The “it” epithet, Bully, isn’t used in the nouvelle sense here of anyone who hurts one’s feelings, but in the old school sense of taking your lunch money by force, and that’s exactly how Milwaukee lawyer Jeff Zarsynski means it.  His choice, not mine.  Yet it smears all of us.



No doubt this was created as cutting edge, attention grabbing and humorous.  Well, it is attention grabbing.  Like a horrific car crash, or a deadly beating.  My guess is that Zarzynski would argue that it’s meant to be funny.  My guess is that it will appeal to a simplistic and cynical portion of the population, who thinks that this reflects the type of lawyer they want, one who will get them money without regard to anything else, because this is the concept of the system that lawyer advertising tends to foster.

Few lawyers who see this disgraceful foray into the gutter will see themselves in it.  After all, this doesn’t reflect your sensibilities, your vision of who you are and how you want to portray yourself.  Yet, this is only another short slide down the slope of doing anything you have to do to get business. Whether your “tasteful” efforts to do so are better is only a matter of your personal sensibility. As the next hungry lawyer tries to trump you, to steal away the eyeballs you’re trying to hold on to, he has to take another small slide down the slope.

But certainly you would never go there, not so low, not so ugly, not so crude.  Except many do, and do without thinking at all about the ramifications of your marketing efforts on the slippery slope.  Eric Mayer at the  Unwashed Advocate provides a tour through “tasteful” marketing by former prosecutors. 

Of course, these aren’t nearly as bad, according to the people who have made the choice to trade their former office for a quick buck, because it’s become the new normal  The first time a former prosecutor tried to imply he had the ability to “fix” cases with his old buddies, it was shocking and outrageous.  Now, it’s just slimey and banal.

For today, perhaps, Jeff Zarynski’s commercial will offend you and make you wonder how we’ve come to this.  But have no doubt that tomorrow will bring a lawyer who will stoop lower, and who will justify his conduct by his need to make a living.  In all likelihood, the same rhetoric that’s used to rationalize what today is perceived to be less offensive marketing and self-promotion will be used to excuse the next slide down the slope.  And the slide after that.  After all, isn’t it in the public interest to let people know you exist, you care, you can deliver the legal goods their looking for?  Isn’t it your right, no, duty, to spread the word of your availability to represent them.  If you don’t tell them, how will they ever know?

And so what if the next lawyer, the one who undercuts your “tasteful” marketing and steals away the clients you hoped to gain by going one step farther, violates your sense of propriety?  Once dignity is lost, given up for the chance to score a case, the slide becomes less painful and embarrassing.  Once lawyers make the decision to forfeit their integrity, the other lawyers whose tasteful marketing no longer suffices feel compelled to follow suit.  After all, there’s no point to marketing if it doesn’t bring in eyeballs. And clients. 

The need to survive in practice is a powerful one.  It takes time to establish a reputation of competence and skill, and when you have hungry children and a school loan payment due, you don’t feel as if you have the time to wait.  And so you use whatever is at hand.  It’s easy to justify at the moment.  Until you realize that you are one of those lawyers, walking down the boulevard in hot pants hoping someone will stop and pick you up.

That we are in a race to the bottom is no longer in question.  Yet it doesn’t have to be the future of the legal profession, or your future. You have the choice.  Watch Jeff Zarynski’s commercial and ask whether this is the person you are. Or want to be. 

  H/T  Eric Turkewitz and Bob Ambrogi