Even Will Shakespeare enjoyed taking a swipe at lawyers and the tradition has not abated since. However, I think it is fair to say that lawyer animosity is nowhere near so great 'over here' compared to the hissing, spitting fury they engender 'over there'. After giving the matter some considerable thought, well, about ten seconds, actually, I think it is the practice of American lawyers to be deeply involved in politics that besmirches their name and causes such resentment amongst non-lawyers. 'Over here', on the whole, they tend to keep an apparent gap between their legal and political activities, although that is diminishing fast with the advance of progressive politics.
These meandering thoughts have been provoked by a superb essay in The American Spectator by their veteran, and English, contributor, Tom Bethell. He provides a time-travelling view back into recent history whose verisimilitude is enhanced by the fact that 'he was there'! After Oxford, and driven by a love for jazz, he took himself off to New Orleans. Whilst there in 1966 he mention to an aquaintance that he had been reading several books casting doubts on the veracity of the Warren Commission report into President Kennedy's death. Amazingly quickly he was introduced to District Attorney Jim Garrison, all 6'-6" of him and known as 'the Jolly Green Giant' and even more surprising, Garrison hired him on the spot as a researcher to support his theory on the 'real truth' behind the Kennedy assassination.
Garrison told me that Kennedy had been killed as a result of a conspiracy
hatched in New Orleans, where Lee Harvey Oswald had lived in the summer of 1963. The D.A. seemed utterly confident. I was initially impressed, though I later
became disillusioned when I learned the details. I did like the $500 a
month—more money than I had seen before—they paid me, out of a mysterious “fines and fees” account.
To describe someone as 'bigger than life' is a lazy cliché but this early in the morning I can't think of anything better - just read Jim Garrison's Wiki entry - he even played himself in the film The Big Easy! Then read Bethell's essay which will leave you shaking your head and muttering another lazy cliché - only in America!
