On Sep 21, 2004, at 7:39 AM, George McKinney wrote:
> The possibilities are endless, but I couldn't decide on a useful
> function for lawyers, so there you have it.
I love lawyer arguments. I do a certain amount of expert testimony, so
I know a lot of lawyers, some of whom I consider good friends. Except
that lawyers are usually more interesting dinner guests, there's not a
lot of difference between engineers and attorneys. Both frequently
whore for corporate clients (although engineers don't do much pro bono
work); both professions rely on micrometrically precise reasoning from
vague assumptions, both tend to over-specialize and do a fair amount of
professional hair-splitting; both work pretty much project-to-project
and tend toward tunnel vision and both go through a fairly demanding
education, although lawyers take more time at it. Lawyers have about
the same attitude toward justice that engineers take toward scientific
objectivity--neither is worth a damn unless you can make money from it.
We're also alike in that most engineers know as much about the practice
of law as lawyers know about eigenvalue extraction.
Remember that lawyers don't work alone--they bring suit at the request of clients. All of the inflated judgments you ever read about began as someone's desire to reduce justice to money. The next time you fret about justice perverted, imagine yourself facing a DUI charge or an accusation of income tax evasion. Do you hire a lawyer to give you justice or are you just looking to beat the rap? Just like when someone hires me--he's not looking for scientific objectivity, he's looking for a solution to a problem, just like I am when I get a lawyer to write up a will or thump on an insurance company.
It's probably fair to add that I'm related to at least two attorneys, one a deceased county judge who used to hop Pennsylvania RR trains and ride as fireman. He knew a helluva more about steam powered locomotives than most of my colleagues know about lawyering.
Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant at <a href="/group/PipingDesign/post?postID=oV8Tn7fvCo-l40a4S18q0tZT3qzCc6-FKg6aEf860JWnDAKRQwjO44BBoUONGHorYt5EICb6XCNZPN1S">chrisw@skypoint.com</a> | this distance" (last words of Gen.
...................................| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)<a href="http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw">http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw</a> Received on Tue Sep 21 11:20:00 2004
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