Joe Jamail Quotes

What did I know about lawyering? I just thought it was another way to stay in Austin for another three years.

- Joe Jamail

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.

- 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

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

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.

- Joe Jamail

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

- Joe Jamail

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

- 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.

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

- 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

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

- 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

If you are not emotionally involved, your client is not getting your best effort.

- Joe Jamail

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

- 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

We've got some well-run corporations by some well-intended people who do it right.

- Joe Jamail

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.

- Joe Jamail

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

- Joe Jamail

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

- 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 I walk into a courtroom, I feel like I'm home.

- 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

I think the average American has forgotten the great feel for liberty and accountability that the framers of the Constitution believed.

- 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

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'm a very egotistical person.

- 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

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?

- 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

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 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.

- 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 think Wallace Hall is an imbecile.

- Joe Jamail

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

- Joe Jamail

The trick is to learn to contain one's ego, not conceal it.

- Joe Jamail

I don't want corporate America to think they can continue their duplicitous double-dealing.

- Joe Jamail

I think I'm doing some good. Obviously, I don't need any more money.

- Joe Jamail