Bar Tenders and Loud Mouth Lawyers

An article in the New York Times made the rounds about lawyers that have made online social media part of their legal strategy. However, many have failed to recognize the risks they face when they forget limits set by the codes of conduct in their respective states.

Amazingly, the article points out that even some judges get busted with their online communications:

Judges, too, can get into trouble online. Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in California, was investigated for off-color humor that was accessible on his family’s Web server, though not intended to be public. He was cleared of wrongdoing, but a three-judge panel admonished him for not safeguarding the site, which they said was “judicially imprudent.”

(Personally, when attorneys ask me about guidelines of their on-line communications, I find there's no one answer because it depends on what you are commenting on and how close you are to the case. However, attorneys know about how electronic discovery works, and one email can make or break a case. Attorneys have little room for excuses when they get busted with bad blogging.)

Recently, I started working with a legal blogger that is part of Chicago Tribune's online media community Chicago Now: Chicago Bar-Tender. I'd recommended that Chicago area lawyers check it out. Also, lawyers anywhere in the country should look at the blog the New York Times article references, Legal Professional Blog. These type of outlets not only give you news you may not get in your legal trade publications, they also show and tell you how on-line communication is different than many favorite American Bar Association publications.

For those of you who've read my blog before, I've already given away the PR laugh for this post. I find it quite amusing that professionally trained lawyers who work so hard on their communication with clients and in court, would be so sloppy with their very public communication with blog postings and tweets.

Me and Lou Albano and a Bottle of Whiskey

I have some sad news to report: Lou Albano is dead. You might ask, who is he? Lou was a professional wrestler and managed other wrestlers. He even played Cindi Lauper's father in her music videos.

As a child, my father took me to the professional wrestling matches in Philadelphia (go Phillies, you can catch up in the World series!) and I hated Lou. He was one of the dark characters played out in the ring. However, while we bought tickets to the cheap seats ($5) we often exchanged them for close views of the wrestlers. That's because my dad knew an usher and he moved us from the cheap seats to the primo locations that had not sold out.

To show his gratitude to this usher, my father would give him a pint of whiskey (I don't advocate drinking liquor anymore) to show our appreciation.

The PR laugh for me is that marketers and public relations professionals are so keen on social media and new ways to spread our clients' messages. And while that is very important, there's nothing like remembering the positive impressions that come from showing appreciation.

That's why whether it's a writer at the New York Times or a blogger in Chicago, I insist that our staff show appreciation, with at least a sincere note (handwritten is preferred). That's the ultimate way to spread your message virally.

Law Firm Taglines: Tasteful and Tacky

Any legal marketing professional will tell you how they feel the home page artwork for many law firms makes them cringe. That's because so many use almost identical stock photos of court houses or scales of justice. (What justice, I was not able to participate in the Cash for Clunkers program with my 2003 Toyota Corolla, nothing just about that, anyway...)

Recently, Law.com has a story called "101 Damn Fine and Not-So-Fine Law Firm Taglines." And they did a great job of summarizing the original posting from Stem Legal. The post speaks for itself, however, here's an excerpt:

Five Law.com likes:

Shepard Mullin: Our Mission is Your Success
Arnall Golden Gregory: Not If, But How
Ervin Cohen & Jessup: It’s Not a Common Practice.
Lawrence Graham: Lawyers. Just Different.
Womble Carlyle: Innovators at Law

A couple not easily forgotten:

Foster Townsend Graham: Damn Fine Litigators.
Harris Beach: Lawyers you’ll swear by. Not at.
Harrison Pensa: In any case.

Some the writer felt were possibly made up by a four-year-old:

Dickinson Wright: Great Lawyers. Great Law Firm.
Mischon: Not just any law firm.
Here, your choice clearly boils down to Leadership versus Experience:
Alston & Bird: Leadership. Creativity. Results.
Crowell & Moring: Experience. Creativity. Results.
Harry Potter Wisdom Division
Locke Lord: Practical wisdom, trusted advice

Where's the PR laugh here? Well, it depends. It's only been in recent years that law firms have taken more marketing seriously. So while I would love to poke fun at self-serving tag lines like

"Great Lawyers, Great Law Firm." I can't. (Actually, based on marketing guidelines by individual states on how you can describe your firm, that tag line might be illegal, but that's another post).

What I can chuckle about is how so many lawyers think they are marketers. While some are great self-promoters, some of those same lawyers need to rethink how their marketing efforts make them look sophisticated or silly.

PR Rules from Kindergarten

A good friend I made initially from on-lines communications is Dr. Toy. She is one the people I respect most when it comes to children and play. I even contacted her when my wife was pregnant to get advice on how to best interact with an new infant!

Recently, Dr. Toy sent me a link to a blog posting: PR rules my daughter learned in kindergarten. I could not have said it better, that while everyone is all a whirl about social media and on-line networking, public relations will always boil down to some basic communication skills we should have learned early in life.

When I first started my public relations agency, one of my media contacts told me that learning public relations should have started when as a child we were taught to "send a 'thank you' note to Aunt Sue for the red sweater."

I read a report titled: The State of the Public Relations Industry prepared by Paul Holmes. I loved what the it said about how public relations is changing in the face of social media and how it remains the same:

"Historically, public relations people have identified those people most likely to influence their client’s target audience, told the client’s story to those individuals, and then relied on those individuals to tell their story to the wider audience. Traditionally, those individuals have been journalists—relatively easy to identify, with obvious needs and interests. Today, those individuals can be bloggers, citizen journalists, or indeed anyone with influence: a hairdresser in the case of women’s products, a priest or minister in the case of a social issue. They are harder to identify, and understanding their specific information needs and desires requires more work, but the process remains the same: identify them, tell them a story, rely on them to tell the story to others."

The laugh for me is that people think public relations in the 21st Century is all about technology. And I agree, you need to know the features and benefits of electronic communications. Yet it's really a means to an end.

On the bus today, two young people bump hard into me and did not even apologize or acknowledge what they did. I don't care how robust their Facebook pages are, they missed setting up their "personal profile" when they did not learn some basics back in in kindergarten.

SueEasy is NotSo Great

Law.com's "Legal Blog Watch" has a terrific posting about SueEasy.com. It's a matching Web site service for clients and lawyers that allows potential litigants to post grievances and wait for responses from attorneys with offers to represent them. It also allows users to find class actions to join in with others.

On the surface, it seems like a great marketing service for lawyers. For the consumer, it potentially represents a "one-stop" shopping location for legal services. However, from what I gather from online comments, the site got a reputation and an "on-line ambulance chasing" operation. I particularly like this comment that was posted about SueEasy.com at Techcrunch.com


The name of this website alone will cause problems in some states. According to the code of ethics in many states, lawyers have to follow strict standards when joining referral services. Names like “Sue Easy” will probably prove to be offensive to many authorities governing attorneys. I would not be surprised if there is some court activity surrounding lawyers using this as a referral service.

The PR laugh for me is that while lawyers today market their services more than even, some opportunities cross the line. Legal services should be marketed effectively. However, it is a respected profession and this type of website service hurts the legal marketing industry.



As a board member of the Legal Marketing Association's Chicago Chapter, I would be hard pressed to consider this a service to mention to my associates.

There's Always Time to Get High in Kentucky

When you do a Google search for "Kentucky," ironically, the top listing is not for the tourism office or even the official site for the state. Rather the bulk of the links are related to the Kentucky derby. So I was a surprised when I saw an Associated Press story in Yahoo! News today about the amount of marijuana confiscated in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, where narcotics officers have seen a marijuana boom and confiscated more than 1 million plants in the three states. (If I wanted to add an audio clip to this post, I'd likely make it John Denver's Rocky Mountain High.)

The PR laugh for me is that this one story totally changes my perception of the these states. When I grew up in Philadelphia, we often drove up and down the east side of the country. The biggest high our family ever got was eating too many pecan rolls at Stucky's. In the future, when I drive in that area, I'll have to keep my windows rolled up so I can be sure I stay focused on the road.

It's amazing how one story can change a reputation. Maybe Cheech and Chong live at a retirement home in Appalachian region.

The Yo-Yo and Public Relations

Recently the Wall Street Journal had a story about the return of the yo-yo. When I was a kid, I loved yo-yos. The Duncan brand had such an assortment. Status among peers was determined by how many Duncans you owned. However, for me, my yo-yo fame was determined by off-brand yo-yos in the shape of a football or basketball. Anyway....

The Wall Street Journal pointed out the dark side of new yo-yos that can go faster and do more daring tricks resulting in: chipped teeth, calloused hands and bandaged brows. My worst accident was the string getting too tight around my finger and making it turn purple.

What gave me a PR giggle was the point that faster is not better and can cause damage, even when you are having fun. That's the way I see much of social media today. Yes, it's a tool to connect faster with targeted audiences. Yet, it can be damaging when it gets out of control. If you curious about social media disasters check out this posting.

I am proud to say that the team at our agency, TC Public Relations, has had some wonderful successes with making social media a friend for our clients. However, one time we sent out a very misdirected email that started to quickly work it's way through a few on-line pipelines. Fortunately, we were able to trace the origional negative messages and get the situation turned around quickly. Like a yo-yo, when it seemed like the situation hit bottom, with a little on-line pull in the right direction, it came back up again.