About 95% care for their client. About 5% don’t, and those care for stats, screwing over the opposition or even just money or doing the least amount of work.

Though specifically criminal defense is such a thankless job because everybody hates you and even the court is often subconsciously biased against you, I can imagine people specifically in that role tend to be more idealistic, so that would mean maybe 98% of them care for their client.

They I should also say, attorneys generally only care about doing a good job, only a very tiny fraction would care enough for their client to get them into trouble with the state bar.

But yeah, I feel like lawyers get a bad rep because you gotta fight for your clients as written in the fifth amendment even if they turn out to be douche bags.

I doubt its about screwing over opposing counsel(altho like any other ego-driven effort or personality type im sure it also happens), more like better lawyering to get an outcome they can brag about to future clients. Im sure some or many want to not only do justice to the cases they accept but also give their clients some sense of closure, whatever the outcome

The worst thing is often the uncertainty and the way it makes it impossible to plan your moves going forward. Even if you lose, its better to have closure on that so you are able to make the best moves to recover and chart a better course now that the fallout is established

Depends on the person