I am not a huge fan of the internet. To many, that is the equivalent of saying I am not a huge fan of air or water. However, you cannot live without air or water, but you can definitely exist without the internet. Millions of people on the planet still do. And that is not to say that I live an internet-free existence. I know where I live and how to get there, but as I drive home, I routinely plug in my route, and Waze or Google Maps figures out if there is an accident or traffic on my primary route and directs me to my secondary route, if necessary. I bank on the internet. I text and email from my phone and communicate from my computer. For reasons only a psychiatrist could explain, I continue to wager modestly that I can figure out whether the favorite in a sporting event will cover and whether the points will beat the over. I have no social media presence, but I do not begrudge the many (majority?) of us who do.
Perhaps my somewhat primitive approach to technology partly explains the general neglect our website has suffered over the last nearly two decades. If you go to our prior blog posts, you will see that we set the website up, despite not having one for many years, to confront complete and total nonsense from an adversary who posted falsely as a disgruntled former client. Whether anybody has ever read it and cared one way or the other, I have no idea. But I do know that for the firm’s 25-year existence, it is almost entirely our reputation and word of mouth that generates the firm’s client base. There is no slick marketing strategy, and you will notice that even our rebooted webpage does not contain any pictures of the firm’s attorneys. Nothing about my face could sell even water in the desert, and it would be weird to post a firm picture with me not in it.
However, I have been convinced by the “younger members” of the firm that an internet presence does more than attempt to sell the firm. It helps educate and keep clients up to speed. I understand that it requires more time and energy than I have devoted in the past, but we will try it. Part of the problem is that we have limitations on what we can say on many of our cases based upon settlement language that does not permit dialogue on cases we have resolved favorably. However, many of our cases may get some attention in what remains of the media. Also, decisions rendered after a fully litigated case are fair game for publication. We are required by the ethics rules to repeat over and over that no result in one case guarantees any result in another. People obviously need to recognize that litigation is an uncertain endeavor with significant risk. With all that said, it is my hope that in the coming months, we will more regularly post some successes and notable decisions, and on occasion so that there is full disclosure of some of the less frequent matters that did not end well despite our best efforts.
As a result, you will see a post that was drafted two years ago but was just added to the website. It was in draft before I started significant chemo treatments and was not posted due to everyone from the firm concentrating on our individual cases and vigorously advocating for our clients, which always has been and always will be our first priority. Also, in the coming weeks, we will provide details of a major firm event for those signed up for our updates via email. I can assure you I will not clutter your inbox. We hope existing and prospective clients will find our rebooted website informative and valuable as we litigate their matters and advocate as we always have.
As we embark on 2025, we wish to thank the firm’s current and past clients for their faith in and support of us. Again, we rely almost exclusively on reputation and word of mouth. Your positive reviews of our skill and advocacy are humbling and appreciated. We are fortunate and proud to do what we do. All the best to you and your families in the coming year.