Because they always look at people as persons, regardless of what they’ve done.
Physicians often work in prisons. And lawyers often defend people no one else would.
Also interesting, and perhaps not entirely uncoincidentally too, they both often work for free.
Doctors sometimes work at free clinics. And lawyers sometimes work ‘pro bono’.
Agree? Disagree? 
Hmmm. Using a different set of examples from the same professions, you could make a case that Attorneys and Physicians are psychopathic arseholes. I certainly agree that some attorneys and some physicians are beautiful people.
I tend to agree, but not completely.
Especially, I think doctors are usually beautiful people. It’s a helping profession, and takes a great deal of devotion and energy to achieve.
I think this is true of lawyers, also, but I think there are more exceptions. For one thing, it’s not as if you can go to your doctor for the purpose of making somebody else sick, but you can definitely go to your lawyer to try to mess with somebody else, and it sometimes works.
As a physician working in a prison, I am flattered by the OP’s thoughts and I do wish I could get more on board with the OP. But I’ve hired, supervised, and fired too many physicians over my career to have illusions that we’re really better people. We’re just in a position to do a lot of people a lot of good, and have the training and the job expectations geared to have us do so. And most of us manage to do significantly more good than harm over our careers. It’s our default setting and it’s not related to our own inherent goodness in many cases.
Most of us do go into the field with the intent of helping/serving others. But many are also motivated by the desire for status, authority, respect, high income opportunities, and other less noble incentives. I wanted to help, to serve, to heal, but also to overcome my own doubts about myself, to establish that I was competent, smart, capable, and not to be taken lightly. To show I was not a lesser son of my father, who was a very very good and successful and competent and kind man. Going into medicine served many purposes for me, some high minded, some not so much.
And some physicians truly are beautiful people. I admire many that I’ve met. Same for attorneys, teachers, scientists, clerks, baristas, librarians, tradesfolks, etc.
But there are a LOT of schmucks out there, in all areas of life. Physicians included. And sometimes especially.
I could ramble on, but I’ll just say thanks to Jim B!
You use the word “often” without giving any stats. I suspect that it is incorrectly applied here. Physicians don’t often work in prisons. A very small percentage do. Lawyers don’t often defend people for free. A small percentage ever defend anyone in court.
IMO, there’s nothing intrinsic about lawyers or doctors that doesn’t also apply to every other profession. Some percentage of people are good, some percentage of people are not, and the majority are muddling along the best they can.
I think I’m pretty, not beautiful.
I’m with the others. Sure, you have some really great people in these professions, however you have great people in other professions. For every lawyer that does pro bono work you have another who will slam the door in your face without a five digit retainer check in your hand.
In my case it was mostly because I found medicine to be a fascinating field. And unlike my previous occupation (in radio), I haven’t had to suck up to and work with crazy people at insane hours for laughably low pay.* Which puts me at the ignoble end of the scale, I suppose.
I think the OP is trippin’.
*more accurately, there’ve been far fewer jackholes to suck up to and under vastly better working conditions.