One lawyer recalled helping post a criminal defendant's bail at the request of a charitable organization.

"You'd see this tiny thin guy shuffling into court," one lawyer recalled.

"It was a tour de force," the lawyer recalled.

"He really couldn't keep going more than five minutes on the facts of the case," recalls the lawyer, Edith Georgi.

"I have an important appointment," recalled the lawyer.

At the time, lawyers recall, these contracts were often only five pages long and many cost less than $1,000.

One lawyer who has been involved in many utility mergers recalled that although all were difficult to complete, some lived up to their promises.

In 1990, recalled one such lawyer, he and several colleagues were scheduled to have a telephone conference with the judge, who was unreachable.

"I promised I would never have children," the 32-year-old lawyer recalled recently.

The poll results disturbed her enough that she tried to find out who gave her the lower rankings, several lawyers recalled.