{"id":7209,"date":"2006-10-17T20:40:24","date_gmt":"2006-10-18T00:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/nysba-disses-lawyer-advertising-2\/"},"modified":"2010-08-12T11:46:10","modified_gmt":"2010-08-12T15:46:10","slug":"nysba-disses-lawyer-advertising-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/nysba-disses-lawyer-advertising-2\/","title":{"rendered":"nysba disses lawyer advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"

[originally posted Nov. 19, 2005]<\/span><\/p>\n

If you’ve been\u00a0listening to radio stations in New York State, this month, <\/span>you might have heard this little “public eduation” spot, part of a series <\/span>modestly called “<\/span>Beacon of Justice<\/span><\/a>” (via <\/span>Will Hornsby<\/span><\/a>):<\/span><\/div>\n

“This is <\/span>Vince Buzard<\/span><\/a>, president of the New York State Bar <\/span>Association. Do you feel bombarded by lawyer advertising? <\/span>Here\u2019s some advice. If you need a lawyer, ask another lawyer <\/span>for a recommendation. Or ask friends, or business associates, <\/span>or call the State Bar Association for a referral. Attorneys have <\/span>a constitutional right to advertise, but billboards and the Yellow <\/span>Pages don\u2019t necessarily provide the information you need. A <\/span>message from the New York State Bar Association in cooperation <\/span>with the New York State Broadcasters Association.” <\/span><\/p>\n

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That’s right, the <\/span>NYSBA<\/span><\/a> would like\u00a0consumers to ignore lawyer advertising. <\/span>Indeed, their 108th President, <\/span>A. Vincent Buzard<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0has\u00a0proudly confessed <\/span>he wants<\/span><\/a> to limit lawyer advertising “to the fullest extent permitted, within <\/span>the limitations of the First Amendment.”\u00a0 “It’s bothered me for years,” Buzard <\/span>recently said of attorney ads. “This is my year to do something, this is my <\/span>chance.” (Buffalo News<\/span><\/a><\/em>, “Focus: Attorney Advertising,” Nov. 12, 2005)\u00a0 So, <\/span>Buzard\u00a0worked up this nifty ad and appointed a\u00a0Task Force\u00a0on Attorney Ad<\/span>vertising, which issued a 130-page <\/span>Report<\/span><\/a> on Nov. 5, 2005. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Let’s take a quick look at each initiative (including the Report’s treatment of <\/span>websites and weblogs). <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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In <\/span>The Anti-Ad Public Relations Campaign Ad<\/span><\/a>, Buzard’s gives this advice if you need a lawyer<\/span>: “ask another lawyer for a recommenda<\/em>tion. Or ask friends, or business associ<\/em><\/span><\/span>ates, <\/em>or call the State Bar Association <\/em>for a referral<\/em>.”\u00a0 None of these alternatives <\/span><\/span>seems particularly helpful to the “average” consumer to whom typical lawyer adver<\/span>tising is targeted.\u00a0\u00a0Very few middle-. modest- or lower-income Americans have a <\/span>“family lawyer” to turn to for advice.\u00a0 (By <\/span>some<\/span><\/a> estimates, 80% of the legal needs <\/span>of the poor and working poor are unmet, and 150 million Americans have no viable <\/span>access to the court system.\u00a0 Last year, the NY Office of Court Administration <\/span>cited<\/span><\/a> <\/span>a study by NYSBA that estimates there are annually\u00a0“a total of approximately 2.5 <\/span>million legal problems for which no lawyer is available” to poor households in New <\/span>York.) <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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If you do happen to know a lawyer from a house closing, divorce, or criminal matter, <\/span>just how happy is he or she going to be when you call seeking a recommendation, <\/span>and\u00a0how objective will that recommendation be?\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, you could ask your friends, <\/span>but how knowledgeable will they be — and how do you judge the value of their <\/span>advice? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Buzard’s last suggestion\u00a0\u00a0— calling the State Bar Association for a referral — is <\/span>both bogus and self-serving.\u00a0 We’ve discussed the weaknesses of the lawyer referral <\/span>service\u00a0model at length <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>, concluding, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
“From the consumer’s point of view there <\/span>are several major problems <\/em>with the traditional LRS model, the cumulative effect <\/span>of which is to make the service only slightly better in most instances than using <\/span>the Lawyers by Practice Area section of the Yellow Pages:”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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The typical consumer in need of a lawyer needs all the sources of information <\/span>he or she can get to make a good choice.\u00a0 Advertising is one way to discover <\/span>who is looking for clients with particular problems.\u00a0 For more ideas on how to <\/span>find and choose a lawyer, see <\/span>Shopping for a Lawyer<\/span><\/em><\/a>, from the legal reform <\/span>group HALT. And see PR or Parody?<\/a> for our previous discussion of NYSBA’s public relations campaigns. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The Report of the Task Force on Advertising<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 It was no surprise for me\u00a0that <\/span>Buzard’s Task Force has written a Report\u00a0adopting in full the <\/span>Advertising <\/span><\/a>Guidelines<\/span><\/a> <\/span>of the Monroe County [NY] Bar Association (<\/span>press release<\/span><\/a>, May 9, 2005), which <\/span>were\u00a0shepherded into being by Buzard himself.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our major concerns\u00a0over the MCBA <\/span>Guidelines are discussed in\u00a0this <\/span>prior post<\/span><\/a>, which\u00a0states that “There is simply too <\/span>much leeway here for meddlesome interference and deterrence, with little more at <\/span>stake than the profession’s Image.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
According to the MCBA Press Release last May:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“The MCBA had adopted these guidelines to promote knowledge and respect for the New York Lawyers Code of Professional Responsibility, and to encourage responsible and informative advertising by attorneys.\u00a0 In essence, the MCBA guidelines state that lawyer advertising should be true, accurate, clear, fair, relevant, rational and jurisdictionally proper.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Their goals sound harmless, but the thrust of the Guidelines is clearly to <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>put\u00a0a chill on tv ads deemed inappropriate by the Dignity Police.\u00a0 For <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>example, here are three important Guidelines, in full:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n