Lawyers are the absolute worst. They way they are taught to think prevents consensus building.
Lawyers:
a.) want to keep everything secret, the fewer people told about the project details the better;
b.) rather than ask for a favor like to issue written demands that "precedent clearly shows they're entitled to";
c.) think that threatening legal action is an effective technique to persuade others;
d.) spend their time making lists of alleged mistakes they can use for later appeal;
e.) are usually incapable of adapting their style of dress and communication to the local community.
The sad truth is, really successful lawyers are able to overcome these traits and once again become a normal, likable person.
I worked with 37 attorneys in Chevron's Land Department, so I've had some personal experience. They found it annoying that I obtained project approvals and they weren't allowed to, "even though they were far more qualified." To be hired, they had to be a member of the bar with at least two years of experience in real estate law - and for all of that Chevron gave them the grand title of "Contract Analyst".
I was sometimes given a lawyer to accompany me to some meetings, but I would often have to ask them to leave the room so we could come to an agreement. Law school teaches people to be argumentative and disagreeable.
I had to have our Chief Legal Counsel approve all of my written agreements, which he was loath to approve - which meant I had to become very good at writing contracts without a law degree, which is actually a major advantage. To improve the quality of our legal agreements, everyone in Chevron's Land Department was required to attend an annual course titled "Plain English for Lawyers." A lawyer's first instinct is to use words like "shall" when a word like "must" will do just as well - then they add a preamble, pages long, with definitions for words they would have been better off not using in the first place.
In spite of their lordly opinions of themselves, I was younger, better paid, and was given more responsibility.
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