Reason No. 2,341 that I hate being a lawyer: when a friend or family member asks for my take on a legal issue. This inevitably leads to me having to give an answer the asker doesn’t want to hear, thereby resulting in an uncomfortable argument that leaves the asker with the impression that I’m a know-it-all asshole and that all stereotypes about the hatefulness of lawyers are categorically true.
Whenever this happens, the askers set it up as if they want my unbiased advice on an issue about which they’re totally clueless. After the initial entrapment, i.e. after I’ve already stated my opinion and it’s too late to undo the damage, they make it abundantly clear that what they were really seeking was my rubber stamp of approval on an extraordinarily absurd—not to mention procedurally impossible and legally untenable—position that they’ve already adopted in advance of our conversation. In other words, I’m forced to fight the Sisyphean battle of trying to make a convincing argument to a layperson even in the face of clear evidence that he is too stupid to grasp his own stupidity.
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