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Trial lawyers, always a colorful and eclectic bunch. Cowboys, rogues, radicals, longhairs, corporate suits, flamboyant mavericks, bikers,
deacons, good ole boys, street hustlers, pure ambulance chasers, faces from billboards and yellow pages and early morning television. They
were anything but boring. They fought among themselves like a violent family, yet they had the ability to stop bickering, circle the wagons,
and attack their enemies. They came from the cities, where they feuded over cases and clients, and they came from the small towns, where
they honed their skills before simple jurors reluctant to part with anyone's money. Some had jets and buzzed around the country piecing
together the latest class action in the latest mass tort. Others were repulsed by the mass tort game and clung proudly to the tradition of
trying legitimate cases one at a time. The new breed were entrepreneurs who filed cases in bulk and settled them that way, rarely facing a jury.
Others lived for the thrill of the courtroom.
A few did their work in firms where they pooled their money and talent, but firms of trial
lawyers were notoriously difficult to keep together. Most were lone gunmen too eccentric to keep much of a staff. Some made millions each
year, others scraped by, most were in the $250,000 range. A few were broke at the moment. Many were up one year and down the next, always
willing to roll the dice.
If they shared anything, it was a streak of fierce independence and the thrill of representing David against Goliath.
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