In that case, I'm surprised by your post. Certainly there are reasons to conclude that law is not a particulary rewarding career, but I would think as a former attorney you would have concluded that attorneys do play a legitimate role in helping to resolve disputes.
I think a main reason that people dislike attorneys is that their services tend to be necessary only when bad things are happening. For example, I don't mind spending $2,000 on a new computer because afterwards I will be able to enjoy playing with the thing. There is generally no such reward with legal services. Attorneys are usually hired to keep a bad situation from getting worse. Even if the attorney obtains the best possible result, the client tends to end up in worse shape, both financially and psychologically, than when the controversy arose. It's hard to get excited about spending money under those circumstances.
The only time the attorney should be criticized is when he improperly creates the controversy in the first place or prolongs the controversy to generate additional billings. I will admit that happens more than we would like and the legal profession is trying to police it, but there is far more legitimate and honest legal work going on every day than many of the people on this thread realize.
By the way, what was your area of practice?