

Recreation - Boating.

Depends how you define "interesting." By my personal definition, you'll find the intersting ones in the History, Political Science, or Current Affairs section. Or heck, maybe even Sociology, or :: shudder :: Literature.

In my neighbourhood bookstores, nobody goes to His/Poli Sci unless the Travel section has run out of chairs.