Charles Johnson looks very happy, and why shouldn’t he. He can spam twitter all day long with no effort at all and, if the  Wall Street Journal is right, this is how lawyers go from zero to hero.

[Matthew] Galluzzo’s law partner, Zachary Johnson, 34, said the web isn’t just a space for pointed commentary. “It’s a very cost-effective way of marketing,” he said. “Facebook and Twitter are becoming so prevalent amongst consumers of all services, we would be doing ourselves a disservice as a law firm to not use these channels to reach people.”

It’s also intended to draw clients and attention from the media, others said.

“I’m writing about a topic that people are looking into or investigating,” said Jeremy Saland, 36, a criminal defense attorney who runs a blog and Twitter feed for his practice, Crotty Saland. “This is no different, at the end of the day, than the Yellow Pages back when the Yellow Pages were relevant. It’s just another vehicle.”

If they’re using social media as their new Yellow Pages ad, then Johnson wants to own the back cover of the Dallas book.  And it seems he couldn’t be happier.

Every few minutes, there’s another twit from Charles which covers a different crime and is keyed to anyone searching twitter for a criminal defense lawyer.  After all, if you can’t trust your life to twitter, what use is social media.

I found Johnson by accident yesterday, having decided to see what a twitter search for “criminal defense lawyer” brought up.  There were a few others, like Johnson, spamming twitter with advertisements, and some crazy things like why  whites make better criminal defense lawyers than any other ethnicity:

Even jews, who aren’t ethnically white, refuse to become criminal justice defense lawyers (especially ones that work with the government). Do you know why whites excel in this field? Because they have absolutely no emotions, who is better to trust a job that requires apathy than a race of people that have mercilessly slaughtered billions of people including mostly women and children in the name of white supremacy? No real human being can put their heart into defending a child molester or murderer as a living.

See all the great information you learn on twitter?  But back to Johnson, who had much to say as well.



Twitter gurus tell us that in order to become a trusted agent and thought leader, we need to authentically engage.  What they don’t realize is that left to their own devices, that’s exactly what happens.  This is the real Charles Johnson, happy, smiling, spamming the living crap out of twitter in the hope that some poor, misbegotten fool with give him money.  Nothing could be more authentic.

At least that was true until I read a post by Radley Balko, coincidentally coming right on the heels of my discovery of Johnson.  It seems that Radley, now that he’s a huge media star in his own right and therefore a star-maker, got pitched via email:

As a Celebrity Criminal Defense Attorney, Former Prosecutor, Law Professor, and Judge Pro Tem, Attorney [Jeffrey] Steinberger can provide expert legal commentary regarding any story involving any Celebrity Arrests, Conviction or Sentencing (i.e. Drug Rehab; Jail Time; Alternative Sentencing, etc.).

Attorney Steinberger is available to discuss all civil matters as well and any other legal matter not mentioned above.

Attorney Steinberger is able to take a position on either side of any case– defense or prosecution.

In Attorney Steinberger’s 15 years of doing “hits” for all the major news channels, I have provided legal commentary for CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and ABC, NBC, CBS news networks, as well as CourtTV, Inside Edition, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, and Showbiz Tonight.

So  Jeffrey Steinberger can provide expert legal commentary on any story on any subject.  He must be just about the smartest lawyer ever, since most lawyers can only be experts on stuff they know.



While Radley called Steinberger a whore (with apologies to actual whores), he’s being unfair.  This is what being a lawyer is all about these days, using whatever tools present themselves to make oneself into the most alluring presence possible, whether because of the desire for fame or success, as written in the WSJ,

“We were getting so many phone calls about the case from the media, we decided to tweet about it and have people follow us for updates,” Mr. Galluzzo said.

And yet, somehow, I have no clue who Mr. Galluzzo is.  Or, for that matter, Messrs. Johnson or Steinberger.  But I already know a lot about them.  And they tell us a lot about how the race to the bottom is going.  So what are you going to do to make yourself authentically stand out?  The bar is already incredibly low, and it’s going to be very hard, very hard indeed, to scream louder than these fine criminal defense lawyers.

And if you could only be one of these two lawyers, would you be happy Charles Johnson or important Jeffrey Steinberger?  I know, it’s a very hard decision.