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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Joe Jamail Quotes

The Depression did more to me than being a little Lebanese kid did.

– Joe Jamail

Your attitude will go a long way in determining your success, your recognition, your reputation and your enjoyment in being a lawyer.

– Joe Jamail

When Frank Broyles coached at Arkansas, he used to have a golf tournament each year for all the Southwest Conference coaches.

– Joe Jamail

I think Wallace Hall is an imbecile.

– Joe Jamail

For me, being a lawyer means to help those in need.

– Joe Jamail

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve known I could talk to people.

– Joe Jamail

Do you know what the root of mediation is? Mediocrity!

– Joe Jamail

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.

– Joe Jamail

I spent a year at Southwestern Louisiana Institute, then transferred back to the University of Texas, where I majored in English and history.

– Joe Jamail

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.’

– Joe Jamail

There are more pompous, arrogant, self-centered, mediocre-type people running corporate America who should be sent out on some postal route delivering mail.

– Joe Jamail

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

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.

– Joe Jamail

That’s a good feeling, to save your clients two billion dollars.

– Joe Jamail

The money doesn’t really matter. I’ve been a multi-millionaire for a long time. My sons are rich.

– Joe Jamail

For every dollar we have given to athletics, we have given about 27 to higher education or medical research.

– Joe Jamail

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.

– Joe Jamail

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.

– Joe Jamail

I was taught that a lawyer was supposed to be a custodian of the community’s legal and ethical sense.

– Joe Jamail

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.

– Joe Jamail

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.

– Joe Jamail

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.

– Joe Jamail

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.

– Joe Jamail

I can’t describe the feeling I got the first time I won a jury award for an injured person.

– Joe Jamail

I sent people to the penitentiary as fast as I could, never thinking about whether they deserved it.

– Joe Jamail

It’s a great feeling knowing you’ve helped someone. That’s what I’ve spent my life doing and my practice.

– Joe Jamail