“What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?” (lawyer joke)

A lawyer joke is:
 
Q: What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?
A: A boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer fight.
 
The joke has been cited in print since at least 1997.
     
 
Google Groups: no.vitser
Lange vitser/historier, gjerne engelske
Date:  Tue, 21 Jan 1997 13:38:00 -0600
From:  “Bakken, Brian”

Subject: Lawyer Jokes - Part 16/17 (off to Lawyers?)
 
What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?
A boxing referee doesn’t get paid extra for a longer fight.
   
Google Groups: alt.tasteless.jokes
Lawyer jokes please!
Bill Stebbins
10/28/97
(...)
Q:  What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?
A:  A boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer fight.
   
Twitter
Adrián Bertolini‏
@adbert
What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee? A boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer fight.
8:51 PM - 12 Dec 2008
 
Google Books
Confessions of a Compulsive Internet Dater
By Troy McCoy
Xlibris Corporation (Xlibris.com)
2010
Pg. 136:
What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee? A boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer fight.
 
CigarBid Forums
Wheelrite
#14 Posted: Wed, Aug 4 2010, 1:32 PM EST
(...)
Q: What’ the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?
A: A boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer fight.
   
Google Books
Jokes and Targets
By Christie Davies
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press
2011
Pg. 53:
Q: What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?
A: A boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer fight.
 
8 July 2011, Orange County Register (Santa Ana, CA), “No pushovers, but no Leon Spinks, either” by David Whiting:
Still, there’s that lawyer thing. And the jokes come with a warning: What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?
 
The boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer fight.
 
Twitter
Anti-Cancer Club‏
@anticancerclub
Q: What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?  A boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer http://fight.bit.ly/2kMSZ7e
5:32 AM - 27 Jun 2017