What's in a name?

As reported here, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America are " [f]ed up with being vilified as greedy attorneys only out for a buck ", and will be asking their members to approve changing their association name. (What to, however, isn't mentioned.)

"ATLA's president, Ken Suggs, recently wrote members of the group that a name change would help trial lawyers win in "the court of public opinion.""

"The new name would "help us better communicate our mission -- and help us win back the public," Suggs wrote."

"ATLA's political opponents are getting a kick out of the strategy." For good reason!

""If I renamed a shark a 'kitten fish,' would I let my goddaughter play with it?" quipped Victor Schwartz, general counsel of the American Tort Reform Association, a group that wants to crack down on frivolous suits and put limits on jury awards."

"Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform, said the name change amounts to "cosmetic surgery.""

Attorneys, especially in our litigious society, are necessary, and the vast majority of them are sincere in their desire to help people. (Boy, you just don't know how hard it was for me to write that!)

But, it is the few truly greedy attorneys out there that are only after a quick buck (or millions of them) for themselves, with no regard whatsoever to the consequences to the American people, who are the real problem.

Since, as the saying goes, perception is ninety percent of reality, changing the name of your association without changing the practices of the relative few will do nothing in the long run, to engender the trust of the American people in trial lawyers, a trust that was squandered by those seeking to strike it rich at the expense of corporations, and the American people.

Go ahead, change the name of your association, but while you're at it, at least try to rein in the rogues in your midst. Doing that will do far more at changing the perceived image the American people have of your members, than merely changing the name will ever do.

Oh, and this bit of advice was provided to you pro bono.