The Shout-Out Lawyer
(Updated March 15, 2023). Typically when lawyers are called out by their clients, it’s as some kind of insult or snide remark about fees. So it was refreshing to see 2023 Oscar winner Ke-Huy Quan give a shout-out to his lawyer (and former co-star) Jeff Cohen.
Still, shout-outs are not without precedent. In an earlier version of this post, I reported on a 2012 interview with MailChimp founder Ben Chestnut who revealed that moving MailChimp from a paid to free model increased the company’s legal costs by 245 percent. You’d think that Chestnut would make a nasty comment about useless, money-grubbing lawyers. Chestnut went on to describe that he paid the company’s lawyer ‘Rob’ (Rob Hassett) to handle virtually every type of spam matter that MailChimp has encountered.
Chestnut isn’t the only satisfied client to give his lawyer a shout out. In her recent book, Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame) gave a shout out to her immigration lawyer in the acknowledgments, thanking him for shepherding her then boyfriend’s immigration paperwork through the process so that he could return to the U.S. and they could marry (though they have since divorced).
Today, like everything else in marketing, giving testimonials has become routine. We do the job, hand the client a survey and ask for feedback, and hope that embedded within are a couple of nuggets that we can display on our websites or marketing materials. Still, in routinizing the way we gather testimonials, I wonder whether we take away some of the spontaneity and the heart that makes a great testimonials even better – for both the giver and recipient.
In this context, a shout-out truly stands out as a spontaneous and heartfelt expression of appreciation and therefore, a great reward. Because there’s nothing like getting some public and unexpected acknowledgment for doing nothing more than what we lawyers are supposed to do: serve our clients.
In checking out this site as I move from Army JAG to Third Wave Lawyer a la Chuck Newton, this post actually brought back a variety of feelings regarding my own practice of law. Particularly, I remember feeling particularly moved the first time I received a Thank You card from a client's family. My focus is military criminal defense, and, at the time, I was still in the Army assigned to the Trial Defense Service as a Senior Defense Counsel (essentially a military public defender). The card contained a handwritten note, and I was caused to shut the door of my office and reflect on it for a moment. Here's the catch: the client was convicted. Yet, the family felt thankful that someone was willing to stand beside their relative in his hour of need. Truth be told, I learned so much about myself and my profession from this client, that I really owed him a thank you note.
That case began a chain of events that led to my leaving the Army after 11 years to pursue my own practice and continue to defend some of these truly fantastic individuals (who sometimes make mistakes, but rarely are “hardened criminals”).
So, thank you for providing this post. My case may not be completely on point, but it reminded me of how profound positive client feedback can be on our professional lives.
Eric Mayer
emayerlaw.com
eric@militaryadvocacy.com