We would never have considered a billboard and, until recently, have not done much advertising locally. We put all our resources into the web, the most
cost-effective advertising around. 80% or more of our business is
outside the state. 50% of those clients are outside the country. We
have little interaction with the local bar [in court], which can be petty and
inbred [a small vocal element given 'birth' by one particular firm]. There is this one firm that has been a perpetual
annoyance through the years [(the above billboard does not deal with my old law firm BTW - Tim Smith asked me to clarify this back in April)]. Having figured that maybe ignoring them wasn't working very well, we settled on this billboard which is right across from their office building [the most harmless of all the alternatives except continuing to do nothing]. They get to look at it every day. I get to smile thinking about them looking at it and knowing that, even after it comes down someday, "it can always go back up." [I won't go into details on what motivated the billboard. It went beyond putting a billboard up across the street from someone's office for 30 days].
Note 07-11-09: There was an email sent around (below) by a member of the local bar to all bar members falsely stating that I disparaged the Association itself and that my remarks concerned all members of the local bar. Please read the post above carefully. Once you get by Tim's sensational headlines and exaggerations, you may even find yourself agreeing that our local bar struggles in certain circles. Regardless, I did not ever mention or reference the Association and I never said or suggested that they offenders were "many" let alone "all." Nor have I named any law firms who, until Tim's email, were anonymous by name and continue to be on this blog. This blogs readership, again until today, is overwhelmingly not local. Of the over 1,500 or so blog posts over 4 years of blogging, most of that time anonymously and still semi-anonymously, about ten posts deal directly with local issues, an many of those were when I was unsuccessfully sued twice by Tim and his partners.
The nonsense that has gone on with some local attorneys in my town is historic, dating back to old grudge's, firm break-ups and the like. Many younger attorneys at what should be the leaders in our local community of lawyers end up suffering the legacy. The overwhelming majority of the lawyers in the local bar have little to do with the historic rivalries and simply watch from the sidelines. I was right in the thick of old hatreds, screw jobs and supposed emotional wounds at my old firm none of which had nothing to do with me except where I worked. It was unproductive for clients and, as importantly, infected the local bar who could not count on some of the most important local firms to help lead the local bar association in everyday practice of professional courtesy.
So, to my fellow local attorneys and the bar association members who may read this post. I do believe that there are a small number of local attorneys who are petty and inbred from one particular firm, but you have already probably guessed that, in all likelihood, I am not referring to you. And if you happen to have worked for the 'birthing firm' once about a time and you are not located at the building above, then you also know we made our peace long ago.
I would also ask you to consider the source of the email below and ask yourself these questions: (1) Why did Tim Smith really send this email? (2) Why did Tim Smith distort and lie about what this post said and his totally contrived story about how he "discovered this post"? (3) How did Tim Smith get access to the assocation email list to send further his personal agenda, grudges (I supposed he killed two birds with one stone since he nailed me and the previously mostly anonymous firm in the picture above with one shot)? (4) How did Tim Smith end up speaking for the bar association? I don't even remember him attending any more than a dinner or so in the last 10 years.
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