You may never see the day when Shearman & Sterling or White & Case would call their fellow lawyers “money-grubbing leeches touting for business…” but their names appear among advertisers at a site that did just that today. I do not like lawyer jokes and I tire of lawyers being maligned — it seems to be a form of bigotry that is socially acceptable. I must say I was surprised to see a web site bearing the names of numerous prestigious law firms, as advertisers, attack lawyers in this way. But alas, this attack was not levied against all lawyers, only those who think that people with causes of action ought to be informed of their rights and offered legal service should they so require. For fun, guess where these little leeches practice law? (Photo from RollOnFriday’s posting) leech.jpg I will bet good money that most would guess North America. Not a chance! SURPRISE! This comment comes from Jolly Old England! I serve clients in the UK so I am going to be delicate here but North American lawyers are frequently referred to as “Crass and TransAtlantic” (ouch) by their UK counterparts. Well, I suppose Roll on Friday’s Leech story levels the playing field a bit… now it can be said lawyers are berated “everywhere”. For the record, I do not encourage ambulance chasing but at the same time the legal profession is sometimes the only way that those entitled to damages learn about their rights. Even when one of the offending firms (leeches?) apologized and confirmed that their ad was pulled as soon as they learned that the Law Society had set up a help line, RollOnFriday (usually hilarious) could not resist the following sarcastic comment about that firm’s spokesperson:

“He denied our suggestion that claims factories were simply taking advantage of vulnerable members of society for the purpose of their own financial gain. Oh no no no no no. Far from it.”

Well, after a few refreshes of the page, I had identified the following law firm advertisers (some are rotated): Travers Smith Berwin Leighton Poisner Shearman & Sterling Lovells Osborne Clarke White & Case MacFarlanes Burges Salmon Cliffird Chance Baker & McKenzie, Allen & Overy Nabarro Nathanson Ashurst I wonder if any of these advertising firms read what this web site publishes beside their names and whether any of them would wince at all, or worse, make different advertising decisions. RollOnFriday: Stick to the humour – you are great at it – leave the preaching and the sarcasm to those who populate Speakers Corner in Hyde Park on Sunday afternoons. LAWYERS WITH A DIFFERENT VIEW: If there are lawyers out there who think the RollOnFriday story is actually funny, please comment… I will be surprised but am willing to listen if you think my views are skewed.