I wasn’t going to write about this.  When I read the emails and twit (just one, not scores) alerting me, I responded, “so what, who cares?”  I refused to elevate it to a position of significance by writing about it, making it worthy of my time.

But then I read Eric Turkewitez’s post at  New York Personal Injury Law Blog about Dominic Barbara’s having been suspended from the practice of law, and changed my mind.  Barbara isn’t an important lawyer.  He’s loud.  He’s one of the foremost self-promoters on Long Island.  Aside from that, he’s inconsequential.

But being loud was good enough to get a handful of “high profile cases.

[Barbara] represented Howard Stern (and is a regular side-kick, call-in guest on his show). He also represented  Joey Buttafuco, Jessica Hahn, and Michael Lohan, each of whom had more than their allotted 15 minutes of fame. New York Magazine once called him the “biggest, brassiest lawyer on Long Island.” And last year he was retained for a headline making crash on the Taconic Parkway that killed eight people.

He’s the Kardashian of Long Island lawyers, which does not make him deserving of my time or attention.  The only reason I bother with him at all is to follow up on Eric’s post.  He details the puffery on Barbara’s website:

For more than 35 years, The Barbara Law Firm has performed at the highest level of quality legal representation in the fields of Family, Matrimonial, Criminal, and Civil Law.

So if you’re a person in need of a lawyer, you recall the name of someone from the paper or the Howard Stern show, and maybe you go check him out online.  He must be good, or the newspapers wouldn’t mention him and Stern wouldn’t give him the time of day.  He says he performs “at the highest level of quality legal representation.”  He could never say such a thing unless it was true, right?

And now Dominic Barbara has been suspended from the practice of law.

First, as to Barbara. He was suspended this week after “an avalanche of Grievance Committee sanctions” (nine Letters of Caution, nine Admonitions, and two Advisements). That’s a lot of baggage, and as a consequence of the latest round he was handed an 18-month suspension.  Among the charges, and these seem to be the straws that broke the camel’s back, are that he failed to issue itemized bills as required, failed to supervise the lawyers in his office, failed to timely refund a portion of a fee that had not been earned after the client fired him, and engaged in conduct that adversely reflects on his fitness as a lawyer by failing to adequately communicate with that client (or her new counsel).

Is this your hero?  Is this your savior?  Is this the lawyer who you want standing next to you when your life is on the line?  Or is this the guy who will charge you a whole lotta money because he’s a big time “high profile” lawyer, and when you decide that he’s not the guy you want next to you despite all the puffery on his website, he won’t give you your money back?

Use your head.  It’s bad enough that you’re in a jam, but don’t exacerbate it by making your situation even worse with boneheaded decisions.  Being loud doesn’t make one a good lawyer.  Having been retained by such geniuses as Joey Buttafuco really isn’t much of a recommendation.  Think about what he did, who he was, and wonder why anyone would want to follow in his footsteps.  Joey Buttafuco is not someone you want to emulate.

Nor does the nice things he says about himself on his website prove that Dominic Barbara is the greatest lawyer around.  Did you think he was going to write on his website that he’s a loud-mouthed publicity hound who is happy to take your money but otherwise wouldn’t give you the time of day?  Come on.

There’s only one reason to note that someone so otherwise inconsequential as Dominic Barbara was suspended from the practice of law.  Have you figured it out yet?