Personal injury law

Size Matters: Get Attention for the Right Reasons

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When doing research for my columns, I spend a lot of time thinking about how small-firm attorneys can get the right kind of attention. I can easily find examples of getting the wrong kind of attention: Kim Kardashian, Conrad Murray, and that child-bride who married the guy from Lost. Then, I received an email from a young small-firm lawyer practicing in Winston-Salem who provided me with a positive counter-example.

Michael Wells, Jr. practices personal injury law, litigation, and estate planning at Wells Jenkins Lucas & Jenkins PLLC. Wells is the youngest lawyer at this ten attorney firm. One of the other ten is his father, Michael Wells, Sr. Early on in his career, Wells set out to distinguish himself from his highly successful father and he has succeeded. The lessons he learned along the way can provide a useful road map for young attorneys….

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There’s No Such Thing as ‘Free Breakfast’ When You’re a Lawyer

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Everyone knows that “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” But what about a free breakfast? That’s what one New York lawyer is insisting upon in a $730,000 lawsuit filed on Tuesday against his posh gym, the Setai Club & Spa Wall Street….

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Hey Everybody, Don’t Call the ‘Guy in the Suit’ a Lawyer!

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Last week, we saw just how powerful everyday citizens can be when they work together. In a highway accident in Utah, motorcyclist Brandon Wright was dragged under a burning vehicle and trapped. Wright could have been killed, but in a triumph for the human spirit, a group of bystanders lifted the car and pulled Wright to safety. The rescue was captured on YouTube.

Well, we should correct that account: almost everyone in the group of bystanders helped to lift the car so Wright could be pulled to safety. One guy, a man who shall forever be known as the “Guy in the Suit,” was standing around and watching. Actually, the Guy in the Suit took a break from standing around to LEAN ON THE CAR that a man was trapped under. Is this guy the worst human being on the planet, or what?

It figures that someone claiming to be a personal injury lawyer came forward as the Guy in the Suit….

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Size Matters: Does Skadden Do Personal Injury?

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I recently met Ray Zolekhian at a wedding. He went to Harvard Law School, worked as an associate at Skadden in Los Angeles, and started his own law firm with a friend, Robin Hanasab.

As soon as I heard Zolekhian’s background, I immediately guessed that he started a personal injury firm. Isn’t that the most natural progression?

Apparently so. Founded in July 2009, Hanasab & Zolekhian, LLP began as a firm specializing in restructuring commercial real estate loans. The firm then transitioned to personal injury litigation, because the founding partners found the work interesting and lucrative. But Zolekhian had no background in personal injury; according to Zolekhian, the pair was “thrown into the fire.” They were not devoid of help, however, and benefited enormously from the resources and mentoring given by other attorneys in the close-knit plaintiffs’ bar.

What does Zolekhian like most about his practice?

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Lawsuit of the Day: Pass the Wooden Dildo, Please

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John Bisnar and Brian Chase, of Bisnar Chase


We first mentioned this lawsuit, which was filed back in August, last month (second item). But so many of you have emailed us this AOL news story that we’ve decided to provide more detailed coverage.

It’s a lawyer versus lawyer lawsuit, usually the ugliest kind of litigation. But the allegations made here are perhaps more bizarre than ugly.

If you can handle claims of naked men engaging in hand-to-weiner contact, while sitting on tree stumps and passing around a wooden dildo — I think glass is more classy, but to each his own — then keep reading….

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Here’s One Way To Get A Big Bonus From Your Firm

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Michelle Marie Danicek

Sometimes law firm outings can get pretty crazy. It seems like this is especially true in Canada. Who would have thought, eh?

Last month, we wrote about a bottles-and-models party in Toronto that led to one associate losing his Canadian cookies in a cab, and a partner allegedly grinding (inappropriately) on female associates. Maybe those ladies just needed thicker skins or, in that case, booties?

Meanwhile, as we mentioned briefly this morning, a female lawyer in Vancouver did not have a thick enough head. In 2001, Michelle Marie Danicek, then 32, was a law clerk at Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP. According to the Vancouver Sun, in April 2001 she went out dancing at the Bar None nightclub, after a firm-sponsored associates’ dinner at an oyster house.

As many of you know, lawyers are not always the best dancers. The lawyers got their grooves on, and one of Danicek’s fellow maladroit associates stumbled into her, perhaps while he was doing the “running man” (that seems Canadian).

This caused her to fall to the ground — and sustain a $6 million injury….

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Adventures in Lawyer Advertising: Pocket-Sized Legal Advice

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Jimmy Doan, mini Esq.

There are many, many personal injury firms in the world, and they often have to come up with gimmicks to set themselves apart. Those gimmicks have landed a fair number of them in our Adventures in Lawyer Advertising series.

A tipster recently sent along the website for The Doan Law Firm: The Ultimate Fighting Law Firm. It’s based in Houston and run by a Texas Wesleyan Law ’00 grad, Jimmy Doan.

Why don’t you click here and meet him? Make sure your speakers are on.

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Adventures in Lawyer Advertising: Personal Injury Firm Might Break Your Funny Bone

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We don’t have a lot of sympathy for people who hurt themselves in stupid ways. When we’ve featured personal injury firms in our lawyer advertising feature before, it’s usually been to make fun of them.

In this case, the personal injury firm, Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman, is in on the joke:

Their commercials got picked up by the New York Times earlier this year. The firm’s other humorous commercial can be found over at Copyranter.

Apparently, humor pays dividends. According to its advertising agency, the Levinson Trachtenberg Group, the commercials and the buzz around them have increased client leads by 25 percent.

When lawyers advertise: NYC edition [Copyranter]
Lawyers Use Humor to Plead Case [New York Times]

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Adventures in Lawyer Advertising: Spanish-Speaking Squirrels and Reggae Songs

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We're victims... of this firm's advertising

Personal injury law firms do not tend to have the classiest advertising campaigns. But Greenstein & Milbauer has taken the art of terrible law firm advertising to new heights. Or new lows.

The firm has an official rap (sample lyrics: “have a neck broke from an accident you didn’t provoke?”) and its mascot is a squirrel that looks mildly mentally impaired.

In its commercial, the firm’s squirrel channels Geico’s Gecko, with a little Speedy Gonzalez-style ethnic diversity thrown in…

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