The Business of Law – Marketing and Business for Enterprising Attorneys

We awake this morning to very sad news.  United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy passed away last evening at his home in Hyannisport, MA.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Kennedy family on the occasion of this devastating loss.

In the coming days there will be many tributes to Senator Kennedy by those who knew him well, and we will rightly reflect on a lifetime of public service dedicated to helping those less fortunate.

While we are a national law firm, we have deep roots in Massachusetts, and we are particularly struck by the loss of Senator Kennedy.  For 30 years, Sokolove Law has dedicated itself to a simple mission: helping those who have been injured understand their legal options and providing them with access to the American civil justice system without regard to income or ethnicity.  Simply put we have worked to improve access to justice for all Americans.

That is a mission and a value that Senator Kennedy not only shared, but to which he dedicated his entire life.  As we reflect on his passing, we are mindful of his unwavering commitment to justice, and his unparalleled commitment to those Americans who have been left behind.

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Please, please, please can we stop pretending that the only thing holding up healthcare reform is the fact that we haven’t all agreed to a system that caps medical malpractice awards.  But that unfortunately is just what Bob Beckel over at Real Clear Politics argues.   In fact, he calls it the “Dems Ace in the Hole”.

Let me let Bob have the floor for a minute.  In a nutshell, he argues that Dems don’t support caps on med mal awards, because the trial lawyers have traditionally supported democratic candidates (guilty as charged Bob) and that Dems are afraid that the trial lawyers will abandon the party if they don’t hold the line on caps.

Moreover, Bob seems to imply that the only reason lawyers oppose caps is because huge portions of the punitive damage awards go to the lawyers, and the victimes are compensated with “pitifully” small payments.

Finally, Bob theorizes that if the Dems cave on med mal caps, it will force the Republicans (who are behaving so reasonably right now) to accept other aspects of the healthcare plan that they don’t currently support.

Now let me offer my own two cents…

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Sometimes you’ve got to read past the headlines.A recent example is the case in Federal Court in Louisiana having to do with legal advertising. Here’s the issue in a nutshell as reported by Forbes: essentially, the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board got the Louisiana Supreme Court to adopt new rules governing attorney advertisements.

The new rules would take affect on Oct 1, and would place various limits on advertising including the use of mottos, celebrity endorsements, re-enactments and client testimonials. The rules also would have required online ads to be pre-approved to be sure they were not misleading.

A group of attorneys sued claiming that the rules were unconstitutional and violated their freedom of expression.

How did the court rule? That depends on which headline you read:

Judge Upholds Limits on Lawyers Ads blared the Associated Press story on August 3^rd.

While Wendy Davis over at the Daily Online Examiner Blog wrote:Onerous Regs for Web Ads Ruled Unconstitutional.

So you might ask: Who won the case?

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Last week, I posted a piece about Jamie Jones a former Halliburton employee who was allegedly assaulted in Iraq and then held against her will by the company to prevent her from coming forward. She’s now a whistleblower who I recently had the chance to hear speak.

Well now we’re seeing more reason to wonder about the huge defense contractor. In December, sixteen Indiana National Guardsmen filed suit against KBR, (a Halliburton subsidiary) alleging that the company exposed them to hazardous chemicals while they were guarding the Quarmat Ali water plant in Southern Iraq.

The allegations are amazing. First, these soldiers and civilians are exposed to harmful chemicals like sodium dichromate which contains pure hexavalent chromium. (Follow the link, it’s nasty stuff).

Then the KBR managers said that soldiers complaining of symptoms were just suffering from “dry desert air” or that they were “allergic to sand”. (Tip of the cap to Shannon Henson over at Law 360 subscription required)

Turns out that while more than 60 percent of the soldiers were documented with symptoms, work continued on the site for another month.

Then according to the Associated Press another 433 Guardsmen may have been exposed to chromium while escorting KBR employees to another water plant.

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Seems counterintuitive right?  Well, James Wilber over at the must read Legal Intelligencer has a great article on how internal corporate law departments are increasingly placing responsibility for non-legal administrative tasks in the hands of business managers, instead of the general counsel. Wilber writes:

“The law departments of most major companies have business managers, and for good reason: by leveraging the important but non-legal work required of the general counsel and getting it into capable yet less expensive hands, the cost of administration of the law department is reduced…”

Wilber is right of course, and to be sure many law firms employ business managers to handle the non-legal administrative aspects of their business. That said, Wilber’s logic could and should also apply to the marketing functions at law firms.

Here’s the argument. Lawyer’s skills (and their expense) are best leveraged when they spend their time doing what they do best…litigating cases and serving clients’ needs. Every hour that a partner or associate spends “marketing” the firm is an inefficient hour. Moreover, many lawyers are not necessarily comfortable marketing themselves or their firm for fear of being labeled as “ambulance chasers”. (As an aside, why marketing legal services is any different than marketing any other service is something that continues to amaze me.)

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I recently had the opportunity to see two people who made their stories count by alerting the public and authorities to some stark abuses of power. Allow me to introduce you to the stories of Jamie Jones and Wendell Potter.

Jamie Jones is a former Halliburton employee who was allegedly assaulted in Iraq by other employees of Halliburton. She was then allegedly held against her will by the company to restrict her from telling her story.  You can learn more about her case from ABC News or NPR.

She has now dedicated her life to fighting for justice for American citizens that have crimes committed against them while working for American companies over seas.

Wendell Potter was the former head of communications for Cigna healthcare.  Potter spoke about why he has decided to become a whistleblower and has now dedicated his life to reforming health insurance company practices.  In June Potter testified before Congress about the ways health insurance companies put profits before patients. Watch a PBS interview with Potter here.

Having been involved in countless cases involving whistleblowers, we at Sokolove know first-hand how important it is that both those who have been victimized and those who are aware of wrongdoing come forward.  We also know how hard it can be to do so.

Both Jamie and Wendell, like all whistleblowers, are inspiring because they have the courage to come forward, and the strength to work to ensure that the wrongdoing that they expose is brought to an end.  We tip our cap to both of them.