JUST KIDDING: “I don’t care. I’m a...

JUST KIDDING: “I don’t care. I’m a good sport,” says attorney Stephen G. Corris of Irvine, portrayed in a front-page Wall Street Journal article as the “butt of a thousand faxes.” . . . Corris’ 1988 letter to Wyoming lawyer Becky Klemt, in which he rejected a minor case because it was beneath his $1,000-an-hour fee, has been internationally circulated along the legal grapevine--along with Klemt’s biting letter in response: “We’ve all been practicing trying to say we charge $1,000 an hour with a straight face, but so far, we haven’t been able to do it.” . . . But it’s all a misunderstanding, Corris says. He says he no longer practices and thought Klemt’s original letter was a gag from a friend in Wyoming. Corris says his response was a joke intended to sound as pompous as possible. . . . Regardless, the incident has brought fame, cases and job offers for Klemt and for Corris a reputation of being, in his words, “a swithering, blithering idiot.”