Gary J. Ross
I was almost finished with my “I’d Rather Be a Lawyer Than a Punk Rocker” column when I got the email. “Dear columnists, I just wanted to write and let you know about a notable change to our approach to comments — specifically, our removal of the comments on Above the Law.” Reading through all of the comments on the post that gave the readership the news disrupted the rest of my day a bit, and I’m glad I didn’t have anything particularly pressing due last Tuesday night. Now that it’s been a couple of days, I thought I would share my thoughts.
In Biglaw, you’re force-fed work. You have to worry about your reputation within the firm — do good work, stay on the good side of the people who matter (a group that often includes veteran admins and senior associates who will make partner well before you do) — but you normally won’t have to worry obsessively about your reputation outside of the firm. Just don’t do anything stupid like get thrown out of a cushy summer program (or be responsible for anyone getting thrown out of a cushy summer program), don’t attract unwanted attention, and whatever you do stay out of Above the Law. No firm I worked at even cared about our updating our website bios, though many of us were vain enterprising enough to do this sua sponte.
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In SmallLaw, reputation to the outside world matters a little more. To get good referrals from good clients, it’s best to maintain a good reputation and a nice clean webprint. A good reputation gets you in front of the right people, and keeps you from having to try to get clients at meetups or while bar-hopping, where at best you might get a few divorce or bankruptcy matters. Someone I recently hired (who is not yet on the website, so you’ll have some trouble figuring out his name) made the news a couple of years ago when he took on a case for an unsympathetic client that wound up in the papers. When I put him on my client’s matter she Googled him, and then made me answer a bunch of questions about the story. Though I eventually won her over, it was a reminder of how important it is to be careful of what out there is connected to your name.
Which brings me to the Above the Law comments. For those in the 95% who were too busy or knew better than to click on the comments, the ATL comments were largely a race to the bottom for who could be most offensive. Basically, the older siblings of the people who turned the Microsoft bot TayTweets into a hate-spewing cretin spent the last few years taking over the comment board at Above the Law. Since I am neither female nor a minority, the commentators decided to tag me as a serial killer, something they decided after looking at my headshot. Looking at my headshot now, I don’t get it, but I suppose it could have been worse, and since I’m often accused of being too nice, in another forum it would have been amusing.
While my low opinion of the commentators insulated me from taking any of it personally, it still wasn’t something I wanted a client or a potential client to read. More than once I was questioned by colleagues as to why I would write for a site that had such a readership. I had to explain again and again that most of our articles are read by tens of thousands of people, and the commentators were a small group that truly represented the worst of the worst.
For us working attorneys, leaving the comments on was a calculated risk. A potential client could find my columns and read the comments, and then wonder what the heck is this Above the Law website and why on earth is someone like me affiliated with it. (It’s because of the big ATL bucks of course!) Though the full-time editors undoubtedly have their own view, it seemed to me the stakes were higher for those of us who have to land clients to pay our bills. All we could do was to hope none of our clients or potential clients read the comments, or if they did, that they knew none of us were being singled out.
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All of which is to say I’m glad the commentators are gone. It was amusing to read last Tuesday the revisionist history they were promulgating amongst themselves, acting like all along they were writing instructors giving advice to the writers, instead of what they actually were. At one point — since the end was nigh — they started revealing their names, though in true troll fashion they still didn’t give their real names, instead revealing their “alt” identities. Some of the people had 10 different “alts.” What successful person has the time to comment on a website at all, much less repeatedly comment as 10 separate identities? Apparently, the entire ATL commentariat was made up of about 20 people.
Last Monday, I saw my junior associate (who, by the way, found me a year ago through this column) get admitted to the bar. The judge who gave the welcoming speech included a quote from Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech. She spoke of the “cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Little did she know that last week at least, cold and timid souls would know defeat.
Later this week: I’d Rather Be a Lawyer Than a Punk Rocker…
Gary J. Ross opened his own practice, Jackson Ross PLLC, in 2013 after several years in Biglaw and the federal government. Gary handles corporate and securities matters for startups, large and small businesses, private equity funds, and investors in each, and also has a number of non-profit clients. You can reach Gary by email at [email protected].