Friday, June 14, 2013

California Lawyer Christopher J. McCann's "Guest Post."

A few months ago, actually many months ago, actually shit, it was over a year ago (April, 2012) I received my 389085th request from some one-named marketer on behalf of a lawyer. That lawyer is Christopher J. McCann, who sounds like he's getting ready to sue the internet (sound familiar?). He tells Matt Brown this:

You have insulting me by clearly portraying me in a false light. As a private individual, that is actionable. I demand you remove any reference to me from that post and my comment.

If you do so, I’ll leave it at that. If not, I am going to explore my legal options against you and your partner who is cc’d on this communication.

Matt has insulting him. Terrible.

This all started with the typical silly request for a guest post. The request is always the same, "do you accept guest posts?" What this is, is that the lawyer is trying to gain an internet presence and either doesn't have a blog or their blog sucks so bad that no one is reading it. In comes the one-named marketer to fix everything. "Let's find lawyers that have blogs people actually read and ask them if we can ride shotgun."

It's a sad, desperate existence.

I've been blogging for some time and I've allowed a total of one guest post. It was from a lawyer who called me and asked me to write on his blog. I did, and then many months later I asked him to write on mine. There were no marketers, no promises of wealth and fame for each other, and no request for links so that our respective SEO juice could overflow.

So Christopher J. McCann's webmaster, Nader (no relation to Ralph I don't think), contacts me. I respond by writing a post about this cheesy disgusting pathetic stupid worthless marketing tactic. So did Matt Brown (who, despite his picture, assures me he's only buried 3 bodies in his life) over at his less-than-prominent blog.

Now it's June 2013.

Christopher J. McCann, who has been trying to gain a presence on the internet, has just discovered that we all know that. He now leaves me this comment: (I've highlighted the interesting passages of this rambling screed):

I am Mr. McCann.

I was not going to respond to you here, but when I see that you have insulted someone that unbeknownst to me has tried to stick up for me, I felt it necessary to explain myself.

It is clear you misunderstood the offer that my (now former) webmaster was putting forth. Firstly, any content in the articles he offered was mine. As a busy attorney, and not as web savvy as other professionals, I am not aware of all of the avenues in which I can get my content published. Nader simply sought out places he felt would be receptive to my content. I don't know why you took such offense towards him or me for making such an offer. You simply could have said "no" and moved on. Or contact me to discuss it. I trusted him to take the time that I don't have to approach other professionals such as yourself, assuming that you would respond appropriately. I was mistaken in my assumption.

It seems you were more interested in just making some point about unethical marketing practices and needed an example. The problem is, you chose the wrong example.

You would be the exception among web marketing professionals who thinks one should not seek to publish content on outside sources.
Nor do I think you are in the majority of persons who think it is unethical to hire someone to find places to publish the content they authored if they don't have the time or know how to locate such sources.

I do know who Scott B. is. At least I am pretty sure because I only know one other attorney with that name and last initial "B". He is a local lawyer, and a very good one, who knows me well. It should be obvious why he doesn't want to (or have to) use his last name when it appears you are only interested in putting down anyone you don't know who disagrees with you. Scott is a great lawyer whom I respect immensely. I liken your response to him as that of a "bully." For a lawyer to behave that way is . I'm surprised to see an experienced lawyer behave so immaturely, and unprofessionally towards another.

Also, you know nothing about me as a lawyer, so I fail to understand how you equate my conduct with being "unworthy of a member of the Bar." You just come off as a bully, and failed miserably to make some sort of point about web marketing.
Perhaps you should have simply contacted me directly when this happened and discussed it with me as one professional to another, rather than hurl insults from behind your computer.

I actually left a message at your office last year after hours after this blog post came to my attention. You never returned my call. If you are so concerned by what I have done, call me. My number is: (949) 596-0060. All calls are personally answered by me.

If you really still have a problem with this, call me anytime. But stop hurling insults at me or my colleagues for no reason. It just makes you look bad.


Well Chris, all I can say is that it may be time for you to take some advice about responding to negative reviews. There's a post you should read, it was a guest post on your blog in February.

Take care.

Anonymous comments are welcome as long as they say something relevant and half-way intelligent and aren't a vehicle for a coward to attack someone. I trust you understand. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint. Share/Save/Bookmark

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are a mean and hurtful bully, Brian.

You should be deeply ashamed of yourself for hurting Christopher J. McCann's feelings.

Anonymous said...

"Which I ask my clients to add there own [blah, blah, blah]."

Excellent! Thanks for the recommendation. I am always on the lookout for a competent lawyer; and one who does not know how to form grammatical sentences or the difference between "there" and "their" is aces in my book.