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Recent Blog Posts
Yodle and NACDL
this post about Yodle, in which I wrote:
Yodle sucks because, aside from cold-calling NACDL members claiming that organization's imprimatur (which it does not have), it sells lawyers cookie-cutter websites.
I got an email from Kara Silverman at Yodle. In part:
I am happy to post a response on your blog, but I was also hoping to have a conversation with you regarding several of the points you made in your blog post. I would be interested in talking with you about Yodle's official affinity partnership with the NACDL and also having you speak with current NACDL President Jim Lavine regarding this partnership. Additionally, having a more in depth conversation with you regarding our template and custom website options might help to clarify the sites that you've seen around the web that have been created by Yodle on behalf of our attorney clients.
I had already-some months ago, after getting a cold call from Brad Leach at Yodle, in which he claimed that Yodle had been selected by NACDL as a "preferred provider"-asked NACDL leadership about Yodle's relationship to the organization. Yodle is an "affinity partner" with NACDL, which means that it gives NACDL members a discount on its products (crap for sale! 25% off!) and, I hope, pays the organization something for such access.
Yodle's “Stellar Record”
Rique Bobbitt has "a stellar record as defense attorney" and passing familiarity with indefinite articles. So do Clark Adams and Edward Reddish. Richard Coleman has "a stellar record as personal injury attorney" and the same articulate deficit.
McNair Hawn Jackson have "a stellar record as elder and disability attorneys." Dearfield, Kruer and Co., LLC have "a stellar record as bankruptcy attorney" but a weak grasp of number.
Richard Darden has "a stellar record as a criminal defense attorney," as does Blair Jones.
How do we know these people have stellar records? Because they tell us so! These lawyers, as well as Edward Vaisman, James P. Peterson, Furlong & Drewniak, Allie Booker (representing Houston!), Robert Tunnicliff, and many more are paying Yodle to tout them on the web. Yodle is using the same language to describe each of them:
Yodle Lawyer Marketing Sucks
Yodle sucks.
Yodle sucks because, aside from cold-calling NACDL members claiming that organization's imprimatur (which it does not have), it sells lawyers cookie-cutter websites. And not very good cookie-cutter websites, either:
There are a couple of things, other than their interchangeability, that I found interesting about these Yodle sites.
My fellow federal criminal defense lawyers who have traveled a bit might recognize the building in this photo:
Most of these lawyers are young, so I suspect that Yodle is pitching itself as a less-expensive alternative to FindLaw, which also sucks.
So why does Lafayette criminal defense lawyer Eric Neumann have a photo of the Newark, New Jersey Federal courthouse (and the statue in front of it) on his website? Could he not afford the stock image that Clark Adams (in Columbus) and James Wollrab (in Boulder) and Benjamin Hamlet (in Virginia Beach) and Robert Tunnicliff (in Lewiston / Moscow) sprang for?
Bullying, Government, Betas
We are social animals. Where we fit into the pack is important to us. We are biologically programmed to seek standing in our pack. Like other social animals, we evolved ways of negotiating that standing. As we became civilized and our packs grew too large for one alpha to manage harmoniously, we developed ways to form alliances to maintain order: when one member of the pack became too powerful, two or more members allied to restore the balance of power; when those members became too powerful, more less-powerful members of the pack banded together; eventually enough members of the pack were allied that the balance of the pack could join them or submit to them, and the pack had turned into a democracy.
Adults today, in our society of vast resources, can largely opt out of the contest for standing (they couldn't 15,000 years ago; check back in 100 years to see if they still can). Children, closer to the state of nature, less able to recognize the struggle for what it is, and-probably most importantly-enclosed involuntarily in an environment in which standing is important to everyone else, generally cannot. Bullying is a symptom of an imbalance in power. The bully exploits perceived weakness. The victim submits to the bully, proving him right. The bully continues bullying, to keep the victim in his place. There's no risk to the bully, and he maintains his status.
No Easy Cases. Please.
A guy contacted me recently looking for representation on a state-court felony matter. "It's a really easy case," he said, "which any moron could win."*
Here are the four possible conditions when a potential new client says "it's a really easy case":Case is difficult.Case is easy.PNC believes case is easy.ABPNC believes case is difficult.CD
The worst-case scenario, if the lawyer takes the case, is (A), in which the client thinks the job is easy, but it isn't. If there is a favorable result, it's not because the lawyer did a good job, but because the case was easy. If the result is bad, though, it's entirely the lawyer's fault (how could you screw up such an easy case?).
Scenario (B) is better, but only because the chances of an unfavorable result are smaller. Like (A), scenario (B) will result in the lawyer wasting her time for an ungrateful client doing a job that someone of lesser ability could do just as well.
Vote for Loren Jackson
If you are in Harris County and you haven't voted yet, please go vote for Loren Jackson for District Clerk.
I'd rather you didn't vote straight-ticket anything, but if you feel compelled, out of some ovine instinct, to vote straight-ticket Republican, please cast one vote against the straight ticket and for Jackson.
Friday 10/29 is the last day of early voting.
At Last.
Special Prosecutor Kelly Siegler finally saw her way clear to dismissing capital murder charges against a factually innocent man who spent 18 years in prison because of prosecutorial misconduct. Kudos to Siegler for doing the right thing, and to Graves's defense lawyers, Katherine Scardino and Jimmy Phillips, for keeping the heat on until Kelly did the right thing. Anthony Graves is free.
Charles Sebesta, the prosecutor who concealed exculpatory evidence and knowingly presented false testimony (read the Texas Monthly article by Pamela Colloff) to put Graves on death row, is not free and will not be until the day he dies (or beyond, if you believe in an afterlife and Justice). Publicly unrepentant (even taking out an ad last year defending the conviction), Sebesta will go to his grave carrying the burden of the private knowledge that he's lying, cheating filth who destroyed an innocent man's life.
Bring in the Real Lawyers
In the circus that is the Allen Stanford case, Stanford's legal team was the clown car: you never knew who was going to pop out next.
This morning Judge Hittner ended that nonsense. Stanford was asking for a change of lawyers and, since an indigent defendant has no right to choose his appointed counsel, Hittner refused to allow Stephen Cochell, Christopher Bebel, and Michael Stanley to represent Stanford.
First, though, in a proceeding that should have been embarrassing to Cochell and Bebel, Hittner inquired into the credentials of Cochell, Bebel, and Stanley. In defending his qualifications Bebel said that a U.S. District Court judge in Minnesota had commended his cross-examination skills, and another had said he was one of the best lawyers who had appeared in his court (this immediately became fodder for jokes by the criminal defense lawyers gathered as spectators); when asked whether he was on the CJA panel, Cochell started to explain that he applied on September 1st before Judge Hittner cut him off with, "yes or no?".
Is It Anything Like a “Concierge Attorney”?
Two more lawyers (via Mary Flood, Houston Legal Blog) yesterday filed a notice of appearance in the criminal case against the beleaguered Allen Stanford: Stephen R. Cochell and Christopher Biebel. I've never heard of them, and neither is listed as counsel of record on any federal criminal case in the Southern District of Texas.
Cochell bills himself as "Your Outside General Counsel," whatever that means. Bebel markets himself as a securities expert, which is a good thing to have around when you're charged with securities fraud.
Cochell and Bebel have not asked to substitute in for Robert S. "..." Bennett. Stanford still, as far as I know, has no money; neither Cochell nor Biebel is on the list of CJA counsel in the district. Since they're now in...'s 20,000,000-page criminal-defense death march until Judge Hittner lets them out, they'll have arranged to get paid, and to put their other clients on hold for the next six months.
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