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.   

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…

ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
_______________________________________________________

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you
forgot?
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that
morning?
WITNESS: He said, “Where am I, Cathy?”
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in
voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his
sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: Uh, he’s twenty-one.
________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shittin’ me?
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Uh…. I was gettin’ laid!
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Are you shittin’ me? Your Honour, I think I need a
different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Now whose death do you suppose terminated it?
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Guess.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a
deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on
dead people?
WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. Would you
like to rephrase that?
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go
to?
WITNESS: Oral.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was
doing an autopsy on him!
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Huh….are you qualified to ask that question?
______________________________________
And the best for last:
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check
for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you
began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive,
nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and
practising law. 

WASHINGTON, DC — (MARKET WIRE) — 04/04/07 — The American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the seminal law firm marketing case, Bates v. Arizona, on November 8-9, 2007 in Washington, DC with its first-ever Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference.

The event features a number of all-attorney panels that will provide practicing lawyers with the most comprehensive look at how law firm marketing has evolved and where the profession is heading, as well as programs aimed at assisting lawyers and firms with improving their business development strategies.

“Bates set in motion an entire industry that continues to define the legal profession,” said Micah Buchdahl, Conference Chair for the Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference. “It’s time to take a step back and look at what is working for law firms and examine where we can make strides.”

The two-day event will feature some of the most relevant and integral law firm marketing experts in the country, including Van O’Steen from Bates v. Arizona to talk about legal ethics; strategic communications specialist Chris Lehane and Infinite Public Relations’ Jamie Diaferia to talk about crisis communications, as well as a program on the impact of diversity initiatives on law firm business.

“The concept of law firm marketing continues to be an enigma to many members of the bar,” Buchdahl said. “This conference will address concerns, but also teach ‘best practices’ for moving forward with smart initiatives.”

Other panels will address some of the most pressing marketing issues faced by law firms of all sizes, including business development spending and technology marketing. In addition, the Conference will include two Extreme Marketing programs featuring ten speakers talking about ten topics for ten minutes apiece. These programs will feature partners from 20 national law firms.

The event will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel from 9 a.m. on Thursday, November 8, 2007 through 2 p.m. on Friday, November 9. A room block has been secured at an ABA LPM rate of $239/night.

For more information about the event and how to register, please visit www.lawpractice.org/marketingconference.

ABOUT THE ABA LAW PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SECTION

The mission of the ABA Law Practice Management Section is to provide innovative and practical information on marketing, management, technology, and finance, enabling legal professionals to better serve clients, achieve career goals, and balance their lives. The American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership association in the world, with more than 400,000 members.

CONTACT:
Micah Buchdahl, Esq.
Conference Chair
American Bar Association - Law Practice Management Section
(856) 234-4334

Law

Web sites for law firms, legal service providers, pro-bono legal services, litigation support, and self-help legal information. Sites that feature content on legal issues, trials, law and business issues, court decisions or legal advocacy.

From the email I received:

The awards, hailed by the New York Times as “the online equivalent of an Oscar”, officially launched their Call For Entries last week. Justice Learning took home the top prize at the 10^th Annual Webby Awards, while sites from Court TV, Jurist, and FindLaw were among the nominees.

If your firm has a site that you think is Webby-worthy, I would definitely encourage you to enter. While designing your firm’s site with an award in mind is an absolutely awful idea (you’re trying to get clients and make money….not have a pretty site), the converse is also true: If you’ve got a great site that is really working well for you, maybe you deserve an award!

And as any law firm knows, a little bit of nationwide good publicity never hurts.

So, I think I’ve got the answer.

This morning, I created an award. I’ll give it out each year, and the selection process is absolutely a no-brainer. There are just two qualifications:

1) You need to be an attorney.
2) You have to post a comment on the Adequate Attorney page.

All adequate attorney honorees are encouraged to display the following graphic on their blog:

The article talks about the Boston firm of WilmerHale, which has been chosen to represent Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney against the head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Matt Amorello. For those unfamiliar with the situation, here’s a nice recap. In short, a concrete slab fell on, and killed a passenger in a car driving through a Big Dig tunnel. Governor Romney is now putting the blame on the head of the MTA, Matt Amorello, and wants him removed from his post. Governor Romney has now turned to WilmerHale to represent him in his case to oust Amorello.

With that said, the article goes on to talk about how law firms do pro bono work because it can often be a good marketing opportunity. From the article:

“Pro bono legal assistance is generally thought of as something that law firms provide as part of their civic duty, to help indigents charged with a crime or nonprofit organizations with miniscule budgets. In fact, WilmerHale says on its Web site that its pro bono program is “based on the belief that there is more to our professional mandate than advocacy for the most powerful and successful members of society.”

……What’s really happening here is more about marketing than helping the underdog. In the murky world of legal marketing, where opportunities for publicity and access to influential decision-makers are key to a firm’s success, this nonpaying assignment is a marketing coup for WilmerHale.”

While I agree that the publicity WilmerHale will receive from representing Governor Romney pro bono will far outweigh the costs, I’m a little bit at odds with the “murky world of legal marketing” statement. For some reason the article really rubbed me the wrong way. It’s tone is accusatory, and gives me the following mental image:

It’s 1:00 am on a rainy Tuesday night. A representative from the WilmerHale Secret Legal Marketing Conspiracy Squad pauses on a street corner, leans against a street light, and lights a cigarette while drips of water from his hat drop into a puddle below. As he takes a drag, a man walks out of the nearby dive bar, nods his head, and says “We’re ready for you.”

Over the next several hours, the man from WilmerHale and representatives from the Romney administration hammer out a complex plan for world domination, starting with ousting the head of the Turnpike authority, ending at the White House.

Am I wrong here? Is there something about legal marketing that is inherently “murky”, secretive, and manipulative? Granted, when you talk to someone and saw the words “lawyer advertising” the idea of personal injury attorneys with 1-800 numbers during breaks in the Jerry Springer Show come to mind, but every industry has the exception to the rule.

Am I wrong in that I see absolutely nothing wrong or dishonest in what WilmerHale is doing?

The article, by Sacha Pfeiffer, talks about how competitive intelligence is only beginning to be used by law firms due to increasing competition:

“It used to be that in-house counsel would pick up the phone and call a friend, and that’s how work came in,” said Jasmine Trillos-Decarie, who is also director of marketing for the law firm Goodwin Procter LLP, which has offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C . “Or you always worked with one company, so you always got that work. But the nature of the business has changed dramatically, and we’re being expected to compete more. . . . Competitive intelligence analysis can help us understand how to do that.”

My favorite quote in the article:

`To a client, one big law firm looks much the same as every other — all our websites look the same and all our brochures look the same — so we’re all struggling with how to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace,” Smith said. “Competitive intelligence has to do with being smarter about where you look for business and how you go about doing that. And as marketers and business development people in law firms, that’s really our goal: to help our lawyers do just that.”

The quote is from Brian T. Smith, director of marketing for the law firm Day, Berry & Howard LLP.

It’s a different approach. Rather than trying to appear distinct so more clients come to them, firms are actively going to clients. And before going to the client, they’re doing their homework.

Though I think the meeting would be most useful to larger firms, the panel gave some advice on how and when a firm should contact the media for a story idea.

Marketing professionals at law firms understand how beneficial it is to be covered in the press. If an article gives a favorable impression of a firm, the exposure could be better than advertising money could buy.

However, it is important to know that the news is just that: news. News is not advertising.

Though introducing a new attorney may be a significant, interesting story within a firm, it may not be considered newsworthy for the outside world. Panelists agreed that though news of this sort is not likely to generate a story, they are happy to receive notices of this sort. In fact, one panelist (representing an area business newspaper) said that receiving notices of new partners, attorneys, etc. are useful to him, as it makes it easier to find experts to interview when a story breaks.

The most repeated theme of this panel was the idea that newspapers are interested in what firms are doing, but do not want to publish thinly-veiled PR pieces. There simply has to be an objective news story underlying anything they write about. They understand that the firm would love to be the subject of a glowing puff piece, but that’s not what they’re about.

I saw a good example of how a firm had an angle that helped them garner press attention in Your Marketing Sucks by Mark Stevens:

For one investment firm, we put a headline on a news release that read “Bulls, Bears, and Armadillos.” Everyone knows that bull is the term for an optimist on Wall Street, and if you are negative you are a bear. But an armadillo? It was a term we coined for an investor who armed himself against a prickly stock market. That was intriguing to the media, and, as a result, the investment firm got substantial press coverage.

(pg. 155)

The takeaway: Don’t try to put one over on journalists. They need content, so they’ll welcome your input and story ideas. Just make sure you give them an actual story, not just fluff.