Everyone's a Winner*

Over the weekend the New York Times ran an article about lawyers and online social media like Facebook and Twitter. The article explains something that should be obvious: trial lawyers who blog or tweet about their judge are asking for trouble, as is the attorney whose facebook page suggests a week of partying, after the judge granted a continuance for a death in the attorney's family. (Seriously. That happened. And now the guy is all over the New York Times.)

The article implied,correctly, that judges play a substantial role in regulating attorney conduct. It reminded me of three questions from a Wall Street Journal Law Blog post two years ago -- questions law school hasn't answered for me:

• Why is a legal malpractice case so much harder to make out than a medical malpractice case?
• Why is the attorney-client privilege the oldest and most jealously protected of all the professional privileges?
• Why are lawyers the only American profession to be truly and completely self-regulated?

*Click the title of this post for an explanation.