Q: What do you buy for an attorney who has everything?
A: An election!

Daddy's Big Pink Man-Squirrel: Are there any Fark lawyers willing to defend their profession?

/disclaimer: a pre-law student once stole my heart.

Sure. I work for team evil, but my wife does habeas appeals for indigent and wrongly convicted people.

Required:

What's the difference between a lawyer and a prostitue?

A prostitute will stop farking you when you die.

What dead friend?

No.

That $9 mil kitty in Italy should be next

There may be something they won't steal, but that something is not money.

Daddy's Big Pink Man-Squirrel: Are there any Fark lawyers willing to defend their profession?

/disclaimer: a pre-law student once stole my heart.

sure, 97% of lawyers give the rest of us a bad name.
Seriously though, I work in criminal defense, most of my time is spent trying to help prevent people's lives from being ruined from one stupid mistake (1st lifetime DUI, kids with pot, etc.) Also, I consider my branch of the profession the last line of defense in insuring that people's constitutional rights are protected and not run over roughshod by overzealous officers and prosecutors. I make a decent living, but nothing you could consider lavish or extravagant and I find that integrity is the most important thing I or any attorney can have, and work very hard to uphold my own.

//i know, CSB

Well, on the bright side, at least it was from a dead guy. I'd rather have them mugging corpses than hassling those of us who are still alive & producing things of value.

Daddy's Big Pink Man-Squirrel: Are there any Fark lawyers willing to defend their profession?

Not exactly a defense, but Mrs. Q is an attorney, and I can honestly say she works harder than anyone I know. True, she does corporate M&A work, so her clients are corporate wheeler dealer types who make lawyers look cuddly by comparison. So I guess the defense is that she works really hard to keep shady commercial M&A people from screwing up things even worse.

pute kisses like a man: Daddy's Big Pink Man-Squirrel: Are there any Fark lawyers willing to defend their profession?

/disclaimer: a pre-law student once stole my heart.

I can argue the footsoldiers of democracy route, or I can go the de Toucqueville keepers of society route. both are entertaining and riveting positions, and most lawyers fall into one or both categories. However, the other 1% of lawyers that always gets in the news seems to create the face of lawyers for the general public.

this guy was a thief. his actions occurred by faking someone's signature to give him authority to withdraw money. this is not some trick unique to lawyers. the guy was a bad person that happened to be a lawyer.

Agree with this, and I'd add that the crime in article seems to be one that nabs lawyers fairly often when they DO go off the rails. Probably seems "victimless" if there's no starving kids due to inherit that money, but that's no excuse for failing to exercise your fiduciary responsibility.

Also note this guy will be disbarred, and probably go to jail. We police our own, as opposed to doctors, who often punish a quack in their ranks by merely rescinding privileges at the specific hospital where they screwed up...which, if you reflect, is how the Vatican responded to the child abuse crisis.

Or horror of horrors...they stop playing golf with him.

MadMonk: What dead friend?

You know he must of been a friend because the lawer waited until he was dead to start stealing.

FTA: "The family friend, an El Cerrito resident whose name was not disclosed, died Oct. 29, 2004. That same day, his Geneva bank received documents giving Purlantov authority over his account. Purlantov had forged the man's signature."

Wow, that sounds too damn easy to catch him at. Maybe he was really framed by the Trilateral Commission? Surely somebody who's passed the Bar exam would be smarter than that.

Before I agree "the corpse didn't need the money any any longer" I'd like to know who was supposed to get the money. If it's a sick dog, a disabled kid, something eye-dusting like that, I'll yell "Hang the thief!"; if it would otherwise go to his gold-digging 5th wife or Jerry Falwell's "Liberty University" I'd figure the lawyer could make better use of it with coke, hookers & student loans. Besides he did wait till his friend was dead to steal from him, which is pretty honest for a lawyer.

I just wish the lawyer were my cousin. Or the dead guy.