Anonymous wrote:This is the result of a poll: http://www.marketingcharts.com/topics/behavioral-marketing/most-prestigious-occupations-firefighter-scientist-top-list-10045/harris-interactive-prestige-occupations-august-2009jpg/

Doctors - 3rd on the list.

Lawyers - 13th out of 23.

Don't compare to what your peers would say. Randomly selected from all adults.

What this says OP. If you're a fixer, a doer, a problem solver and contribute to society then you are valued. But if you a leech and a manipulator who is in it for yourself mostly, you ain't regarded as much. Here's an example for you, If you want to retire to any place, the first thing on your list is where and how for the nearest hospital (doctors/health care worker) is. You don't give a shit about where to find a lawyer. Those leeches will come find you if there's blood in the water. So no, as a lawyer you're not as important. Let's clarify this further, if a boat was sinking because of its human weight and it didn't know where it'd land, which of these, doctor or lawyer would be thrown off?

Anonymous wrote:How is a pediatrician making 80k more prestigious than a big law partner?

Doctors can be the difference on a day-to-day basis of life or death.

Anonymous wrote:This thread is hilarious.
Jonas Salk, Edward Lister, Louis Pasteur, Alexander Fleming are but a few household names that come to mind, helping save billions of lives.
Blanking on any similar lawyer names......

Well, there's all those lawyers with ads on TV and Peter Angelos. And Congress; almost all of them are lawyers.
A lot of lawyers make a crapload of money, so there is that to think about.

NP. Lawyers...I'm sure there are good ones but the word sleazy does come to mind.

Definitely doctors are more prestigious.

This thread is hilarious.
Jonas Salk, Edward Lister, Louis Pasteur, Alexander Fleming are but a few household names that come to mind, helping save billions of lives.
Blanking on any similar lawyer names......

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Anonymous wrote:Trust me, there are some pretty subpar doctors out there. Think foregn med school and failed boards a couple of times before passing. Still, subpar lawyers are a dime a dozen.

the school name matters much less for doctors than for lawyers. lawyers talk about undergrads and LSATs and HYS or whatever years after they have actually been practicing. for doctors, it's different. many highly skilled doctors went to never heard of schools (including foreign schools). that alone says a lot about the nature of the job and career. those people are actually paid and respected for the work they do, not for who they are, how smart they are etc. while performing boring work that is more often burden than a benefit to society.

When people have a clear understanding of the responsibility and accomplishment in their profession, they tend to rely less on long ago achievement.

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Anonymous wrote:Kim Kardashian makes more money than Big Law. She gets lots of free perks, such as designer clothes, luxury stays at resorts, flys in private jets, spends weeks on yachts. Way nicer than the free shuttle service and lunches for Big Law.

Her career in reality shows and sex tapes must be heads and tails more prestigious than Big Law.

And her dad was a lawyer. Although I don't think he was in Big Law, he was successful enough to become pals and represent OJ. And he certainly made enough to attract Kris and make beautiful babies.

You need to your high school diploma first.

Definitely doctors.

And, I don't understand the dumping on ER doctors. They do save lives.

Prize.

Anonymous wrote:A partner at cravath is more prestigious than a pediatric cardiologist

A law professor at almost any law school is more prestigious than a Harvard trained anesthesiologist

A judge is more prestigious, at any level, than a community general surgeon


I think of law schools as having more lay prestige than medical schools.

"I went to Yale law" has more cachet than "I'm a physician who trained at Yale"

Yet to see a lawyer won a Nobel price in his/ her field.

Anonymous wrote:Lawyers are orators - writers - leaders.

Physicians can be leaders.


The prestige of big law is unsurpassed in medicine.

Someone, please tell me what is more prestigious


Pathology?

anyone can be a leader. lawyers are more likely to look at other careers (including politics aka "leadership") because they are unhappy in their jobs and "want to help", "make world a better place" etc. doctors in general don't feel they have that gap to fill.

as for prestige of big law - i wouldn't even know of "big law" if i didn't come to DCUM. really, nobody cares.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm a former BigLaw lawyer, from a top ranked law school. My good friend is an ER doctor, from a middle-ranked school.

I am blown out with respect for her. She actually can make a real difference--a life and death difference, and does all the time.

I'm almost 50 and so are many of my friends, so a common theme is: "I am entering into the second half of my life. I want to leave the planet a better place. (Besides raising good kids) What can I do to make difference?"

My doctor friend does not have to mull over this one.

I vote doctor.

You mean she is great at consults? ER docs don't deal with life and death. They exist to turf patients.

PP here. I don't get your meaning. She's often dealing with life/death situations.

No, ER docs don't. They are glorified primary care, except worse, because all they do is consult other services. Least prestigious in medicine.

Except when they aren't and they are saving your bacon while the surgeon/cardiologist/stroke specialist gets out of bed, gets in the car, and drives in to see you.

Let me guess, one of them told you that?

I'm an ER nurse.

I have a fried who is an ER doc in a metro market... He frequently calls his gig "the body shop" since he patches up everyone from gang bangers with gunshot wounds to car accident victims. And yes there is a lot of that primary care bullshit he has to deal with as a result of our broken healthcare system. He is a pretty cynical person. I guess having seen some of the worst of humanity will do that to you. But one thing is certain, he has definitely saved many lives. Maybe not everyone would agree all those lives were worth saving... But that's not his place to decide. And there is prestige in saving those lives.

This subthread of emergency medicine trolling is bizarre. The shift at the local community hospital must be slow this weekend or something.

This entire thread is cracking me up. The vast majority of people don't really think much of lawyers. Any doctor is more prestigious than any lawyer. Especially a crazy rich lawyer.

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Anonymous wrote:I'm a former BigLaw lawyer, from a top ranked law school. My good friend is an ER doctor, from a middle-ranked school.

I am blown out with respect for her. She actually can make a real difference--a life and death difference, and does all the time.

I'm almost 50 and so are many of my friends, so a common theme is: "I am entering into the second half of my life. I want to leave the planet a better place. (Besides raising good kids) What can I do to make difference?"

My doctor friend does not have to mull over this one.

I vote doctor.

You mean she is great at consults? ER docs don't deal with life and death. They exist to turf patients.

PP here. I don't get your meaning. She's often dealing with life/death situations.

No, ER docs don't. They are glorified primary care, except worse, because all they do is consult other services. Least prestigious in medicine.

Except when they aren't and they are saving your bacon while the surgeon/cardiologist/stroke specialist gets out of bed, gets in the car, and drives in to see you.

Let me guess, one of them told you that?

I'm an ER nurse.

I have a fried who is an ER doc in a metro market... He frequently calls his gig "the body shop" since he patches up everyone from gang bangers with gunshot wounds to car accident victims. And yes there is a lot of that primary care bullshit he has to deal with as a result of our broken healthcare system. He is a pretty cynical person. I guess having seen some of the worst of humanity will do that to you. But one thing is certain, he has definitely saved many lives. Maybe not everyone would agree all those lives were worth saving... But that's not his place to decide. And there is prestige in saving those lives.

Lawyers are orators - writers - leaders.

Physicians can be leaders.


The prestige of big law is unsurpassed in medicine.

Someone, please tell me what is more prestigious


Pathology?