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

A popular lawyer joke is:
 
Q: What’s the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
A: The tick drops off when you’re dead.
 
The joke has been cited in print since at least 1994.
 
     
Google Books
Fed Up with the Legal System?:
What’s Wrong & how to Fix it
By Ralph E. Warner and Stephen Elias
Berkeley, CA: Nolo Press
1994
Pg. ?:
What’s the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
The tick drops off when you’re dead.
 
Google Groups: bit.listserv.free-l
Lawyer jokes (it’s Friday)
Dale Marmaduke
3/11/94
(...)
What’s the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
The tick drops off after you’re dead.
 
Google Groups: rec.humor
Canonical List Of Lawyer Humor 1/1
April Fool
3/14/95
(...)
What is the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
The tick stops draining you and drops off after you’re dead.
 
Google Books
The Joke’s On… Lawyers
By Stan D. Ross
Sydney: The Federation Press
1996
Pg. 38:
Q: What is the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
A: The tick stops draining you and drops off after you are dead.
 
Google Groups: rec.humor
Many Lawyer Jokes.
Maximilian McGahon
5/17/97
(...)
> Q.  What is the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
> A.  A tick falls off of you when you die.
 
2 June 1998, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Laugh Lines; Punch Lines,” pg. 3:
Bite Me: What’s the difference between a tick and a lawyer? “A tick drops off after it sucks your blood.” (Alice Hoffman)
 
Google Books
The Lawyer’s Joke Book:
There Are Some Things a Rat Just Won’t Do
By John Patrick Dolan and Dale Irvin
Charleston, SC: Advantage Media Group
2008
Pg. 28:
What is the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
A tick falls off of you when you die.
 
Google Books
More One Liners, Jokes and Gags
By Grant Tucker
London: The Robson Press
2013
What is the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
A tick falls off you when you die.