I admit it, I’ve never been very good at seizing upon empty platitudes, cute metaphors or empty strings of words as a call to action.  People who love committees and consensus see this as a character flaw, which could explain why no one asked me to sit on the ABA Panel on the Future of Lawyering.  Then again, they didn’t ask Tannebaum to sit on the panel either, and he’s a company man.

If you think nostalgically about the practice of law and how it used to be, then you are on the train tracks and not on the train,” said former Connecticut Bar President Frederic Ury, who is the president–elect of the National Conference of Bar Presidents.

Hey, I think nostalgically about the practice of law.  I think about how it used to be.  That means (gasp) I’m on the train tracks and not on the train.  Uh oh.

I think about the days when lawyers understood that the client was their focus, not making money or enjoying work/life balance.  I think about the days when lawyers weren’t afraid of hard work and sacrifice, and understood that being a professional meant putting the welfare of your client ahead of your own. 

I also think about the days when excellence was something you developed and reputation was something you earned, rather than words a marketer put on your website or the bravado of the hungry baby lawyer.

And now the leaders of the official bar associations tell me that I’m on the train tracks and not on the train.  So where the heck is this train of yours heading?

“The development of artificial intelligence along with increased Internet search capabilities is making access to answers for complex legal questions easier and cheaper.

My gut reaction is to channel H.L.Mencken, but I fear that reference would be lost on these important bar association officials.  Clearly, this Fred Ury is trying to tell me something and I’m too much of a dinosaur to get it.

Why is someone going to pay $700 to have a lawyer prepare a will when they can get it for $49 online,” said Ury. “We have had a monopoly on answering legal questions about the law. But the consumer–our former clients–can now get that information for free on Google.

“Virtual law firms are here,” he said, “and there are now thousands of small town and small firm lawyers who once depended on those consumers who may not make it.

Until now, I hadn’t realized how out of touch I’ve become.  It suddenly dawns on me why Ury concludes that people can obtain answers to “complex legal questions easier and cheaper” on Google than going to a lawyer.  I didn’t see the writing on the wall. 

The quality of legal advice available today from the mouths and minds of lawyers is no better than the worthless crap one finds on Google.

I’ve seen the legal advice the internet has to offer.  It’s bad.  It’s worse than bad. It’s dangerously awful.  It downright sucks.  So what Fred Ury is saying is that the advice coming from living, breathing lawyers is no better than the Google garbage.

Holy moly.  Up to now, I had been looking at it all wrong.  It had long been my understanding that the important official people who desperately wanted to hold high office in bar associations were of the view that lawyers offered something more, something better, than crap on the internet.  Never did I realize that the profession had devolved to the point that living, breathing lawyers were not only unworthy of being retained, but superfluous, incapable of doing any better than a $49 will.  Who knew?

This is the message being sent to those of us with tickets to sell used cars in court by the most August Association in the profession, the American Bar Association.  You suck so bad that Google is just as good.

And so I’m here on the train tracks rather than on the train.

So while some legal services are available via keyboard and internet connection, there will always be clients who for some crazy reason, would rather actually talk to a lawyer, in person, before having documents prepared for signature that will affect some aspect of their future.

If you want to compete with the $70 virtual lawyer, become a virtual lawyer and charge $67.50. Lawyers today well know the tactics that comprise the race to the bottom.

I am off the train, and I’m not getting on, no matter how many train riders scream for me to jump on board.

And I’ve got Tannebaum on the train tracks with me, though not for exactly the same reason.  Whether or not there are clients who, “for some crazy reason,” want a real lawyers in place of Google, it strike this old dinosaur that there are still a few lawyers whose advice is better than Google, whose answers to “complex legal questions” cannot be found easier and cheaper online.

Of course, that’s just my view.  Clearly, it’s not shared by the Fred Ury or the ABA.