Mark Bennett | April 4, 2011
To those like who want the practical blawgosphere to be the Happysphere, with no unkind words spoken about anyone (unless, as Tannebaum points out, there are no names mentioned, which makes the Happysphere more than a little passive-aggressive), the Joseph Rakofsky story should provide an object lesson. Joseph Rakofsky’s online marketing is a parade of […]
Mark Bennett | January 30, 2010
I wrote a couple of posts over at Social Media Tyro about the ethics of ghostblawging (something I’d scribbled about here before). One ghostblawger’s response raised broader issues that fit better here at Defending People. In an email, Jenni Buchanan of LegalGhostblogger.com invited private discussion of the ethics of ghostblogging, and asked that I remove […]
Mark Bennett | January 6, 2010
Mitchell Sassower is doing it. Marc J. Chase is doing it. Myron Kahn is doing it. Many others are doing it too, but those three are at the top of the list. What are they doing? They’re funding FindLaw’s crappy little rip-off (all above links are nofollow) of the name of Eric Turkewitz’s excellent New York Personal […]
Mark Bennett | December 15, 2009
If he does, the State Bar doesn’t mind. First, a story: the Texas Legislature amended section 38.12 of the Texas Penal Code, entitled, “Barratry and Solicitation of Professional Employment,” in September. The former statute had been held unconstitutional by Judge David Hittner in Moore v. Morales, John Cornyn had opined formally as Texas AG that […]
Mark Bennett | November 25, 2009
Houston’s own Lindeman, Alvarado, and Frye has made ATL with four of its website pictures tastelessly illustrating “Child Sexual Assault & Internet Solicitiation [sic] of a Minor” (shown below), “Rape & Sexual Assault,” and “Family Violence.” (H/T Gideon, whose post is entitled “Why people think criminal-defense lawyers are scum.”) I know Jim Lindeman, Gil Alvarado, […]
Mark Bennett | November 8, 2009
Avvo’s general counsel Josh King proposes this rule for the regulation of lawyer marketing: Ultimately, in the absence of consumer harm – and, indeed, a crystal-clear fit within the law’s prohibitions – states should never find that lawyer marketing practices violate their rules. Josh’s reasoning is Constitutional—I gather from his post that the First Amendment allows […]
Mark Bennett | November 7, 2009
Carolyn Elefant details the defense of three of the “persecuted” Connecticut Total Bankruptcy lawyers. I don’t know that “persecuted” is the right word to use to describe people who face possible punishment for something they did—let’s be blunt—out of avarice. But okay.
Mark Bennett | November 7, 2009
Tyler Flood (one of the smartest lawyers Tyler Flood has ever met!) says of his recent debacle in the Houston Press: During the course of this process I praised so many of my colleagues and even told Mike who to talk to, including Jed [Silverman], Gary [Trichter], Troy [McKinney], [Mark] Thiessen, Murph [Doug Murphy], Jim […]
Mark Bennett | November 6, 2009
No, not really. I don’t care whether they get disbarred or let off. A lawyer can’t pay a nonlawyer for a referral. This is an uncontroversial proposition. In Connecticut, paying a nonlawyer for a referral can even be a felony. So when five Connecticut lawyers signed on to pay totalbankruptcy.com $65 per referral, they shouldn’t have […]
Mark Bennett | November 5, 2009
From a Houston Press article about Houston DWI lawyer Tyler Flood: Flood pays someone to keep up his Google search rankings.… He has reviewed himself on Yahoo (five out of five stars): “Tyler Flood is one of the smartest lawyers I have ever met…reasonably priced also!” (Here’s the profile giving Tyler that review.)
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