BRANDING THE PROFESSION

The State Bar of Wisconsin, a mandatory bar association for Wisconsin attorneys, wants its members to know that it cares about their community reputation.  Law school, admissions screening (and a bar examination for attorneys trained outside of Wisconsin), a public oath, and an elaborate disciplinary process are not enough to distinguish this venerable profession: the earnest people at the State Bar headquarters will help us by branding the profession.  This is a campaign as hackneyed as it is useless.  

Here is their marketing solution: "WISCONSIN LAWYERS: EXPERT ADVISORS, SERVING YOU."  May I ask what this is meant to describe?  It states only what should be obvious; it reinforces only what people should already believe.  It's like saying "Hamburgers: Beef Patties, Cooked for Eating."  If someone doesn't believe at least this much about a lawyer, he's a fool, a cynic, or a client stuck with a bad lawyer.

The branding effort doesn't stop there.  For the text-impaired, the State Bar offers an accompanying diagram, with the words "Wisconsin Lawyers: Expert Advisors, Serving You" appearing in a triangle.  Three other phrases line the sides of the triangle: "problem solving," "community service," and "expert advice."  I am pleased to see that the phrase "expert advice" appears at the bottom of the triangle. Thanks, everyone, I comprehend your meaning: "expert advice" is basic to our profession, so you placed it at base of the triangle.  Very clever, l admit! 

Let me consider the other two phrases, on the upper sides of the triangle.  First, "problem solving."  I would think that "Expert Advice" comprises problem solving.  About what are you advising?  Your advice should be about a legal problem.  Presumably, you have a client with a legal problem, and she asks as that you consider the application of law to the problem that she confronts, and to advise her accordingly. It's more than an algebraic equation that she faces, more than a crossword puzzle.  If your advice doesn't address her legal problem, then you have wasted her time.

 "Community Service" is likewise implicit in the practice of law, and needs no special branding.  (Ironic though, that the State Bar chooses an expression that defines a kind of punishment used as an alternative to incarceration.)  Law, even private practice with private parties, is also public thing: a few, trained specifically, sworn publicly, and ethically bound.  No one else takes an oath like ours.  We are -- rightly and necessarily -- obligated to our oath as attorneys at all times.  To be admitted to the practice of law is to be bound to our good and particular ethical code at all times, day and night, and in all places, within and beyond Wisconsin.                       

The 'Branding the Profession' diagram looks like a child designed it, with the type font for the interior text mismatched to the type font for the phrases running along the sides of the triangle.  I sincerely hope that the design was an in-house job, from someone already on the State Bar's payroll.  If so, then at least someone performed some work, however mediocre, from the salary he wasn't really earning anyway.  Alternatively, if an outside consultant designed the logo, then someone was paid for work that that the person on the State Bar payroll could have done while receiving the salary he wasn't really earning anyway.   

The State Bar guesses, dare I say knows, that you'll want a copy of a toolkit for branding the profession.  Knowledge of the law, sound and clear advice, and zealous advocacy alone won't help a Wisconsin lawyer: he needs the Branding the Profession Toolkit. At only 726 kilobytes, in .pdf format for easy compatibility on any computer, it's sure to be a keeper.  (The marketing effort has its own web address, at http://www.wisbar.org/bar/brand/ , for those who might be interested.)

This sophomoric campaign is insulting and irritating for both lawyers and clients.  I am not sure what's worse: the irritating situation when someone doesn't see that he's a fool, or the insulting situation when he thinks that you, or your clients, are fools.  The State Bar's 'Branding the Profession' campaign strikes both ways -- a dunce's effort that treats you like a dunce.  Both educated and uneducated clients know more, and understand more, than this marketing effort credits to them.  A sophisticated client will see the campaign as a mediocre, unsuccessful marketing effort, for whom the logo's bland reassurances will be unnecessary.  That sophisticated client won't choose a lawyer because of the State Bar's latest logo or marketing effort.  An unsophisticated client will find the entire effort irrelevant, as he or she will focus on far more  -- prudently --  than a marketing toolkit or silly phrases. 

This ridiculous effort should never be part of any presentation to a client.  It replaces the hallmarks of the profession (knowledge, reason, diligence, commitment, respect, and integrity) with a hawker's pitch, using a pamphlet and silly drawing.  Any lawyer who uses this technique to recommend himself should leave the profession, as he is too shallow to honor the oath he took.  Any community that thinks better of lawyers after seeing this technique expects too little of lawyers.  If anything, sensible people of all backgrounds will see this effort as a shallow ploy, and irrelevant to the important characteristics that lawyers can, and should, embody.  Trying to look good is not the same as being good, but someone at the State Bar wants you to think that one is an easy substitute for the other.    

Those who want to honor the profession, and serve clients, would do well to observe and embody the principles of the oath that they took upon admission to the Wisconsin bar:      

I will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Wisconsin;

I will maintain the respect due to courts of justice and judicial officers;

I will not counsel or maintain any suit or proceeding which shall appear to me to be unjust, or any defense, except such as I believe to be honestly debatable under the law of the land;

I will employ, for the purpose of maintaining the causes confided to me, such means only as are consistent with truth and honor, and will never seek to mislead the judge or jury by any artifice or false statement of fact or law;

I will maintain the confidence and preserve inviolate the secrets of my client and will accept no compensation in connection with my client's business except from my client or with my client's knowledge and approval;

I will abstain from all offensive personality and advance no fact prejudicial to the honor or reputation of a party or witness, unless required by the justice of the cause with which I am charged;

I will never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed, or delay any person's cause for lucre or malice. So help me God. 

FRANK GILBERT 

MAY 20,  2003