>>in a country that lives to sue, and with myriads of lawyers who must sue to live, the depth of the anti-lawyer sentiment in the States seems unsurprising.

Funny how there are often different mind-sets depending on where you live. If you ask anybody here about the U.S. people and their great need to sue, no-one will ever blame/discuss the lawyers. It is usually the people doing the suing that get the eye-roll. The lawyers are only doing a job that they were hired to do.