The credit goes to Bruce Carton, who read about the idea and liked it.  Since he’s now go the keys to Legal Blog Watch, it seemed like a natural.  The panel that Avvo let slip away would be his for the asking, and so Three Angry Lawyers became a reality.  Sorta.

Brian  Tannebaum, Mark Bennett and this curmudgeon, have each been critical of marketing and social media gurus, though not always in the same way or for the same reasons.  This will likely come as a surprise to some, who might have expected us to be on the same page about all of this.  More interestingly, by using this new-fangled webcast technology, those who have read our thoughts may enjoy putting faces, voices and real-time attitudes, to the words.

Here’s webcast. 

Here’s the back story. In preparation, the three of us emailed each other with such deep questions as “are we doing this?” to “does Greenfield even know what a webcam is?” This was truly a “seat of the pants” operation, with no idea where we would be starting or where it would go.

While the webcast shows the three of us, plus our intrepid host, I was unable to see either Bruce or Brian on my screen, and could barely hear them.  Bennett was visible, in a twisted, psychedelic acid-trip sort of way, which was disconcerting to say the least.  As the webcast was about to begin, Bennett figured out how to use the texting feature, and began sending me texts regarding Tannebaum’s physical appearance and attire (or lack thereof).  As I now know from the images, Tannebaum was wearing clothes and you can’t even see his fly, thus precluding any possibility of Bennett knowing whether it was properly closed.

I’m sure that younger lawyers would handled these texts in stride, being far more experienced with them than I am, but I was easily distracted by Bennett’s texts, not to mention his lurid descriptions.  Obviously, Bennett had no problem texting during the course of the webcast, demonstrating his strong multitasking and tech skills. 

Brian, in the meantime, had just finished his double Vente hi-test mocha latte frappucino, and was amped up for the show.  What some of you may not know is that we have a long history of baiting Brian, who has a slight tendency toward the sarcastic.  It’s all in good fun between us, and so no one takes the mocking as real.  In fact, this was about the nicest we’ve ever been toward each other.  It was downright calm compared to our usual exchanges.

Unfortunately, we never really focused on a particular issue and addressed anything with nuance or depth.  It was all very superficial, which I attribute to the awkwardness of the medium and the brevity of the webcast.  Had we chosen a specific subject up front, we might have dealt with it in a more fruitful fashion.  The synergy that might be expected from having the three of us in the same room wasn’t there when we were talking at a picture (or a black square) on our computer screens.  As substance goes, however, this webcast failed to satisfy.

It was fun to play with the guys.  And it would be a lot more fun to do it again, but next time with a better plan and more of an opportunity to have a deeper discussion.  In the meantime, we learned two very important things.  First, that Tannebaum buys shoes off the internet.  Second, that we need to make sure Tannebaum has a beer beforehand rather than spend his morning at Starbucks on his laptop sucking up those mocha frappucino lattes.