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Availability

In the process of calling out a lawyer named Christopher J. McCann who apparently felt the need to employ some scumbag marketing tactics by having someone else send out a request for a guest post, Brian Tannebaum wrote as follows:

I just wonder why Chris has hired someone to go find lawyers and try to sell himself on their blogs. Can’t he send his own email, or “call directly?” Where’s the “personal service” Chris. Chris?

That highlights a fascinating phenomenon that would probably be easiest to explain with some examples.

I know a lawyer who sucks. Okay, I know a bunch of lawyers who suck. They never answer their phones. They never respond to emails. They can’t even be bothered to respond to a desperate text for a call with a simple “LOL I’m ignoring you because I’m drunk in Vegas.” When I finally get so desperate to contact them that I resort to mailing a letter, I might as well have written Santa Claus at the North Pole requesting a Ferrari for the Fourth of July.

Those same lawyers have no money, but they always seem overworked and burnt out. They ask silly questions about how I find business, yet they represent more people in any given week than I represent in any given year. It’s very confusing.

Luckily, I also know a bunch of lawyers who are awesome. Several of them probably made more money this week than I’ve made in my entire career. They are all brilliant and hard-working.

Strangely, although they all differ greatly in what they do, they are all easy to reach. Most of them have staff, but I wouldn’t have ever noticed unless I’d really paid attention. When I call, they pick up. When I email, they respond. I never worry about them ignoring me, just as I’d never worry about them ignoring any of their clients.

The general public seems to think there should be some kind of mystique about lawyers. When it comes to availability, that’s bullshit. Unless a client is making plainly unreasonable demands regarding his lawyer’s time, the lawyer should always respond to everything. A phone tree that leads nowhere doesn’t make me impressed by how important a lawyer must be. It makes me vow to never send a case his way because he’s hard to reach.

One of the most famous trial lawyers in this state picks up his own phone when people call. So does a lawyer who holds more records for huge civil verdicts than I could count on my fingers and toes as well as a lawyer who runs a major public defense agency. So should everyone. What the hell are these struggling lawyers who can’t be bothered to do any work themselves doing with all of their time?

Unavailability does not equate to skill or prestige. It equates to more unavailability, a quality that few people seek in a prospective attorney.

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3 Responses to "Availability"

  1. […] few days after Tannebaum posted this, Matt Brown (a young lawyer) wrote a piece about availability, which mentioned McCann in passing. In doing so, Brown described McCann’s marketing […]

  2. […] Chris McCann is a California lawyer who really doesn’t think very highly of my blog. He only recently found out about it, I think, as he just started bombarding me with emails and waited until yesterday to leave a bizarre comment. […]

  3. Why don’t you call the number on my website and find out it I answer my own calls before you libel me? You equate a marketing professional trying to help me publish my content, with lawyers who don’t do their own work and answer their own calls? The reason I need someone to do that is because I DO answer ALL my own calls. Try to find lawyers who still do that.

    Because I provide way more personal service to my clients and work on their cases than any lawyer I know, I don’t have the time (and technical knowledge) to know where I can get my content published too. Imagine that: a good lawyer who is working for his clients while having other professionals work on his marketing. You have a problem with that? If so, you’re in minority and clearly don’t understand business.

    If you doubt me, call my number ANYTIME. Day or night, weekends or holidays. I’ll pick up. Go ahead and do it. Perhaps you should have done that before posting this garbage. Here is my number from my website: (888) 360-4256 and (949) 596-0060. I’ll be waiting.

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