Online Lawyer vs Courtroom Bulldog

I spent the last couple days at Webmaster World, where at least one of the speakers was a lawyer who made a big business out of buying domain names on spec. While I frown on that business model, at least he told everybody to stay from trying to squat on trademarked names. I had a lot of questions to ask at the sessions, didn't get a chance to ask many of them, but it was enough to remind me that confrontational situations aren't my forte. What kind of lawyer has shaky hands, not to mention a shaky voice?

I wonder if there's a career path in the future for an online lawyer. Frankly, I don't enjoy online confrontations any more or less from personal ones, even if I don't run from either. But it makes me wonder if lawyers spend all of their time in confrontations with people who are lying. That I really hate, jerks with their bald-faced lies and self-serving half truths. I've been the moderator of a couple large Internet discussion lists, and it's pretty disgusting how some members will try to instill fear in the community to sell their services.

My idea of a fun legal career is gathering the facts, putting together an airtight case, then giving it to some courtroom bulldog to get the case settled. Sure, that may sound more like paralegal work, but I don't mean it that way. I can do what needs to be done, but I'm more interested in the research and advise role than the threaten and cajole path.

I see plenty of lawyers drumming up business online, and I'd bet that very little of it ever gets to the courtroom. Still, it's probably something to do some soul searching about. I'd have to put conflict resolution near the bottom of my list of life skills, I'm more of a escalate to nuclear war type:-)