Countering lawyers' bad rap: All Bar Conference focuses on Dignity in Law.

Remember this scene from the 1997 movie "The Rainmaker"?

Danny DeVito plays the feisty paralegal, Matt Damon plays the fresh young lawyer, and they are about to cruise the hospital looking for prospective clients, the more battered and injured, the better.

When Damon's young lawyer character looks alarmed, DeVito says: "What did they teach you in law school?"

"Well, they didn't teach me to chase ambulances."

"Well, you'd better learn quick--or you'll starve."

DeVito seizes the opportunity of an accident victim strung up in traction. By the end of their quick, unannounced visit, DeVito gets the patient's signature by moving a contract under the hand of the poor guy who can barely clench a pen with his broken arm stuck in a cast. The deal is sealed when DeVito sticks his business card in the patient's mouth.

"We came with nothing," DeVito tells Damon on the way out of the hospital. "If he had thrown us out of the room, what would we have lost?"

While that exaggerated scene can't help but bring a few chuckles, what the legal profession loses with such Hollywood depictions of lawyers is some more of its precious dignity.

What was gained from showing that film clip was sparking a lively discussion at the All Bar Conference January 16 in Miami about Dignity in Law, the first segment of the day-long session that included a panel discussion with members of the news media and tips from Christine Barney, CEO of rbb Public Relations, on how lawyers should deal with the media to get their message out.

The benefit of the day's events, said Alan Bookman, chair of the All Bar Conference, was exposure to the Dignity in Law program to members of voluntary bars, section leaders and chairs who need to get out and spread the word to their membership.

"We have to remember that we are all lawyers, whether you practice tax law, whether you practice probate, trust and guardianship, we are all lawyers," Bookman said. "We are, unfortunately, by a large segment of the public, put into the same barrel. We need to change that perception, because this is an honorable profession. And for some reason, the public doesn't think so anymore. And we just need to change that, because we are often guided by what our clients want us to do. And unfortunately, some of our clients want us to be bulldogs, and want us to be obnoxious. The most obnoxious person wins. That's not the way to practice law. You can get the same success and zealously represent your client and be...