re: #580 Creeping Eruption

Lawyers who defends lawsuits are the “defense bar”. “Trial lawyer” connotes a lawyer who specializes in plaintiffs’ cases, especially those involving personal injuries and medical malpractice. I’m a litigator myself, and I’ve both prosecuted and defended cases, as well as handling bankruptcy litigation, which usually is creditor v. debtor.

To a lawyer, the trial lawyers are a specialized group within the profession. Only 10% of lawyers litigate. The rest do transactional work, drafting documents for transactions. Of litigators, the Trial Lawyers have their own professional association, formerly the American Trial Lawyers Association, now the American Justice League. (They changed the name because the term “trial lawyer” has become so disparaged.)

They are notorious for making extremely large donations to Democratic politicians, although Arlen Specter and Orrin Hatch also consider themselves trial lawyers. John Edwards was their favorite son. And unlike other lawyers’ associations, their conventions are closed to the press while they get secret briefings from members of the Administration and Congress on issues of interest to them. And of course, Obama has publicly said that tort reform with respect to medical malpractice, which would injure the economic interests of the trial lawyers, is off the table in this “reform” package.

That’s what the term “trial lawyer” means.