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Bar News - September 6, 2002 Public Opinion: Lawyers Necessary, but Still Mistrusted and Overpaid Stature Rises Post-September 11 NATIONAL OPINION SURVEYS released earlier this year show that while the public has an appreciation for the role of lawyers, public confidence in the profession is still lacking for a variety of reasons. Many remain ambivalent about attorneys, even when they have worked closely with them. A survey conducted on behalf of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation, Public Perceptions of Lawyers, found that the public does not believe lawyers do a good job of communicating with their clients; generally misunderstands or mistrusts lawyers' fees; and feels that lawyers need to police themselves more vigorously. Survey participants also said that lawyers need to communicate with the public about attorneys' public service and pro bono activities. "What we learned from the survey is both troubling and reassuring," said Robert A. Clifford of Chicago, chair of the section. "Lawyers must be taught the importance of lawyer-client relationships in law school, and they have an obligation to talk and to work with the public to enhance understanding of our justice system." The survey suggests, however, that public confidence in the courts, lawyers and institutions generally have improved in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001. For example, a representative sample in April 2001 found that only 24 percent of the public had confidence in the U.S. justice system in general. That number rose to 39 percent in January 2002. Confidence in the Supreme Court plummeted after the 2000 presidential election, from 50 percent in 1998 to 32 percent in April 2001, but rose to 46 percent in January 2002. During this same time, confidence in lawyers rose from 14 percent to 19 percent. Of nine professions and institutions included in the survey, lawyers rate eighth in public confidence, well below doctors (first), the courts and Congress, but above the news media. This finding is consistent with past surveys. On the other hand, more than half of the respondents believe that lawyers know the law and want to serve their clients, and about three-fourths of respondents are satisfied with the quality of the service provided by their lawyers. Concern over fees, what questions to ask, how to find a lawyer, and the availability of other options have kept more than half of those who could use the services of a lawyer from hiring one. Another survey, commissioned by Columbia Law School, found that almost two-thirds of Americans think lawyers are overpaid, about half think attorneys do more harm than good, and four in 10 think lawyers are dishonest. In stark contrast, the public's evaluation of police officers shines in the poll, perhaps a reflection of the country's respect for authority in the wake of terrorism at home and abroad. Both police officers and lawyers are much more highly regarded than the occupational group even more likely than lawyers to be the butt of jokes - politicians. "This is good news only if one is grading on a curve, and a generous one at that," said Columbia Law Professor Michael Dorf, who wrote a column offering his interpretation of the survey on Findlaw.com. Sixty-one percent considered politicians especially dishonest or somewhat dishonest. Thirty-nine percent thought of lawyers as dishonest. One in three of the respondents said they had used a lawyer in the past 12 months. Professor Dorf said the cause of anti-lawyer sentiment may be a distrust of the law itself. He says law is often a "blunt instrument," and that sometimes for the law to work properly, "it must impede rather than further the aims of justice." He cites the so-called "exclusionary rules," which prohibit the admission of evidence obtained through illegal interrogation, searches and seizures. Dorf said these rules, which are meant in part to deter illegal police activity, are often portrayed in television dramas as devices used by lawyers to free their guilty clients. Therefore, in some of the most visible cases, justice is not served. "I suspect that most people, if pressed on the subject, would accept that it sometimes makes sense to choose law over justice," said Dorf. "But that doesn't mean that people have to like it, or like the lawyers who work the system for individual clients." "If I am right that lawyers serve as lightning rods for the public's understandable hostility towards law as the occasional enemy of justice, then the real news is that so many Americans think, on balance, that lawyers play a beneficial role," Dorf said. However, public perceptions of attorney compensation are also grim. The Columbia Law survey asked: "Given the level of compensation of other professions in society, such as doctors or corporate executives, overall, do you believe most lawyers are overpaid, fairly compensated, or underpaid for the work they do?" A full 60 percent of respondents said lawyers are overpaid, compared with a mere two percent who thought lawyers underpaid. "Overpaid compared with doctors or corporate executives? Clearly, when Americans envision attorneys, few of them think of public defenders, legal aid lawyers, or district attorneys earning annual salaries insufficient to pay off their college and law school loans," wrote Dorf in his FindLaw article. "Instead, they must have in mind the lawyers who represent large corporations for handsome hourly rates, or the handful of plaintiffs' attorneys who earn enormous contingency fees from judgments against those same corporations."
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