Lawyer Stigma?

Let's start with a joke:

You are in a room with (some serial terrorist) bin Laden, Milosevic, and a lawyer. You have a gun with two bullets. Who do you shoot?

The Lawyer twice, just to be sure.

There is a fairly strong stigma in popular culture against lawyers and the legal profession. Even Law and Order tends to portray the lawyers in a poor light, with the defendants always "Lawyering Up" to avoid talking to the detectives.

Congress and healthcare officials blast the legal field for rising healthcare costs due to malpractice insurance. I once read (on a blog, so veracity is not guaranteed) that there are only two full-time midwives in all of Texas, since that state has a generous statute of limitations for malpractice suits of birthing errors.

Even in the movie "Four Christmases," Vince Vaughn's character is a lawyer living in the city, who visits his father and two brothers who live with their wives and kids in one small house in a very rural area. At one point, the father makes a comment about "Mr. Big Lawyer with his Fancy Cars and Toys" not being in touch with his family.

Let's be logical for a minute. On Law and Order, why is a defendant hiring a lawyer seen as an obstacle? It is because the lawyer is there to protect the defendant's rights to be free from questioning they may not understand. No one ever criticizes the detective for threatening a defendant, yelling in their face, or bending the truth to elicit a confession.

People criticize lawyers for healthcare costs, but then become enraged when a doctor cannot take the time to correctly write in a chart and a patient dies. If you get on a roller coaster and something tragic happens, no one has a problem with a lawsuit. Then again, most of the time it isn't the amusement parks fault. Why not place a cap on medical malpractice suits? Simple, who can look someone in the eye and say, "I know you spent over $100,000 on your education, and I know you have worked hard for several years, but even though someone else was careless and you can never work again, you can only have this much money. Oh, but the guy or gal who was careless and caused this, yeah they can go on making money."

I think I am wondering, because I know who I am myself. I wasn't raised with a silver spoon in my mouth, my parents lived in a town with a good public school system, and co-signed $160,000 worth of student loans, but trust me, I worked pretty hard to get where I am. I don't think I am a greedy person, in fact my fancy, expensive degree earns me less than $30,000 a year. And I generally work 50-60 hours a week, taking care of acutely ill adults. I have to put miles on my car, take verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, assist in toileting and other hygiene tasks. And now I am staring at three years of hard work, three more years living in a blue light neighborhood, three more years of debts. When I get out, will I automatically become hated by most of the world?

Any lawyers or law students out there, have you run into this?