We’ve all heard the jokes about the greedy corporate lawyer, or the shady ambulance chasing personal injury attorney, but the fact of the matter is that lawyers serve an extremely important role in our society.  In fact, to even state that lawyers are a “necessary evil” in society hugely undermines the attorney’s role in a well functioning society.  We all know there are bad apples in the law profession, but primarily due to an incredibly stringent ethical standard, I would argue that attorney’s uphold a moral framework that far surpasses any other profession.  Below are the top five reasons we need attorneys.   5. An average person cannot understand the complexities of the law – While one can argue the natural intelligence inherent in most attorneys, what is irrefutable is that lawyers dedicate their lives to understanding, studying, enforcing and creating the laws.  Therefore, it is unreasonable to expect any non-attorney to have the same level of knowledge. 4. Carry out the laws purpose – Society requires laws to function.  Imagine a world where there were no consequences for backing out of a contract, or where parties never paid for their negligence. 3. Protecting the rights of the “little man” – There is a clear divergence between the powerful and not powerful in our society.  Between the big corporation and the little consumer, between the rich and the poor, and between the employer and the employee.  Lawyers help balance that inequality of power, as the threat of a lawsuit is always in the background.  For example, when a manufacturer is negligent in their production of a defective product, they will face the repercussion of a bad faith lawsuit.  Similarly, when insurance companies purposefully fail to pay on a legitimate policy, they face bad faith litigation 2. Protecting the rights of the innocent – It’s been said that finding an innocent man guilty is worse than letting 10 guilty men go free. 1. Serve a police function – Lawyers provide a certain checks and balances that otherwise would not be available without them.  For example, who will ensure that companies follow epa guidelines, or that a water company will make sure their bottles are not contaminated with harmful pollutants.  Government has proven itself highly inefficient and incapable of handling such matters.