The "2007 Louisiana Super Lawyers" list is out, and apparently the selection process is rigorous. Super Lawyers "identifies the top 5 percent of attorneys in each state, as chosen by their peers and through the independent research of Law & Politics." The award must be prestigious because I’ve noticed that several local law firm websites tout that a certain number of their lawyers were selected.
I guess I’ll update my firm website to mention that I was selected too, and even profiled in the 2007 Super Lawyer magazine. I think they profiled me because of my weblog. The author of my profile was eager to highlight my sense of humor, but I think she unintentionally mischaracterized my attitude towards the practice of law. I regard the practice of law as something to be taken very seriously, even though I believe that many lawyers often have an overly somber view of themselves and their profession.
The profile is not online, and although I have a copy of the article scanned to PDF, I’m not going to post it because that would probably not sit well with the Super Lawyers folks. Some of their revenue comes from the lawyers who are selected ordering extra copies of the magazine or other memorabilia, and I certainly wouldn’t want to circumvent their business model. That would not be very funny.
Meanwhile, I’m thinking of posting the following proclamation on my firm website:
The Svenson Law Firm is pleased to announce that every single one of its attorneys was named a 2007 "Louisiana Super Lawyer."
Assuming that statement complies with the proposed new rules regulating lawyer advertising in Louisiana, that is.
(p.s. to overly somber lawyers: that’s a joke).
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While SuperLawyers seems to take great pains to point out howallegedly objective and “independent of advertising or other payments”the determination of these “listings” might be, one must still wonder,after one gets “objectively selected” for a “listing” as a”SuperLawyer”, who is actually paying for all of these full color,”candid” “glamor shot” pictorials and in-depth, self-serving helpingsof sanctimonious drivel pretending to be something other thanplain old advertising. It is suspected that the “SuperLawyers” folkshave cleverly found yet another way to tap into lawyer “super-egos”and their “super checkbooks”. I don’t recall seeing the”non/not-for-profit” disclaimer anywhere within all of that other objectivey and independence foolishness touted so prominentlythroughout the MAGAZINE. I smell “infomercial” wearing a blue suitand carrying a briefcase. The “listing” itself may be without cost or strings, but just how many glossy color pages of lawyer poses can be printed and mailed out to the immediate world for nothing except theobjectively discovered good character and “high ethical standards” ofthe photographic subjects???
If Ernie has merited a listing and his own “centerfold” coveragewithin the inaugural LA issue without charge, perhaps he is merelybeing “used”/proferred in a slick attempt to suggest that themagazine does not target only big firms and bid advertising budgetsand that all the other full color “listings” are also(and will continue to remain) gratis?
Beware wolves (or sly publishers of lawyer advertising) in sheeps’clothing (or using nebulous fictitious “objective standards” to selladvertising to lawyers striking dignified poses in business suitsin front of plain backgrounds). Many lawyers–including Ernie–havedecried the proposed new lawyer advertising rules, arguing they areoutdated forms of paternalistic protectionism attempting tosave the unsuspecting public from unscrupulous lawyers preying upontheir ignorance through slick ads. Perhaps the lawyers themselevesmay need to be protected from being preyed upon by slick ads morethan do the members of the “unsophisticated public”…
No one in my office was polled for the Super Lawyer thing, and you’re the only lawyer I know who was actively involved. I feel as though there is a lack of truth in advertising that they polled all the lawyers in the state. That said, the other lawyers in the Super Lawyer thing were obscenely boring. Thanks for livening things up a bit.
Congratulation’s to you.
I agree that many of your colleagues have a stick up their ass.
Congratulations!
Ernie! Super indeed and well deserved.