Lawyers, or, why doesn't anybody like me?

The Volokh Conspiracy has a post about how lawyers are held year after year among the lowest esteem of any profession. The writer of the post theorizes about the reasons, including that people don't like people who defend murderers, or they have been at the wrong end of a legal decision. I have no problem with a fair fight, and I would want and expect a lawyer to put aside any qualms to defend me.

My problem with lawyers, in other words, has nothing to do with what they do in the court room, and everything to do with what they do out of it. Lawyers become politicians, or lobbyists, and they ensure that the field is not a fair one. My wife and I are writing up our post-nup together. My mother think's that it's irresponsible to consider that our marriage might end. I think it is irresponsible that the only contract most husbands and wives enter into was one that was written by divorce lawyers.

Having recently served on a jury, I am amazed by how easily and quickly ordinary people can divorce the consequences of their decisions from those decision. If we had a representative mix of representatives - some teachers, engineers, doctors, police officers, soldiers - then our legislature would be far less likely to do the same.