Joe Jamail Quotes

If you are not emotionally involved, your client is not getting your best effort.

By not trying the small cases, the lawyers don’t get the courtroom experience. So when the huge, bet-the-company cases come along, there are only a handful of trial lawyers who can handle it. That’s why these big corporations still call us old-timers every day.

That’s a good feeling, to save your clients two billion dollars.

Your attitude will go a long way in determining your success, your recognition, your reputation and your enjoyment in being a lawyer.

I didn’t do too well until my second year, when I realized that there were no right or wrong answers and that my professors were interested only in how well I could develop an argument.

Medical research is needed, and I just saw there was a need for help that the government – state or federal – was not spending the taxpayers‘ money on helping people get through college.

It has been pointed out to me, more than once, that for someone who chose a profession steeped in procedure and protocol, I had little use for either.

There are more pompous, arrogant, self-centered, mediocre-type people running corporate America who should be sent out on some postal route delivering mail.

I was taught that a lawyer was supposed to be a custodian of the community‘s legal and ethical sense.

I don’t want corporate America to think they can continue their duplicitous double-dealing.

I love the system. Let me tell you why. People love it… The people, by and large, have great respect for our law and our system… Why do you think they go to that courthouse instead of killing each other in the streets, taking the law into their own hands?

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve known I could talk to people.

The trick is to learn to contain one’s ego, not conceal it.

I don’t think the trial practice is dead. But it is very ill. There are some days you could throw a hand grenade down the hall of the Harris County Courthouse and not hit anybody.

I think I’m doing some good. Obviously, I don’t need any more money.

I love my wife. She had money when I didn’t.

We’ve got some well-run corporations by some well-intended people who do it right.

You had to have a unanimous jury verdict, and one percent of contributory negligence barred all recovery. It was so satisfying to realize I could do it. And I’ll tell you what motivated me: competitiveness. I was betting on me. That’s what a contingent-fee lawyer does.

I happen to have a giant ego, an admission that will not shock my close friends or critics. I am not uncomfortable in saying that because the ego of a man often gets great things done.

I didn’t know who she was, but I knew she was hungry, so I started handing out $100 bills and called the office and told them to bring me a bunch more. Then I had my cousin‘s store deliver a bunch of smoked ham and turkeys. I mean, these people are hungry and living under a bridge.

Any good trial lawyer knows that if you’ve got one credible expert or scientific study, then you can let the jury decide.

The money doesn’t really matter. I’ve been a multi-millionaire for a long time. My sons are rich.

If you start comparing my practice of law to what I could have been – selling bananas – you’ll know why I gave money to the University of Texas.

We’ve got some real greedy hogs who own no interest in the company they’re running, whose sole interest is in whatever it takes to be able to get to the point to fly out on their golden parachute and milk the shareholder and take risks that they shouldn’t take.

I don’t think I’m a good ol’ boy. Honestly, the last thing I am is a redneck. I like silk sheets, fancy cars, beautiful women, good whiskey.

What did I know about lawyering? I just thought it was another way to stay in Austin for another three years.

For me, being a lawyer means to help those in need.

It’s a great feeling knowing you’ve helped someone. That’s what I’ve spent my life doing and my practice.

It’s not a bad thing fighting for equality and helping the poor. It’s not a bad thing to have on your professional tombstone: ‘He believed in equality and he helped the poor.’

I think the average American has forgotten the great feel for liberty and accountability that the framers of the Constitution believed.