Bloomberg Businessweek published a great article on Tuesday, discussing fake Yelp reviews, following a sting operation in New York, designed to catch businesses engaging in the process. Referring to the process as “astroturfing”, the article details the sting by the New York State Attorney General. The AG set up a fake yogurt shop in Brooklyn,…
Five Reasons Attorneys Get Suckered by SEO Marketing Scams (and How to Make Sure You’re Not One of Them)
In my book, How to Create a Big, Fat Pipeline of New Clients for Your Law Firm in Just 10 Days, I provide the following anecdote: There is a classic Peanuts comic, where Linus is going door to door trying to sell wadded up pieces of paper as cat toys. His sales presentation is good,…
Yelp Reviews for Attorneys – Yelp Sues the McMillan Law Group, Claiming it Posted Fake Reviews
Yelp Reviews for Attorneys As part of your legal marketing, it is very beneficial if you can offer testimonials, and great if you have good on-line reviews. However, what follows is a cautionary tale of why attorneys must avoid the temptation of creating their own reviews. My primary practice area is free speech and defamation,…
iPad Tip for Lawyers: How to Put Your Contact Information on Your Lock Screen
It’s a very obvious idea that had never occurred to me until I saw this video. I have my contact information printed on a label on the back of my iPad, but why not put it right on the lock screen, so anyone who finds my iPad will see who it belongs to as soon…
Best Client Call of the Week
It is only Wednesday, so I suppose I could receive a call that would top this one, but I’m pretty confident this will be the winner. I received an inquiry by email, seeking representation on a breach of contract matter. The email mentioned that the contract was only two pages, so I responded that if…
Unhappiest Job in America: Associate Attorney
The website CareerBliss.com has compiled a list of the happiest and unhappiest jobs in America, and found that associate attorney is the absolute worst. Based on a survey of 65,000 employees, which examined such factors as relationship with boss, work environment, job resources, compensation, daily tasks and control over work, associate attorney rated just 2.89…
Damning With Faint Praise – The Ongoing Saga of Bell v. Igal Feibush
Can’t a guy get a few minutes to enjoy his victory? As discussed in greater detail here, we forged an important precedent as regards the application of Penal Code § 496(c). Our client loaned the defendant $202,500 that was never repaid, and in addition to suing for breach of contract and fraud, I added…
If You Lie Down With Dogs You Wake Up With Fleas — Rule #1 for a Satisfying Law Practice
My book on starting your own firm is oh so close to publication, and a call from opposing counsel today reminded me of the ramifications of violating Rule 1 from that book. Rule 1 is a lesson they never teach in law school; one that many attorneys never learn. In civil litigation, no one is…
A New Way to (Possibly) Add to Your Bottom Line — Write A Bonus Into Your Fee Agreement
I had nothing to do with this case, but an attorney friend of mine alerted me to this very interesting issue arising from an attorney fee application. Here is the scenario. A party won a breach of contract action and was entitled to attorney fees under the contract in question. As you are no doubt…
Let Me Google That For You
I just had one of those “how did I not know about this great website” moments. But first let me tell you how I’m going to use this site. Here is how the call typically goes. Caller: “I just got fired and my union isn’t doing anything about it.” Me: “Oh, I’m so sorry, we…