British law firm Malik Law Chambers sports a very normal legal website. The firm handles “immigration, nationality, asylum, human rights, and administrative law.” If you poke around a bit, you’ll notice that client focus seems to be people of Indian decent, living in the U.K. Everything is normal.
Well, I guess I should say “normal, white, European.” Because when you check out their ad on YouTube…
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Obviously, the add triggers my SJW senses. But I don’t know, it’s also cool to celebrate your culture! It’s different, YAY DIFFERENT… unless you’re just playing up cultural stereotypes for money in which case, boo.
I can’t tell myself what to think about this, much less you. But I can tell you that I saw the ad on a Facebook page I follow to keep abreast of Indian legal news — as in legal news happening in the country of India. And over on the page, the question presented wasn’t, “Isn’t this cute?” or, “Dear God, look at these freaking people?!” The question was, “Should lawyers be permitted to advertise in India?”
America and the U.K. are weird in that we allow our attorneys to try to scare up clients with clever advertising. India does not.
The comments on the thread were generally about how stupid lawyer ads are in the U.K. and U.S. Some people thought the idea of lawyer advertising was funny, others thought it was sad. What I didn’t see was any, “OMG, how can Malik do this?!?” outrage.
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So… there’s that.
I’m going to get out of this post and find something safe to talk about. Surely there is a police department that I haven’t called racist in a while.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.