To Pull Or Not To Pull
I received an email a while back from a lawyer who was the subject of a post here. I’d called him out for making accusations against another lawyer in a forum comprised of nearly every DUI lawyer in the state. His wasn’t a terribly friendly email, but that was hardly a surprise. What was a surprise was exactly what upset him. He was mad that I had written something negative about him on the internet. That was his biggest sticking point. He disagreed with what I wrote, obviously, and he thought I had no business writing about him in the first place. Even more important to him than correcting things he believed I had wrong, however, was making sure I understood what he perceived to be … Read entire article »
Filed under: Marketing
Concealed Weapons In Arizona – Apparently Way Too Confusing For Lawyers
An out of state lawyer called me earlier today with questions about Arizona’s concealed carry law. As we spoke, I Googled “misconduct involving weapons az” to pull up the statute. The law was the first result, as it should be. I also noticed law firm websites, some belonging to lawyers I know, made up the majority of the remaining results on the first page. After the call, I clicked through to the lawyers’ websites out of curiosity. The first said “The following are punishable by up to 6 months in jail…carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.” It also included this: “Call us right away, anytime for an evaluation of your case and some expert advice.” The second said “Class 1 Misdemeanor Misconduct Involving Weapons … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arizona Statutes, Marketing
More Sleazy Lawyer Marketing
This time, I checked Simple Justice thoroughly before posting something about an email I got from Total Attorneys yesterday. The company seemed familiar, and sure enough, it turned out that Scott Greenfield wrote about its sketchy lawyer marketing practices in 2009 and then again in 2010, when the Connecticut State Bar officially decided its founder wasn’t quite driving the legal profession into the shitter in a specific manner that would have offended their sensibilities too terribly. Either way, they’re still at it, and I’m posting because what I received serves as a great lesson about how these marketing people work. Here’s the email I got from an “Alicia Stevenson” in its entirety, which I’ll break down part by part: Matthew, I figured an email may be the best bet if … Read entire article »
Filed under: Marketing
Just Callin’ To Chat
I often get emails with convoluted stories that appear to have nothing to do with criminal defense. For instance, the sender will discuss her sick dad, her faith, and her wicked stepmother. There will be no obvious relevance to my line of work, but when I call, I will invariably speak with an individual charged with embezzling funds from her dad’s savings account and assaulting his new wife but who couldn’t have possibly done it because she’s a pillar of the mega-church she attends whenever she isn’t in the custody of the department of corrections for various financial and violent crimes. I’m making up the example, obviously, but reality isn’t all that different a lot of the time. One recent message and the ensuing conversation left me really … Read entire article »
Filed under: Clients
Chris McCann Is So Gonna Sue Me
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. Chris’s problem is that he’s upset about a post where I mentioned his name in passing over thirteen months ago. He may be a little slow working the interwebs, as he also just stumbled across one of Brian Tannebaum’s old blog posts too, the one I had cited as the basis for my thoughts. Chris left a bizarre comment there yesterday as well. No one can accuse Chris McCann of not being proactive. Getting back to the real issue here, why he’s upset, I think it’s probably … Read entire article »
Reinventing The Wheel Into Something Else
After reading a post at My Shingle, I clicked through to a post by Jordan Furlong discussing his thoughts on the future of the practice of law. He divides what he calls “the evolution of the legal services market” into stages, the first being what he calls a “closed market,” the second being a “breached market,” the third being a “fully open market,” the fourth being an “expanding market,” and the fifth being a “multi-dimensional market.” He sees competition growing and lawyers having to drastically change what we do. We’re all going to have to think outside the box, reinvent ourselves. My initial reaction was that he was just making up stuff, providing intricate details about a fictional future where his services will be in far greater demand … Read entire article »
Filed under: Marketing, Practice in General
Dear Avvo:
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne does not work for Brown & Little, P.L.C. When I complained about you guys linking other lawyers’ profiles to our site, you said you fixed it. I thought that would be the end of the problem, but now, Mr. Horne’s Avvo page directs people to our website. I know that Scott Greenfield made the comment that, “if you’re going to screw up and have links from one attorney go to another, can you at least link Matt’s website to some really good lawyers rather than losers?” If you thought he was serious, I do appreciate that you found us Arizona’s most well-known attorney, a Harvard Law School grad with forty years of experience who has served as a judge, as the state superintendent … Read entire article »
Filed under: Marketing
Ups and Downs
Private practice can be a roller coaster. The turns may widen and the grades may diminish as time passes, but the financial uncertainty never goes away altogether. Your threshold for risk will diminish as your practice grows. Traditionally, summer months are the hardest for me and Adrian, but this summer has been an exception. We’ve seen unexpected growth during a time when we usually hunker down and prepare for the worst. We’re lucky, but even if every month is a relatively good month compared to when you started out, you still never know what the next month holds. A lot of money can pour out of a business very quickly when times are slow. Running a small firm isn’t for the faint of heart. Running it … Read entire article »
Filed under: Marketing, Uncategorized
The Best Sales Pitch Ever
One of the greatest joys of owning a small firm is getting to know the friendly folks at LexisNexis and Westlaw. They often call to see how I’m doing or drop by to say hello, and they never forget to keep me abreast of the latest products from their companies. I was talking with a friend yesterday, and somehow Lawyers.com came up. Suddenly, I remembered a fantastic sales pitch I got several months ago from my local LexisNexis representative. He was trying to convince me to pay LexisNexis, which owns Lawyers.com and martindale.com, to list my firm on those sites and do the website and search engine optimization for my firm. Admittedly, I was a little hard on him. I asked him some tough questions about why I … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
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