Any good trial lawyer knows that if you've got one credible expert or scientific study, then you can let the jury decide.
— Joe Jamail
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.
We've got some well-run corporations by some well-intended people who do it right.
I was taught that a lawyer was supposed to be a custodian of the community's legal and ethical sense.
Your attitude will go a long way in determining your success, your recognition, your reputation and your enjoyment in being a lawyer.
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 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?
If you are not emotionally involved, your client is not getting your best effort.
I love my wife. She had money when I didn't.
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.'
For every dollar we have given to athletics, we have given about 27 to higher education or medical research.
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.
When Frank Broyles coached at Arkansas, he used to have a golf tournament each year for all the Southwest Conference coaches.
I can't describe the feeling I got the first time I won a jury award for an injured person.
We can still do good for others and do good for ourselves. I would wither and die, truthfully. I need to be somewhere where the light's on me.
It's a great feeling knowing you've helped someone. That's what I've spent my life doing and my practice.
I think I'm doing some good. Obviously, I don't need any more money.
I think the average American has forgotten the great feel for liberty and accountability that the framers of the Constitution believed.
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.
That's a good feeling, to save your clients two billion dollars.
What did I know about lawyering? I just thought it was another way to stay in Austin for another three years.
I don't want corporate America to think they can continue their duplicitous double-dealing.
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.
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.
Ever since I was a kid, I've known I could talk to people.
Do you know what the root of mediation is? Mediocrity!
I think Wallace Hall is an imbecile.
I sent people to the penitentiary as fast as I could, never thinking about whether they deserved it.
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.
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'm a very egotistical person.
For me, being a lawyer means to help those in need.
The trick is to learn to contain one's ego, not conceal it.
When I walk into a courtroom, I feel like I'm home.
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.
The money doesn't really matter. I've been a multi-millionaire for a long time. My sons are rich.
I spent a year at Southwestern Louisiana Institute, then transferred back to the University of Texas, where I majored in English and history.
The feeling of being accepted and acknowledgement and recognition and fame - I'm vain like everybody else. The feeling of achievement that I've helped the poor or somebody in need far outweighs the money.
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 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.
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.
The Depression did more to me than being a little Lebanese kid did.
