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Proof positive: for many people, the words 'trial lawyer' summon up negative stereotypes and jokes. Here, four trial lawyers describe how they disprove those portrayals.

Article Excerpt
My hardest battle

WILLIAM S. BAILEY

When I joined the fight for justice as a young lawyer, I hoped to fulfill what the late religion scholar Joseph Campbell once said was the highest calling of a human being: compassion. This, Campbell said, was "the awakening of the heart from bestial serf-interest to humanity.... The best we can do is lean toward the light, toward the harmonious relationships that come from compassion with suffering, from understanding the other person."

After law school in Chicago, I moved to Seattle and decided to become a personal injury trial lawyer. At first, I represented plaintiffs in the then rapidly expanding field of asbestos products liability litigation. My sense of purpose could not have been better defined: Many of my clients were dying of asbestos-related disease or were the families of people who had died. Multiple jury trials followed, and several trips to my state's supreme court resulted in rulings that gave asbestos-injured workers and their families a fair chance.

While I was proud of the social good achieved by trial lawyers and cared deeply about my work, I soon found the image of my profession among the general public was distorted beyond recognition. The slurs ("ambulance chaser"), attribution of base motives ("all you care about is going after the deep pocket"), and lawyer jokes seemed endless.

These criticisms--both unfair and untrue--hurt and angered me, but I chose not to be a passive victim. Instead, I decided that I would do the same for our profession that I would for any wronged client--analyze the situation, come up with a plan, and fight with all my strength and conviction for what is right. I refused to grin and bear it, particularly when I knew that much of the criticism was fostered by corporate wrongdoers who despise trial lawyers for giving the average citizen a voice in court and a fair chance at rightful reimbursement for injury.

I was determined to show the public that trial lawyers are caring people. My plan of attack was multifaceted: I joined the boards of charitable organizations, taught part-time at two law schools, wrote guest newspaper editorials on issues of public importance, spoke at local high schools on career days, worked to reform the court system through bar association activities, and policed unethical lawyers as a special district counsel for the state bar.

Whenever I handled a case that got press attention, I talked to reporters about the justice issue involved and why the case was important to society as a whole. Again and again, I offered myself as Exhibit A to prove the point that trial lawyers' are skilled, caring, ethical people.

This effort gained greater urgency after I became a parent. I was proud of what I did and wanted my children to be proud of it, too. This desire led me to take on what has so far been the toughest challenge of my life.

In February 1989, I was having Sunday brunch in the home of longtime friends from my Chicago days who also had migrated to Seattle. One guest, an environmental/land-use lawyer with a long history of fighting city hall on behalf of community action groups, came up to me and said, "Bill, I just heard from the city attorney that he won't be running for reelection. You should run. You could change the philosophy of that office and make it into one that actually improves the quality of life in Seattle. It's not high profile or a stepping-stone to any other office, and it would require hard work. But it's an important post in which you could make a difference for the city."

I was...

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