Andy Nolen: Today's Last Chapter

 Posted on August 17, 2009 in Uncategorized

In conclusion from this post, this post, this post, and this post:

Andy Nolen has been disciplined by the State Bar before. He persists in engaging in deceptive advertising. In my opinion, he needs to be removed from what passes in his world for the "practice of law." Whether they know it or not, his clients are getting screwed.

I was willing to leave Andy Nolen be, and leave it to the buyers to beware, until I discovered that good lawyers had received false one-star reviews for his benefit.

In terms of attacks, this was the online equivalent of throwing rocks: annoying, but primitive and ineffectual. My first instinct, I'll admit, was to retaliate by ordering up a virtual cruise-missile strike of a thousand bad reviews for Andy Nolen. It would have been so easy. And, like my dad often says (in the context of dog training), the best correction is the one you only have to do once.

Still, it was a low-class idea, I know. But, hey: what defines us is not the ideas our evil inner genii have, but whether we follow them.

False reviews of lawyers are lies. Lies are Andy Nolen's style. That Andy Nolen has any clients at all is a tribute to the power of lies. Real human beings have hired Andy Nolen on the strength of false reviews, and some have no doubt suffered for it.

My style, by contrast to Andy's, is to tell the truth, and to spread it far and wide. (This sometimes surprises people who have prejudices against criminal-defense lawyers, but there's almost always some truth helpful to the accused.) If you've read this series of posts and formed a fair opinion of Andy Nolen's character and ethics, I hope you'll let his potential clients know it here.

The State Bar is not going to disbar Andy Nolen because fake reviews have been posted in his favor; it might disbar him if complaints like madmom‘s turn into grievances. Before that happens, his clients need to know that it's not okay for a lawyer to fail to appear in court and to fail to return phone calls.

There are parts of Andy's story that I have yet to tell. Like what lies behind his conduct. And the stories of a few of his former clients. If he were smart, he'd accept this beating and move on.

But nothing I've seen him do gives me any reason to think he's smart. I fully expect him, like an addict, to respond to my posts (and those of others) with more lies. That's his style.

A lie gets halfway in the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. But the truth endures and, unless he changes his deceptive ways, Andy Nolen is going to wind up with no law license and, worse, no friends.

In the long run, nothing beats the truth. Nothing ever will.

[Update: For more on Andy Nolen, see:Houston criminal-defense lawyer Paul Kennedy: I'm calling you out, Andy Nolen.Houston criminal-defense lawyer Cynthia Henley: Thinking about hiring Andy Nolen – let's put it this way – you better shop around...Miami criminal-defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum: In Houston, Criminal Defense Lawyer Andy Nolen is the Best. Everyone Else Sucks.Houston criminal-defense lawyer Murray Newman: When We All AgreeHouston criminal-defense lawyer John Floyd: Houston Attorney Andy Nolen: A Dishonest Lawyer? The Further Adventures of "Lawyer" Andy Nolen The Continuing Adventures of "Lawyer" Andy Nolen Andy Nolen: Total Fraud? Andy Nolen: Today's Last Chapter]