ACT TWO
Two of the new lawyers banded together with the first lawyer to create a firm, and they lived in one of the tall buildings downtown. They decided that their mission from God was to help the rich and powerful get richer and more powerful – and by so doing, to help themselves become rich and powerful. The rich and powerful promised to pay them for every hour the three lawyers in the firm spent working for them, provided the lawyers kept track of their hours very carefully.
It was a match made in heaven, for the rich and powerful had lots of money to spend on hours, and the lawyers had lots of hours to sell – sometimes as many as twenty-four in a day; sometimes more.
The fourth lawyer decided to stay by himself, so he set up an office in an old house on the fringes of downtown, in the shadows of the tall buildings. He decided that his mission from God was to help the poor and lowly become rich and powerful – and by so doing, to help himself become rich and powerful. The poor and lowly had no money, so he devised a scheme whereby he would make the rich and powerful pay money to the poor and lowly, and they, in turn, would pay him forty percent of everything they got from the rich and powerful – and he wouldn’t have to keep track of his hours.
It was a match made in heaven, for the poor and lowly had lots of claims to make against the rich and powerful, and he had all the time in the world to devote to the poor and needy.
The fourth lawyer called the first three lawyers a “big firm.” The first three lawyers called the fourth lawyer a “plaintiff’s lawyer.” Together they formed the civil justice system.
And God saw that it was good.
Mike Farris
(214) 979-0100
mfarris@tiptonjoneslaw.com
