Do They Know They’re Being Used?

A few days ago, a solicitation from Findlaw (“a division of West”) came across the old email with a sufficiently interesting subject line to make me look before deletion.  “NYC #1 for marijuana arrests at 39,700 last year alone,” it said.  Maybe it was a study of over-reaching criminalization? It couldn’t hurt to look.

Boy, was I wrong. 



I am a local marketing consultant here in Midtown and I work locally with other criminal defense lawyers like you to find new clients and qualified cases. I have reviewed your website and I wanted to point out a couple of important facts since 65% of people now start their search for a NYC lawyer online (NYSBA Journal ’09):


–          New York City is the #1 city for marijuana arrests at 39,700 last year alone (Source: http://legalseo.blogspot.com/)


–          New York is a top five city for searches online for criminal lawyers, DWI, and Police Brutality (Source: Google Trends)


I help criminal defense attorneys like you who have websites to improve your visibility online to help capture these searches and new cases as well as support your referral clients.


Imagine, a ton of nickel and dime arrests, all there for the picking, if only I would “improve my visibility” by capturing searches.  Nothing special.  I get a dozen of these solicitations a day, like pretty much everybody else in the business.  But the next line changed everything.


We have successfully done this for other attorneys in NYC including: Gearld [sic] Lefcourt, John Marks, Jay Goldberg, Ryan Blanch, Gerald Allen, and many others and I would like to help you to.

Lefcourt, Marks, Goldberg? These are names of some real lawyers, enough so to offset a joke like Ryan Blanch.  So these guys are now SEO spamming Google to get their hands on the marijuana market?  Well, that’s got to be pretty embarrassing.

From what I can see, these guys went to Findlaw to do their websites for them.  Do they know that this Findlaw marketing rep is using their names to solicit business?  Do they know that they are being held out as keyword spammers?  Do they know that they are being used as the poster boys for the massive marijuana trade in New York City?

I tend to think that neither Lefcourt, Marks nor Goldberg thought that they were going to become marketing fodder for Findlaw (“a division of West”) when they signed up for websites.  I doubt that they know that some marketer was going to use them as examples of “success stories” in the wide world of marijuana defense lawyer searching to try to get others, like me, to sign up too.  I think they should know what Findlaw (“a division of West”) is doing with their names and reputations.

Guys, if you are that hungry for business, I would have been happy to send some marijuana cases your way.  Next time, just give me a call.  Don’t make me have to find out about your unfortunate situation from some marketer.

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13 thoughts on “Do They Know They’re Being Used?”

  1. Dan

    This post had a number of interesting nuggests, but one that struck me was the marketer’s tact of pointing out to a criminal defense lawyer, that 65% of people start their search for a nyc lawyer on line. Putting aside that I’m not sure how this could be measured, I doubt that its true at all, or relevant for criminal defense lawyers. When you’re arrested, you don’t get one google search, you get one phone call. Sure, people can be arraigned by the public defender and then hit the computer if its a minor charge and their next appearance is in another 10 weeks, but I don’t even think that happens. People ask friends, lawyers they know, maybe cops they know, etc. For CDL’s, I think the web only serves as a minor backup- someone gives you a name, you check out the website. Does anyone have any experience that suggests otherwise?

  2. Rick Horowitz

    This points out one of the downsides of the Internet and something that bugs the heck out of me. Exploitation is so easy and so ubiquitous it’s impossible to actually track and deal with it.

    The scraping of sites and stealing of content, for example, like happened to Mark. I’ve found websites “incorporating” my content into theirs. Trying to get them to stop is like swatting at mosquitos in late spring in Munford, Tennessee. It’s been awhile since I actually did that, but I recall it was fairly futile in fending off bites.

    At least in the case you noted, if those lawyers find out and don’t like it, that’s one mosquito they can probably squish.

  4. SHG

    I thought (and think) that it goes without saying that this percentage is nonsensical and unverifiable.  That’s typical of this genre of spam, so it raises no issues with me.  They make up stupid stuff, toss it in to find out just how stupid lawyers can be, and wait for the desperate call.

  6. Dan

    Even if the statistic were 100% verifiable truth, does anyone have any anecdotal evidence to suggest that any of those folks who begin looking for a lawyer on the internet are looking for a criminal lawyer, as opposed to someone to do their house closing or sexual harrasment suit?

  7. Jdog

    Well, I do, although it’s kind of an outlier; I got a call from somebody wanting me to represent him in a gun-related case, about a year ago; he found me through an Internet search, and drew some conclusions that turned out not to be the case.

    (I’m not a lawyer, and didn’t play one on the phone; I did give him the numbers of three local good CDLs of my acquaintance.)

    I think it’s safe to say that a: he’s not the only guy ever to start off his search that way, b: Internet marketing of CDLs through acquaintance with firearms instructors isn’t going to be the up-and-coming thing, and c: somebody’s going to try to sell some similar service, if they haven’t already.

  8. Rick Horowitz

    It is? I never would have figured that out from the way it was written!

    I was just adding my two cents about these schemers and their lack of ethics.

    Lesson learned. 😉

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