Not sure when and how the bad reputation of lawyers started. And why, of all professions, does it seem to be one of the most ridiculed, for example, through those unending lawyer jokes? Recently, this unflattering reputation was again highlighted on at least two occasions. The first is through a cover story in MacLean’s magazine entitled, “Lawyers are Rats” featuring an interview with Philip Slayton, a former Bay St. lawyer and law school dean who wrote a book on the negative side of the profession, citing a handful of cases where lawyers were actually held liable for their unprofessional conduct. This understandably raised the ire of many lawyers and lawyers’ organizations, who maintain that there are a few “bad eggs” in any profession, and thus should not be used to characterize the entire “basket”. The second is a speech delivered at a recent national conference of lawyers decrying a “crisis in the legal profession” for its growing inaccessibility to the majority of