Rarely is there an opportunity to understand the sensibility that distinguishes what a marketer sees from what a lawyer sees, but courtesy of Gyi Tsakalakis at The Puddle, it’s hard to miss.
Lawyers are always asking. “who has the best law firm website?” And I always answer, “that’s easy, Saul Goodman.”
But what makes attorney Goodman’s website the best?
Wait for it…wait for it…
To the experienced legal web designer’s eye, the effectiveness of Saul’s site is immediately apparent from the home page.
Anyone familiar with Plutchik’s wheel of emotions will immediately recognize the intentional use oranges (vigilance), yellows (ecstasy) and reds (rage).
BOOM!
How much would you pay a legal marketer, a website designer, any vulture who tries to make a living off the desperation of lawyers, for a website like this? A thousand dollars? A million dollars? Absolutely nothing?
If this is what Saul is shooting for, to be a clown on the interwebz, to get the thousand phone calls that the rest of us would pay money not to get, the tire-kickers, the pro bono seekers, the I’m-innocent-so-why-do-I-have-to-pay? crew, the clients that ten lawyers sent packing who need an attorney with “courage”?
If you want the phone to ring off the hook, then this website is the one for you. No, you won’t become fabulously rich and famous. In fact, chances are pretty good that if the come-on does its job, you will never get off the phone, spending your days (and nights, because they love to call at night when it’s convenient for them) fielding free answers and the tin-foil hat wearers who want to sue the CIA for shooting gamma rays their way.
And if this is how Saul Goodman wants to run his law practice, so be it. Best of luck, Saul.
It’s nothing I would do. Ever. But then, Gyi not only likes this, but likes it so much that he holds Saul’s website out as the best there is. And unlike me, Gyi is a legal marketer.
As Turk said long ago, when you outsource your marketing, you outsource your ethics. A corollary is that you outsource your sensibilities as well. As a curmudgeon, I maintain a view that lawyers, as member of a learned profession, do better to maintain a level of dignity. We do not sell ourselves like laundry detergent. Unlike Saul, offering two-fer misdemeanor defenses isn’t the way I choose to conduct my practice.
But it’s not just the website. As Gyi notes, Saul also does TV ads to grab potential clients by the throat.
Classy, but as Gyi notes, “real lawyers know these just work,” provided by “work” he means attracts eyeballs and ridicule.
So is this what you want to pay a marketer to do for you?
Does your law firm website suck? Better call Saul.
Was this what you dreamed about when you went to law school?
Update: As I’ve now been informed by every person under 40 who reads SJ, Saul Goodman isn’t a real lawyer, but a character on some television show called Breaking Bad, and I just didn’t know it. I’ve been punk’d.
Well played, Gyi. Well played.
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Saul Goodman is a fictional character on AMC’s Breaking Bad who plays the role of the charactured slick, unethical CDL.
The website projects quite that image, no?
Also, Bob Odenkirk is magnificent in that role.
I had first thought Gyi’s original post was intended to be sarcastic…now, I’m not so sure.
Have I been punked? Damn. I really need to watch more cable TV.
It may be, and the joke is one me. I really don’t know (though I suspect someone will tell me if I completely blew the joke on this one).
The last link which is the last line in the original post by Gyi Tsakalakis gives up the goods. “Better call Saul.” You definitely didn’t click.
But all is not lost. Breaking Bad is a pretty entertaining series and plays around with more than a few good guy/bad guy quandaries.
You should rent a few seasons if nothing else it does have some reasonably decent music spattered throughout.
Anyway, I think the writers nailed it with the Saul character in many ways. Wait until you check out the ambiance of his strip mall office if you choose to watch it. It’s pretty over the top but I bet even the cynic in you will get a good belly laugh.
Haven’t been reading your blog as long as I have Pope Hat but something tells me you and Ken, from Pope Hat whom also has it in for marketing could both use Saul in some of your marketing rants that could be wickedly humorous and add a little extra sting to the points you both often touch on in this arena.
Ken who?
I think his last name is White. I do not know him just read his stuff at Pope Hat. If you are not familiar with his stuff you would enjoy it.
He is not alone over there but seems to post more often than the other contributors there. Like you he puts up lots of very decent material and is fun to read.
White? Sounds like a supremacist pseudonym. Is he one of those faux libertarian neo-cons?
LOL, just because you got punk’d doesn’t mean you need help climbing out of your rabbit hole.
I pass.
But would be pleased to make a musical suggestion if it might help? I was thinking some David Bowie might get you chewing your ham sandwich between grins.
So you two best get cracking on the Saul Refrences in the future as neither of you are getting any younger and dare I suggest you both might be in this blogging deal to pass on a few pointers here and there when it seems like the right thing to do.
The “children” must learn and if you two can’t slap um upside the head with some lawyering, by god I intend to slip in as many 70’s music references as I can.
You did put lots of mayo on your sandwich I hope?
Don’t miss tomorrow’s exciting Simple Justice post, exposing blatant 4th Amendment violations by LT Columbo of the LAPD and Detective Kojak of the NYPD!
Ah, you got me. But I’m Jewish and never put mayo on a ham sandwich. I use mustard.
Et tu. Eric? Are you enjoying yourself at the expense of my pop culture disability?
Nah, just an entertainer who makes a hobby out of trying to shove butter up the butts of wildcats with a red-hot poker by writing letters to legal bullies explaining his interest in bashing them with the Streisand hammer and then asking them to comment on the merits of their case. Then he pretends to be surprised by their outraged and outrageous response to this goading, which he publishes on his blawg so his readers can join him in poking fun at his targets. It’s a real hoot, and very cathartic. Give it a try! It might even mellow out a curmudgeon like you.
Remember, Saul Goodman is the best Criminal {beat} Attorney in Albuquerque.
And note the name, perfect for a CDL:
S’all Good, Man!
So he’s got a thing about butts? Sounds kinda creepy.
I’ve been laughing about this all night. Now I’m wondering how many of your other posts are just thoughts on imaginary subjects.
I’m so glad I’ve amused you.
At least you didn’t trot out your hotpants analogy on this one!
I like my hot pants analogy, but then it didn’t seem to work given the “dress like Saul” ad at the bottom.