If there’s one thing the internet is great at, it’s exposing and carefully preserving embarrassing moments you wish would fade. For most, a worst-case-scenario usually involves a cringe-worthy video or a Facebook wardrobe malfunction. For some, such as legal professionals, having regrettable lapses in online judgment can have very real-word implications for both attorney and client… and as you will see, pleading ignorance won’t get you off the hook.
Here are our picks for the nine worst instances of online attorney meltdowns, lawsuits, and outbursts in the past couple years.
11.’Real’-World Consequences
A gentleman named Rob Faulkner publicly chronicled his dealings with a man that went by a few different names in relation to a telemarketing service that he offered. What resulted was several others coming out of the woodwork to share how they had been victimized by the same individual. The culprit, Matthew, chimed in but it was too late. 48 comments later, what resulted was an investigation an arrest of the man who reportedly eventually plead guilty to fraud. It should be said that in this instance just as the previous example, if you Google ‘Matthew Fox Don Draper’, Rob’s article is the first result.
10.A Global Trail of Being Shafted by Darryl Collins
Some people are taking advantage of service providers on a local level. Sometimes, the companies affected may span a whole country. Some truly special plights seem to grow to involve companies all over the world. Take the case of Barry Adams, a fairly well-known Digital Services Director in Ireland. He tells the story of his dealings with a client named Darryl Collins, of a Belfast-based company named Banjax.
In Barry’s chronicle of woe, the story begins innocently enough – he agreed to do work at a highly reduced rate for a new client (Darryl) whom he thought might become a regular source of work down the line. The work was done – for between a third and a quarter of the regular fee – and Barry sent an invoice for what he thought he had earned. But contracts and verbal agreements would prove useless against Darryl of Banjax’s strategy: ignore, avoid, and waffle.
Barry recounts how this financial scuffle dragged painfully on for nearly a year; at which point he finally threw up his hands, wrote off the possibility of ever receiving even the tiny payment he had hesitantly agreed to, and did what all angry people do in 2013: took to the internet.
The thing that makes this story great is the amount of people who came out of the woodwork in the comments section to join in. People who had also been screwed over by Darryl Collins, former employees of Darryl, and even Darryl himself joined in. Most took aim at an ever-evolving offering of excuses; including everything from restructuring issues to the fact that he was not even a representative of the company. The comments are the best part, so check them out. Every excuse poor Darryl offers up is really put through the scrutiny of a tech-savvy hive-mind.
Is the story true? Did Darryl ever get intimidated into keeping up his end of bargain? I’m not sure, but I would say the damage here has already been done.
A bonus (and perhaps a credit to Barry’s content marketing strategy) is that if you Google ‘Darryl Collins Banjax’, Barry’s article is the first result.
9. A Recent Law School Grad Tries to Sue “The Internet”
Back in 2009 Joseph Rakofsky was a fresh law school grad who seemed to have it all — credentials, a murder case about to hit trial, and a life of practicing law ahead of him. But, after bungling his murder trial so seriously that the judge declared it a mistrial, a bunch of legal bloggers took to the virtual streets to discredit his skill as an attorney (as well as expose some gaps in what seemed to be an illustrious curriculum vitae).
But Rakofsky didn’t take this news sitting down. Instead, he filed suit against more than 20 bloggers, lawyers, and newspapers in hopes of clearing his good name. The suit itself was resolved only recently, and in a shocking turn of events, the courts ruled against Rakofsky.
TechDirt has the full story here.
8. Revealing Client Information on Avvo Leads to Disciplinary Complaint
With the importance of online reviews these days, it’s important to understand that while your great clients will often leave glowing reviews, the not-so-great ones will do the (not-so-great) opposite. Enter Betty Tsamis, who accepted a $1,500 flat fee in order to secure unemployment benefits for a client who had been fired from his job at an airline. After Tsamis failed to secure benefits for her client, the client turned to the internet and left an angry review. This particular review was posted on Avvo.com, and was eventually removed by the website.
The “current” Avvo review
After the client republished a shorter version of his negative review, Tsamis allegedly responded with the following:
“I dislike it very much when my clients lose, but I cannot invent positive facts for clients when they are not there. I feel badly for him, but his own actions in beating up a female co-worker are what caused the consequences he is now so upset about.”
Obviously, that didn’t go over well, and the resulting disciplinary matter is still ongoing.
The ABAJournal has the full scoop here.
7. Criminal Defense Attorney Has Mugshot Appear Next to His Own Ad
When you hire an attorney, there’s a certain baseline of expectation: not even that they’ll win, but simply that they aren’t active criminals themselves (call us picky). But, that was apparently too much to ask in the hilariously ironic case of criminal defense attorney Thomas Lewis Edwards. If nothing else, at least Edwards is dedicated: his rap sheet boasts a hit-and-run, a DWI, property damage, and refusing to submit to a breathalyzer.
The sad screencap of Thomas Lewis Edwards (source)
Now certainly, everyone is deserving of a second chance. The problem, in this case, is that second chances are difficult when your Google Ads ad ends up appearing on one of those mugshot websites right alongside your own mugshot.
6. Surprisingly, Social Media Pro Not a Lawyer
Kathleen A. Scanlon is a real estate attorney. No, hold on — that’s incorrect, she’s actually a social media consultant. Lawyer. Consultant? Who knows. After pleading guilty to mortgage fraud in 2009, Scanlon, not to be deterred by something like being banned from lawyerhood forever, remade herself as a self-styled social media consultant. She was eventually found out and exposed. In the words of Adrianos Facchetti, “You are what Google says you are.”
Get the full story on Social Media Tyro.
5. Lawyers Suing Over Bad Reviews
Perhaps attorney Paul Nordini had never used the internet before. If he had, he would know that 90% of bad reviews come from disgruntled customers who are motivated enough to take the time to complain through their keyboards. If someone is motivated enough to write a negative review, they probably can’t be bullied into taking that review down.
That is exactly how it played out. When Illinois resident Joe LaBarre blasted Nordini’s firm as being “exceptionally unethical” on Google Plus, Nordini decided to live up to the criticism by first demanding that he take the review down, and then by filing a lawsuit. The case is still ongoing.
CBS Chicago reports.
4. Twitter Meltdown
Ah, Twitter — a refuge for pointless updates on lunch sandwiches, opinions about how annoying celebrities are, and… telling people to “Go f**k yourself and die,” apparently. You might expect as much from someone who was not posting from their business account, but Steven M. Regan, a partner at the (fairly large) law firm of Reed Smith, accidentally expressed how he really felt from his Reed Smith branded account.
The infamous tweet (source)
After the incident, reporters from Above The Law were coincidentally met with this out-of-office message: “I will be out of the office on Wednesday, October 16, 2013 attending a family funeral. I will return to the office on Thursday, October 17, 2013. I will have limited access to voicemail and email.” Not limited enough, I guess.
Read more at Above The Law.
3. Patent Attorney Meltdown
Some people, like Steven Regan, have their meltdowns on Twitter. Others, like Los Angeles patent attorney Andrew Schroeder, prefer to have their meltdowns in form of letters sent to the local patent office. After one too many patent rejections, Schroeder let forth an elegant rant that would have done Kerouac proud. Some highlights include: “Are you drunk? No, seriously…are you drinking scotch and whiskey with a side of crack cocaine while you ‘examine’ patent applications?” and, “Have you even read the patent application? I’m curious. Because you either haven’t read the patent application or are… (I don’t want to say the ‘R’ word) ‘Special.'” Well, at least he was polite about it. The whole thing ended up coming out when Above the Law obtained copies of the letters.
Above The Law reports again.
2. Take a Look at My Huge… Social Media Presence
If the internet is 90% furious, incoherent blocks of text, at least 8% is pictures of junk. (Y’know, like old calculators and stuff.) Sensing opportunity, a young and hopeful law school graduate by the name of Brian Zulberti decided to whip out his… legal credentials. Actually, no. He took pictures of his penis and put them all over the internet. In the name of social justice. Maybe one of the thousands of attorneys he’s emailed about his “cause” can shed some light on just what exactly Zulberti was trying to accomplish.
Brian Zulberti (source)
We’ll say this much for Zulberti: at least he wasn’t telling anyone to go f**k themselves and die.
Read more at Above The Law.
1. Get off my Twitter Hashtag!
This one is my absolute personal favorites. During the 2012 Legal Marketing Technology Conference, Larry Bodine of Lawyers.com (although I think he recently left) was hoping to build the social presence of his conference by encouraging participants to tweet using the #lmatech hashtag throughout the conference. A rebellious group of dissenters caught on to the trending hashtag, and promptly started filling the feed with some “sage” advice per the quote from the infamous Brian Tannenbaum below:
After picking up on the offending tweets, Bodine encouraged his participants to report the offending twitter accounts –only to face blowback concerning his knowledge of Twitter and who actually “owns” hashtags (hint, no one). All the social media gurus in the world couldn’t spin this one back together.
Popehat has the full story here.
