Adventures in Lawyer Advertising: ‘Midsize Is the New Big’
What does that mean? — Fictional Junior Partner
It means you’re here until you’re not. — Fictional Firm Chairman
Those are lines from a bit of YouTube fantasy porn for BigLaw attorneys frustrated by the way their firms are treating them during the economic downturn. The video ends with the junior partner telling the chairman that he feels unappreciated and that he’s leaving.
If you can’t play with the BigLaw boys, then move along.
A legal marketer in New Jersey was hired by an unnamed mid-size firm to create a video to help with the firm’s lateral recruitment. It features a young BigLaw real estate partner, named Steve, meeting with his firm’s chairman to seek guidance. The chairman, who calls the partner Gary throughout the meeting, is not especially sympathetic to the younger lawyer’s recession-induced crisis:
JUNIOR PARTNER, STEVE: I’ve worked so hard to build something here. You wiped the floor with me for eight years as an associate. I am a partner now. I have a book of business, and yet I feel… lost.BIGLAW CHAIRMAN: Do you have any idea how much billable time we wasted during this conversation? How long were you outside my office lurking like a wolverine of sorts?
According to the marketer Micah Buchdahl, the firm wasn’t a fan and declined to use the video. Check it out after the jump.
The mid-size firm decided the video didn’t send the right message for attracting senior associates and partners from the BigLaw ranks. Notice the blurred out logos in the background of the video via On The Record:
No wonder the firm turned it down. According to On The Record, the mid-size firm wanted “edgy,” but Buchdahl gave them whiny.
When he screened the ad for the firm’s management committee, they were “horrified,” Buchdahl said.“Using the word ‘hate’ wouldn’t do the word ‘hate’ justice,” he said.
It wasn’t even the expletive that got them, he said. No one cracked a smile during the whole four-minute video.
We laughed, but we would be laughing harder if a mid-size firm had actually attached its name to this.
Midsize is the new Big [YouTube via On The Record]
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It could have been really good if the acting were stronger.
First to call firsties.
"Like a wolverine of sorts" was very funny.
Cheesy music. Bad acting. First to say that was shitty.
This video could have been good if it were: (1) much shorter; (2) funnier; and (3) just better.
I agree that it come off as just whiny.
what firm?
those complaining about the video are those actually sitting in junior partner steve's position in real life... or wishing they were.
Unfortunately, this ad is likely the first and last time you will hear from "HTMLawyers"
absolutely horrible.
I take offense to the video portraying the "Chairman" role. First of all, a partner, at least of my caliber, does not dress as poorly as the thespian who tried too hard to appear like a windbag. In real life, "Gary" the junior partner, would know better than to waste my time with such drivel. My voice would have shown "Gary" the door. Here is the real message to you junior "partners" out there. An old timer like me does not need you. I am already established and you can take a walk with your paltry book of business. It is my subordinate partner (generally age group of 47-65) that need you to keep the machine running, funding the platinum parachute fund. You are not a peer in my eyes and don't address me by my first name lest you yen to experience a very long and uncomfortable silence from my part. You are the bottom leg of the upper tier of the pyramid. Remember that when you summon up the courage to talk to someone of my level and threaten to walk away with your tiny book. One morsel of truth from the video is that you are at my firm until you are not.
7,
no. it was just a horrible video.
Sometimes PE makes me life, but then I feel dirty inside.
- Laid off McDermoTTT JA
Oops, meant laugh instead of life. I'll leave it to you to determine what that slip means
-11
This is quite possibly the worst video I have ever seen. I hope the firm that commissioned this did not pay a dime.
This video sucked as a marketing video. It was just a couple people acting poorly whining, with way too many pauses in the dialog. Come on, the guy's been there 8 years, he's a partner now, has his own clients and he tells the guy "There has to be something better out there." How f'ing naive is that. If you've been an attorney a minimum of 8 years, you know what's out there already or you're living life with blinders.
ATL - who cares? You don't know the firm and the video sucks. This was a waste of 4 1/2 minutes of my life.
PE doesn't have time to talk to actual partners at his own firm, yet has loads of time to watch silly videos on blogs and post obnoxious comments. Would you just stroke out, already?
A parable for law firm leaders. Unless you are a personal injury lawyer, advertising and lawyering do not mix.
QUINN REMAINS something something
PE, you took a break, were you having a bilateral knee reconstruction or maybe a triple bypass? Maybe your mother forgot to pay the cable bill and so you weren't able to sign on to AOL from the basement of your split-level home after high school. Jokes over buddy.
sofa king we taught it
Am I the only one who actually finds this funny?
I'm almost convinced this was McCarter & English, rumors have abounded lately of the EC being seriously po'd about something
kind of a shitty office for the head chairman of the biggest, baddest, law firm in the world, isn't it?
kind of a shitty office for the head chairman of the biggest, baddest, law firm in the world, isn't it?
21 - yes.
This is funny in that Law Revue sort of way--not at all.
22: Point well taken. Also doesn't help that the senior partner is portrayed by the same guy who does the "Extenz" commercials on cable TV, the little pills that are supposed to grow one's johnson to Cravath proportions.
Really bad.
Sadly, only we lawyers (kind of like Statler and Waldorf, the old men in balcony on the Muppets) will sit around criticizing a video that makes totally valid points on the basis of the acting. Like it was designed to be Hollywood quality or something.
It was a neat idea, if not perfect. And it was funny enough to get some chuckles.
28 -
No it wasn't.
This would have been a winning video had it been a takeoff on Deadliest Catch, featuring associate attorneys catching Kash's ass lobsters.
This video could be really funny if only it didn't suck.
here's a better link to a Disney fantasy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAwR6w2TgxY
EPIC FAIL in concept, acting, and targeting the right demographic. Why would any law firm want to use this POS for anything?
21 -- i thought it was pretty good. they just needed to tighten it up a bit by taking out the pauses in dialog.
Kash, your sexiness really comes out in your writing sometimes.
The people that think this is funny are the same people that think Taxi with Jimmy Fallon really wasn't that bad of a movie. Also, 35 is just creepy.
this video sucks worse than testicular cancer
This was hilarious :-)
They miscast. The odds of finding two biglaw partners where both have thick heads of hair like that are slim to none. At least at my firm. At a minimum there plenty of temple showing. The average lawyer has tons of thinning hair. Many are partially or completely bald.
What did one ass lobster say to the other ass lobster? "Hey, do you know if this place takes credit cards or is it Kash only?"
there needs to be more cursing
a little bit more anger and snarkiness
I got bored.
www.laidoffdiary.wordpress.com
And the increase in size...well, that was pretty fun too. If BIGLAW weren't this great, could we really have sold over 1 million souls?
Hey Dave Gordon,
How come you laid off all the Latham NY first years who failed the bar except for your partner buddy's son?
While we're asking questions, did this guy have the grades to get into Latham in the first place, or was that nepotism?
I also noticed he went to daddy's law school. I'd love to see this guy's lsat score. Wonder if he even got into ls on his own.
Dave, own up to the fact that Latham NY is not a meritocracy.
Dave Gordon,
Remember when you laid off 45% of Latham NY associates. You did this after telling everyone that Latham is "well-diversified."
LOL
Great expansion plan there Davey boy. You're certainly the awesome manager you have always claimed to be.
Dave Gordon,
Why on earth did you go to Syracuse Law School? Low LSAT? Bad grades at Cornell UG?
This was bad. It wasn't funny because it was not subtle or outrageous, and was self-righteous to boot. The firm chairman had no redeeming qualities and Gary was an annoying whiner. Who is savvy enough to become a junior partner and then complain about having been worked as an associate and having a high billable rate?
I don't know what's worse -- the acting, or the sound.
Shitty video is the new shitty video.
Someone thought they would be paid for this?
40 -FTW!!!! ROFL
Gawdawful.
*watches first 45 seconds of video*
Shit, I don't care if this will affect you or not.
*puts gun in mouth*
BLAM!
The video could have been half as long if the production had been tighter and the pauses shorter.
It would have been better if it wasn't so shitty.
Has anyone noticed that the actor playing the windbag is the same actor selling supplements on late night TV that "enhance a certain part of the male anatomy"...(wink wink).
I am an 8th year associate that has had my promotion to of-counsel deferred due to the economy. I am taking my modest book and moving from a 600 lawyer firm to a 25 lawyer boutique. Developing and keeping clients in the Rockies with an East Coast fee structure is not a sustainable proposition.
40 is amazing. That guy/girl should win a date with Kash or something for that awesome comment.
53, yes we did notice: See my post 27 and further (witty) reference by another in post 42.
Here's an EVEN BETTER link to a disney fantasy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzbU0YQR2vg
look for wood.
Eh, wasn't so bad.
Thanks 27, guess I should read from the top down next time. Hats off to 42 as well. Should be receiving my supplements by mail soon.
Don't forget Day Pitney. They're trying to enhance their reputation and reach into Biglaw.