“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
- William Shakespeare (1564–1616), “Henry VI,” Part II, Act IV, Scene II, line 73
I am not a lawyer.
Were I, I might not have included the above quote at the beginning of this piece.
In fact I think lawyers played a vital role in achieving the 1998 settlement against the tobacco industry when a massive $206B settlement was reached with 46 states.
Lawyers for the first states to settle were awarded $8.2B.
Although less than the often 33–50% contingency fee, that is still a lot of money.
Surely there must be a better way than to fund a potential endowment for the future education of lawyers’ offspring.
There may be, but I suspect Ken Feinberg doesn’t necessarily think so.
The 20th anniversary of 9/11 is just around the corner.
U.S. troops have exited Afghanistan, ending the longest (2 decades) American war in history.
I am not prepared to discuss the merits or absence thereof of the rapid exit.
History may assess it differently than some of us do now.
What I want to mention is the compensation of the families of those who died on that…
