The Oprah Effect: It Wasn't Joseph Rakofsky's Fault

For those that remember The Oprah Winfrey Show in the beginning, before the book club, and before the giveaways, it's popularity was based on a concept of nothing being your fault. You weren't fat because you ate too much, you were fat because your mother hated you. You didn't have an issue with your kid because of your kid's behavior, it was because of something that happened to you 35 years ago. Nothing in your life that happened was your fault, blame could be squarely be placed on someone or something else, in front of an applauding audience. Oprah made many happy with themselves by the notion that "it's not your fault.

Joseph Rakofsky took on a murder case in the infancy of his legal career, and the results were not good (unless you ask him). A mistrial was granted, and the judge, and a juror had their say.

After many wrote on the issue, it was only a matter of time before someone, J-Dog is his name, presented the Oprah Effect, placing blame on society, law school specifically:

The system is completely broken. It cannot filter out people like Rakofsky; instead it allows them to flow through by the thousands and onto an unsuspecting marketplace. It has no training safeguards to ensure that people handling murder cases can actually handle murder cases. The more hubris-filled unemployed attorneys will do exactly what Rakofsky did; his story made the rounds, others' do not. But he is by no means unique. He is exactly what happens when you license type A personalities to do things before they've actually shown they can do it.

Now to be fair, J-Dog isn't kind to young Rakofsky, but he tempers the criticism with justification:

Is Joseph Rakofsky an idiot? Absolutely. Let us count the ways.

But he's also a symptom of one of the fundamental problems of attorney oversupply. Back in December, I pointed out that having a large mass of desperate unemployed attorneys can put ethical obligations into jeopardy in the context of foreclosure mills. There, attorneys looking for a job - any job - would have an incentive to sacrifice morals to bring in a paycheck.

Blogger and criminal defense lawyer Mark Bennett responded comparing Rakofsky to another writers description of a lawyer "Francis:"

Maybe Rakofsky was doing what he was trained to do, but somehow there are lawyers like “Francis” of Rakofsky’s generation who don’t do what Rakofsky did (by which I mean “marketing himself deceptively, including paying Yodle to do his deceptive advertising for him,” rather than “taking on a case that he was not competent to handle without adult supervision”) and succeed nevertheless. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive.

J-Dog, chimed in,, making sure to clarify he doesn't support Rakofsky's conduct, but can explain:

But morality is only completely black and white to fools. In judging his actions, I think it would be folly to ignore the system that bred him and pin the problem sole on one individual’s failings. To spare you my hour-long lecture, we currently have a legal education system that licenses 12,000 extra attorneys each year than the market demands. These recent graduates are generally devoid of practical legal knowledge, up to their hairline in non-dischargable debt, and carrying a degree that limits their job prospects.

In such situations (and the current one isn’t merely recessionary), the temptation to behave unethically rises dramatically. A starving man is more likely to steal, even if stealing is wrong. Many in the current generation see puffery as the only way to stand out in a very crowded field. They’ve been bred to put everything imaginable on their resume, and judging my some linkedin profiles I’ve seen recently, I have absolutely no doubt it will continue into the future.

The commenter makes some points. Yes, we continue to produce a great number of lawyers, above the demand by the coveted BigLaw, and even government jobs. To those that knee-jerk respond "there's too many lawyers," maybe, but in truth there are too many shitty lawyers, too many that hate the profession, their clients, and never wanted to be lawyers in the first place. Are those that care about their future in the profession (read: future in the profession) so willing to puff (read: lie) and take on matters in which they have no competence just for a little publicity and name recognition?

Joseph Rakofsky got publicity and name recognition.

There is no question that the crowded field of new lawyers has caused some bad behavior, thousands of law grads clamoring for clients, trying it on their own without a stitch of knowledge of how the law or practice works. But let's not make it OK, and let's not ignore the ethical, hard working, young lawyers trying to make it in this economy.

That's really the problem, that we make it OK. While the commenter goes to great lengths to say he doesn't think it's OK, there's plenty reading that comment who want to stand up and applaud.

With Oprah, America was taught not to look in the mirror, and plenty of people are happy to live that way.

Non-anonymous comments welcome. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

The Heat Is On

Non-anonymous comments welcome. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

Meet Richard Borzouye, of Hartt Borzouye? Joseph Rakofsky's Lawyer

Now that the internet has been sued by Joseph Rakofsky, there is no better time to meet the man that filed what purports to be a lawsuit on his behalf for defamation.

Meet Richard Borzouye of Hartt Borzouye, I think. I'm not sure. Read on.

Mark Bennett already compiled some fascinating information on Mr. Rakofsky's lawyer, including that Rakofsky lists him as a member of his law firm.

Borzouye has his own firm, with a website that says he has "New York & Federal Criminal Defense Attorneys," but under the attorneys section of his website, well, I don't think "Coming Soon" is a member of the Bar.

Here's some more:

According to his Facebook page, Borzouye attended Thoams M. Cooley Law School. I think that's Thomas Cooley, but I know they don't teach spelling in law school. He graduated in 2001, and was admitted to the Bar in 2004.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Borzouye is and has been a partner at Hartt Borzouye since 2004 where he is a Criminal Defense Attorney and Civil Litigator. I'm not sure that's correct though, as you'll see below. Hartt Borzouye didn't exist in 2004. He is also a White Collar Criminal Defense Attorney/Litigator at the Borzouye Law Firm, P.C. Who says you can't be in two places at one time?

Borzouye also enjoys the endorsement on Avvo of his new partner. That endorsement coming from James Hartt. You wouldn't know from his Avvo profile that James Hartt is his partner, because on that profile, he's Borzouye Law Firm.

According to the official Hartt Borzouye twitter page: Hartt & Borzouye, PC will be a boutique litigation law firm with a focus on employment and Qui Tam Whistleblower litigation as well as criminal defense.

I don't know when this will happen. But it clearly - will - happen. I couldn't find a website for Hartt Borzouye. Maybe it's in the works.

I know this didn't happen - according to this website, Hartt Borzouye, P.C. was incorporated on March 2, 2011 and is listed as "Construction and General Contractors, Commercial and Residential Construction Companies and General Contractors." That's got to be a mistake.

Borzouye's partner, if he's even still his partner, James Hartt, offers advice on Facebook, and makes this promise:

Attorney James Hartt will do his very best to offer helpful and competent legal advice to all Group Members. That's nice. I always like when a lawyer does his very best to offer competent legal advice. It's a plus.

You can't just ask Hartt questions on twitter though, because his page is protected, so you're gonna have to ask his permission.

I'm going to stop here, because I think playing this game below is easier at this point.



Non-anonymous comments welcome. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

Are Your A Referral Source, Or A Name Collector?

I've written about the topic of lawyers making referrals a couple times before.

The prior posts dealt with the moronic way that lawyers do the "3 names" thing. That's not a referral, that's giving 3 names and saying "pick whomever."

In 2009, I said:

Why tell the client the best Italian restaurant in town, when you can give them a list of 3? That way if they don’t like the one they choose, it’s not the lawyer’s fault.

In football, we call that “punting.” You can’t get the ball where you need it to go, so you just give it to the other team and see what they can do with it.

If you’re referring 3 lawyers, you’re referring no one. You’re punting.

Last year, I said: We are the profession known best for referring business and we suck at it.

In 2011, it's getting worse.

Here's the new trend:

An email goes out on a listserv: Anyone know a good, reasonably priced, not too expensive divorce lawyer (everyone on a listserv wants a good, reasonably priced, not too expensive lawyer) in Shitbag, Wherever?

Fifteen minutes later:

Thanks for all the responses, wow this listserv is great, I've passed along all the names to the client.

Way to go. The guy just asked you to recommend someone for him and you told him to choose between 13 names of friends of your friends, and probably some of your friends who in this economy told you they will fly there and handle the case themselves, for $500 down.

Question: What is your fear of becoming a good source for referrals to good lawyers?

Why can't you take those 13, 19, or 57 names and take a few minutes and look a couple of them up? Maybe call one or two.

I think you're better off saying you don't know anyone, because you don't.

Clients are looking for referrals, not looking to pin the tail on the donkey on the internet. They're asking you for a name, a recommendation. Give one, or don't.

Non-anonymous comments welcome. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

Florida Bar Website Hit By Rapture

I know, it's blurry. I don't know how to properly copy screen shots, but does anyone recognize this as the normal page you get when you click on a Florida Lawyer's name on the Bar's website? Check it out. It gets a little weird as you click through it.

I envision some 23 year old kid at the Bar office this Sunday night in shorts with a half-eaten bag of cheetos wondering if he'll have it fixed by the time anyone realizes what happened.

Non-anonymous comments welcome. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

We May Be, Maybe, Winning The War Against Scumbag Marketing Lawyers

It was like a dream come true. This past week I had the opportunity to speak at two separate conferences on the topic of ethics and online marketing. This was like open mic night - An hour at each conference of combining all my blog posts, tweets, and articles on the topic, and telling 300 people about the sewer that lawyers have made of the internet.

I talked about specific scumbags, yes I named the liars that sell to lawyers. I spoke about how we got to this point - by listening to scumbag marketers trying to and convincing everyone that the goal of a lawyer was not becoming a good lawyer - but getting juice for Google placement. I talked about spamming lawyers, and I spoke about the difference between what you can do, and what you should do.

This was the reaction tweet I was looking for:

@miquelle (who has no bio or name or information as to who it is)
@ social media ethics session @roiconference. This guy basically hates the Internet. A little extreme IMHO.

That response came from someone at the Radius of Influence Conference (ROI) (yes, ROI, for real people), where the theme is:

"The best attorneys, not the biggest advertisers, should get the best cases."

ROI is the brain child of Injury Board co-founder Tom Young (a national membership network of plaintiff attorneys committed to a more constructive way of marketing their skills). In simple terms - this is a group of PI lawyers fed up with the marketing game. When I walked in to the room, Tom was giving the keynote. He said things like "word of mouth," and "referral," and "passion." I knew then that this was not a place for the marketing scum that have permeated the profession.

Without hesitation, I will tell you that if you are a personal injury lawyer, no, strike that, if you are a lawyer who believes there is still room to grow your practice without giving in to the bullshit peddlers that want to sell you space on the internet, attend ROI next year. It's not cheap, but it's a conference where you'll take home a new non-internet sewer perspective on how to grow your practice.

Then I went over to Avvocating, Avvo's national conference in Orlando. As I walked down the hall, my excitement to give the same talk increased with every SEO, marketing, Google placement vendor table I passed. This would be a crowd that would be hostile to my talk. When I entered the room, the first thing I saw and heard was a guy in a Google shirt telling some lawyer the comparison between the "hits" to his website and his blog.

I gave the talk. No one walked out. As at ROI, there were some giggles when I spoke of ghostwriting blogs and tweets, and told everyone to never hire a lawyer for marketing or social media advice.

What fascinated me was that lawyers, both young and old, seemed interested in building law practices outside of faking it on the internet.

Many ask what my goal is in all of this. It is two-fold - one, to put out of business all the snake oil salesmen, and two, to change the message about what it takes to build a practice, even in 2011.

Why do I think we're winning? ("we" is the side of ethical and off-line marketing)

Out of 300 people, 6 told me that the best case they ever got, came from the internet.

Stay tuned.

Non-anonymous comments welcome. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.

The Real Rapture

Non-anonymous comments welcome. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.