Trial Lawyers Doing Good

For the last decade, trial lawyers have been the victims of one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever. Those of us that choose to represent victims of others’ carelessness have been portrayed as sharks, snakes, or worse. It seems that “trial lawyer” is now close to a cuss word.

But trial lawyers do an amazing amount of good for the Country. Today’s National Law Journal has just such a story, describing how twenty Minn. law firms are banding together to provide pro bono representation to many of the victims of the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse. One firm (ironically a firm representing the defendants in one suit I have) has agreed to pay $1 million to an engineering firm to help investigate the collapse. All for free.

And this conduct isn’t unique. Following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the American Trial Lawyer’s Association (now AAJ) founded Trial Lawyers Care, a non-profit designed to provide free legal services to the victims of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. The project, which was the largest pro bono project in the history of American jurisprudence, has expanded to other issues, such as trying to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

But the good work goes on even at the local level. I think I’m fairly representative of the trial lawyers in Austin. Not only does my firm engage in significant pro bono efforts, but I serve on the boards of local non-profits, am an alumnus of Leadership Austin (class of 2006 — Best Class Ever), volunteer at an elementary school in East Austin, coach my kids’ youth sports teams, and am active in my church. And I’m not unique. You can find various trial lawyers in leadership positions all over Austin helping make this town better for all of us.

So the next time you hear someone throw out the phrase “trial lawyer” as an intended insult, I hope you’ll at least take a minute to appreciate that we do good work too.

To contact Austin Personal Injury Lawyer, Austin Personal Attorney, Austin Accident Lawyer, Austin Injury Lawyer Perlmutter & Schuelke, PLLC or to learn more about Austin Personal Injury visit https://www.civtrial.com/.