By now everyone on planet earth and maybe even other planets, like the one Paris Hilton is actually from, has heard that she checked herself into jail Sunday night to start serving a 23 day sentence for violating probation. The sentence was originally 45 days.Â
 And now… SHE’S ALREADY OUT. After just 3 days Paris Hilton was released from jail to house arrest… for 40 more days.
Her Mug Shot
This got me thinking, her Lawyer Richard A. Hutton from Hutton & Wilson, a supposed preeminent DUI Firm in Los Angeles must have seen a surge in prospective clients due to the publicity. Â
Or did he… receiving a 45 day sentence for a violation of probation after she was caught driving on a suspended license is hardly what I would call a successful DUI representation (Original DUI charge in September). I know many people that have had similar cases or even more serious charges that did not even sniff the interior of a jail cell.
So the question this poses from a marketing perspective: Is it worth it to take on a celebrity or high profile client, whether it be Pro Bono or not, in order to get free publicity even if you LOSE THE CASE? I know many people would revert to the cliche “There’s no such thing as bad press”. Of course it works for Paris, but what about her Attorney?
ps. I promise I will never mention Paris Hilton ever again on LawFirmBlogging.com… 
Popularity: 37% [?]
June 8th, 2007 at 10:50 am
what happened to this blog?
-the font is small, hard to read.
-I unfortunately just had to hear more about Paris Hilton
-the previous post was a string of funny quotes, nothing to do w/ the title of the blog.
In response to the Q posed in the post: I think that even though he lost, he got his name out there BIG TIME by taking Hilton’s case. Although some press could be bad press, the amount of mentions his name will get are well worth it to his type of law.
June 8th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
I agree the font is a little small, I’ll take that under advisement.
As far as the funny quotes in the previous post, it was just that, funny lawyer quotes… it has everything to do with Lawyers, Law firms, etc.
Plus,I like to laugh and make others laugh, don’t you? Oh I forgot… I’m dealing with lawyers here.
June 9th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
It’s good publicity because people will figure she has enough money to hire anyone and she chose this guy.
On an unrelated topic, I would love to see you do a post on Avvo.com.
June 9th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Avvo looks like an interesting site, I’m going to check it out in depth and maybe make a post about it. It doesn’t appear to have anything in my state of Michigan yet though.
November 9th, 2007 at 1:59 am
If I had the money I’d hire the lawyer. Old girl Paris got off after 3 days in the slammer.