Shakespeare may have made one of the earliest recorded instances of a lawyer joke in Henry VI.
No way. In the 4th century there was a joke book written called "Philogelos" (The Laughter Lover). There are lawyer jokes in there.
Below are two.
1) A sharp lawyer is pleading a case before a judge. When the Judge nods off the lawyer shouts "I appeal!". "To whom?" asks the judge? "To you to wake up" replies the lawyer.
2) A sharp lawyer, having been insulted by someone in a public bath, goes to court and calls the bath attendant as witnesses. The defendant rejects the witnesses as not being credible. The lawyer counters "If I had been insulted inside the wooden horse of Troy, I would have called Menelaus, Odysseus and Diomedes as witnesses. But since the insult occurred in the bath house, the bath attendants are the ones most likely to know what happened.
I guess you need to be an ancient Greek or maybe they lost something in translation? The one below not about lawyers is a better attempt at humour.
“An intellectual was on a sea voyage when a big storm blew up, causing his slaves to weep in terror. ‘Don’t cry,’ he consoled them, ‘I have freed you all in my will'."