Our civil justice system is an adversarial one.   When a dispute arises and lawyers spar, they are, by definition, advarsaries.   But advarsarial does not mean nasty nor should it.

Clients sometimes want a "bulldog" for a lawyer or something who is willing to "throw mud."  While such personalities and the antics that go with them may serve to enterain clients or provide some momentary satiety to a desire for revenge, it ulimately does great harm to the intergiry of the legal profession, makes all concerned uncomfortable, unquestionabliy increases the cost of dispute resolution, formal or otherwise, and makes an already difficult situtation more so.

The fact is attorneys can be both tenacious and pleasant.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  Finding a lawyer who can be both can be a challenge.  It is, however, a challenge worth undertaking.  

A lawyer who can keeps his or her emotions in check will well-represent his or her client.  An emotional attorney who cannot do so will not. An attorney who seemingly gets angry at the injustice done to you may not be able to bring to your issue the detached professional judgment that is a necessary and highly-valuable component of the lawyer-cleint relationship.

Remember, your lawyer, while an advocate, is not a cheerleader.   He or she shoud tell you not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear.

Absent that, you are wasting your money.