Brian Tannebaum is a wine lover, which might seem only natural when one considers that he’s from Miami.  Of course, then one would have to change the spelling of wine.  I was once a wine lover as well, and have the cellar to prove it.  Unfortunately, my intake is limited these days, which is good for the aging process but not so good for the consumption aspect.  It’s not that I have an issue with alcohol, but that tannins give me a headache these days.

One of the things that @miamicrimlaw (Tannebaum’s alter ego) twits about  ad naseum is the various screw-cap wines that he appreciates.  Since he has many followers, who am I to question his wine-cred.  But being the clear-eyed criminal defense lawyer that he is, his incessant wining has led him to an astute observation at his My Law License blog,  

It starts with a running description of a twonversation (note use of cute twitter wording, where every word must be changed to begin with “tw” to show twitter-savvy) between Brian and a twitting wine merchant, @toptenwines, who puffs his product as being a particularly good deal,  Brian, expert and skeptic all rolled into one, responds that his price is the same as everyone else’s, forcing the issue.  The wine merchant, rather than concede he’s a lying sack of used cork, respond by smearing the “provenance” of anyone selling wines for less.

Aside from the silliness of getting nailed for ones hyperbole and responding by calling one’s competitors butt ugly, this wino-seur from Columbia, Missouri has now been enshrined in the Tannebaum hall of shame.  Since Tannebaum has followers who care what he says, Top Ten Wines has now made hundreds of potential wine buyers aware of his puffery.

Now the proprietor, Paul Vernon, looks like a really easy going guy.  He claims not to be pretentious or a snob, and judging from his choice of t-shirt, I would have to believe him.  Frankly, when I was deeper into my wine-buying days, this was the sort of person I would gravitate towards when I looked for wines.  So how did this turn out so wrong?

The answer is obvious, and one that has no more to do with wine than with law.  When one markets, one takes a chance that someone is going to call you on it.  And one gets called on it, the choices are limited.

My bet is that Paul Vernon is just trying his best to sell one, and never meant to get into a battle with the likes of Tannebaum.  But rather than take the hit that his price was good, but no better than others, he took the aggressive path and chose to rip his competition by contending that anyone who sells for less than him must be selling an inferior product.  This is not merely a dubious response, but the sort that causes everyone to bristle because it relies on a false premise.  If they are bad, that makes me better.

There are lawyers who peddle their services through talent and confidence in their work, and there are those who lie to clients, and bad mouth other lawyers just to get the case.

Every good lawyer will say “I don’t bad mouth other lawyers.” The bad, desperate, talentless lawyers will make the potential client believe they are making a big mistake if they don’t hire Mr. Bad mouthing make me feel stupid lawyer.

There’s nothing wrong with engaging in a debate over fees and business philosophies. Just yesterday a potential client asked why he should pay me more than the other lawyers he spoke with. If I am charging more, I should be able to justify why. I should not make the potential client feel bad for asking, nor get arrogant or make him feel that his case will be poorly handled by another lawyer.

As you can see from Tannebaum’s love of one-sentence paragraphs, twitter is the perfect medium for him.  It’s an art to be able to frame one’s thoughts to fit within such a small place.  All bottles of wine are the same when shipped from the winery to the merchant.  The same can’t be said of lawyers, whose skills and experience can vary as much as a 25 year old Cabernet Sauvignon (preferably a certain premier grand cru from Pauillac) from a week old Beaujolais Nouveau.  Still, only a fool will make a choice based on smearing one’s competition.  It doesn’t make you any better by comparison.

As I click the links to lawyers’ websites, I see rampant hyperbole, mine included.  I hate it.  Mine included.  The nature of attempting to distinguish oneself on the internet lends itself to puffery.  After all, there doesn’t seem to be much point to market oneself by saying that you’re nothing special.  But when tested, you need to be able to justify yourself with the positives you bring to the representation of your clients, rather than the negatives of your competitors.  Every lawyer’s hyperlink is hyperbolic to some extent.  It’s a better medium for wines than lawyers.  But it doesn’t mean that you have to diminish others, whether wine or lawyer.

It’s a shame that Paul Vernon pushed the wrong button with Tannebaum, as he’s likely lost more than a few potential customers and doesn’t seem to be a bad guy otherwise.  I’m positive that wasn’t his intention when he got annoyed with Tannebaum for wasting his time.  I end every initial meeting with a potential client by wishing him well, and meaning it.  Not every client is right for me, and I’m not right for every client.  When they walk out that door, I hope they find the perfect wine to accompany their case, and sometimes a Merlot suits a client better than a Margaux.