Editor's Comment: The one-handed lawyer
Most legal jokes aren't much help in understanding commercial lawyers, since the stereotypical ambulance-chaser dominates humour about the profession. So if lawyers want to understand their image in the wider business community they could do well to look at jokes usually reserved for accountants and economists (there are quite a lot).
June 11, 2009 at 05:57 AM
3 minute read
Have modern law firms sacrificed personality?
Most legal jokes aren't much help in understanding commercial lawyers, since the stereotypical ambulance-chaser dominates humour about the profession. So if lawyers want to understand their image in the wider business community they could do well to look at jokes usually reserved for accountants and economists (there are quite a lot).
Probably the best known is President Truman's famous demand for a "one-handed economist", so the requested professional couldn't weasel out of their advice by qualifying it with "on the other hand". There is a reason that quote has become so famous, summing up so well the irrelevance of the adviser who lacks the confidence or acumen to deliver concise, relevant advice that a decision-maker can actually use. Commercial lawyers might want to consider the extent to which their pronouncements pass the one-hand test, because there is nothing that more quickly convinces business people of the utter lack of value of lawyers than such legalistic hedging.
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