"Beyond the Basics: Best Practices for Building Your Law firm Online"

FindLaw Webcast - May 10th

The May 10th webcast is entitled “Beyond the Basics: Best Practices for Building Your Law Firm Online” targets law firms who already have a solid Web presence and are looking to leverage the latest legal marketing trends to stand apart from their competitors in a crowded legal marketplace.

The following are links to register for the two sessions of the event:

5-10-11 @ 11 am CST http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=292403&s=1&k=236049F68A5702361C04DCA8B36404C1

5-10-11 @ 3 pm CST http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=292404&s=1&k=130FBB529B3DE5CCAECB4C0E6B48BE1D

Craig Knapp Recovers $825,000 for Car Accident Victim

Police Officer Wins Substantial Settlement

Congrats to Craig Knapp on helping a Phoenix police officer recover $825,000 for injuries he sustained in a tragic car accident.

The accident was caused by the negligent actions of a drunk driver. The crash left the police officer with a badly injured leg and hip that required surgery and painful physical therapy.

The settlement is the latest in a series of high profile wins for Craig.

Craig won a $1.5 million dollar settlement in 2008, a $11 million verdict in a group home case in 2009 and a historic $45.5 million dollar jury verdict in 2005.

SB 1373 - Military Divorce Bill is a Very Bad Idea.

SB 1373 - Proposed Military Divorce Bill in Arizona

My friend, Phoenix divorce attorney, Gary Frank recently did a great post on a new Bill that is working its way through the Arizona legislature. This BLOG usually avoids the political, but as a former "army brat" I couldn't help but agree with Gary.

The goal of SB 1373 is to allow service members to keep 100% of their military pay and benefits in a divorce, effectively making them exempt from Arizona's community property laws. Gary's post correctly points out that this bill would severely hurt the families and spouses of military personnel. As Gary notes, military spouses also make tremendous sacrifices for our Country.

"we shouldn’t ignore the fact that a service member's sacrifice is often matched by a spouse who remains at home to raise the children, pay the bills, work to make ends meet, keep the family afloat, and worry each and every day about her (or his) loved-one's safety. By doing their part, these selfless spouses are also helping to protect our American way of life."

Very well said Gary! I would also add that military spouses often don't have the ability to have careers outside the home. This is because they are forced to move frequently (I moved 16 times growing up) and are forced to live on isolated military bases where job opportunities are scarce. Finally, if Bills like this pass, it will discourage marriage in the military. I had a hard enough time convincing Heather to marry me and move to Ft. Polk Louisiana when I was a young Lieutenant.

No matter your political affiliation, this bill is a terrible idea and should be defeated. Our service men and women are indeed courageous for choosing to serve our country, but we shouldnt forget the families that support them.

FindLaw.com is No. 1 Consumer Legal Website

FindLaw.com is the No. 1 Consumer Legal Website, Online Lawyer Directory – Again

My company just released a press release touting the findings of a recent comScore study which compared the traffic to of various consumer legal websites like Findlaw, Martindale and Avvo. The findings reaffirm what my clients and I have known for years - that FindLaw is the leading online lawyer directory in the Country.

I personally came to this conclusion long ago since all of my sites have a 3rd party tracking system called hitbox. One of my favorite reports to run is called a "referral domain" report. This report tells me where visitors to a site actually came from. In five years, I have never seen another legal directory get more referrals than FindLaw when they had comparable listings.

This happened today when I went over the traffic of a Phoenix immigration lawyer who had top spot listings in both FindLaw and Lawyers.com for immigration law. Over the last 30 days FindLaw garnered the client 67 clicks as opposed to 27 from Lawyers.com. Now, 27 clicks from a directory is very good so I recommended that he keep that listing. The point is that FindLaw brings in more traffic.

Whether you are a client or not - its a good idea to contact me before purchasing a listing of any kind. Chances are, I will have access to historical click data that will either support or undermine a potential purchase. When click data is not available, I can also check with my clients directly. Today a criminal lawyer wanted to know if he should purchase an online video package from a local TV station. Promising exclusive positioning for hundreds of attorney videos on the station's website (which is getting 800,000 visitors a month) - the deal seemed to good to be true. Adding to the excitement was the fact that the salesman was "nice" enough to hold it open just for him for another few short hours. (Luckily my client had read my article on dealing with high pressure sales reps and took some important steps:

1. He called other attorneys in other jurisdictions that bought the same product.

2. He called me.

The first alarm bell went off when my client talked to 4 other attorneys in different markets. All were brand new clients who offered luke warm reviews. Importantly, none had attributed any definitive cases to the 'exclusive' video product. They were, however, still optimistic that the product would eventually work given time.

When my client called me to discuss, I brought up two points right away, 1) if this is the best reference a sales person can muster for an expensive product like this - be afraid, be very afraid and 2) why would this product work better over time? The answer is that it won't. When you purchase a listing in a directory - you should do so based on the traffic it generates now. Listings should be instant offense, generating significant amounts of qualified traffic via SEO, Advertising, PPC or in this case 800,000 eyeballs a month. If its not working now, it likely never will.

But having said that, I still wanted to do my own due diligence before dismissing it completely. In reviewing the proposed package, I saw that another client of mine had already purchased the same package in a different practice area. (This client forgot my advice on avoiding high pressure sales reps) So I checked his referral domain report and in the last month the exclusive positioning netted him just 6 click thrus. With many of those likely coming from the attorney himself. Ouch!

I sympathize with lawyers who succumb to high pressure sales tactics. In the hyper competitive world of attorney advertising, the prospect of exclusivity can be very compelling. That said, you should always find the time to do these 3 things....

1. talk to at least 3 attorney references

2. demand traffic and click thru data from the sales rep

3. Using your own computer, verify the directory's position in the search engines (if a directory is invisible to you in searches it will likely be invisible to your clients as well)

And finally if you have the time, by all means give me a call. I am happy to do this due diligence for any attorney in Arizona. I am glad in this case I was able to prevent my friend from making a $30,000 mistake.

Sanders & Parks Prevails at the Arizona Supreme Court

Supreme Court Declines Review of Opinion Affirming

Sanders & Parks’ Trial Court Victory

Sanders & Parks, P.C. is pleased to announce that the Arizona Supreme Court has declined to review the ruling of the Arizona Court of Appeals that affirmed the trial court’s ruling in favor of Sanders & Parks’ client, SCF Arizona (“SCF”). SCF is a workers’ compensation insurance company that did not have contracts with Canyon Surgery Center and El Dorado Surgery Center (now known as “Tucson Surgery Center”) (collectively “the Surgery Centers”) to provide services to its injured workers at a reduced or discounted rate as other insurance carriers do.

The case, styled Canyon Surgery Center, et al. v. SCF Arizona, 1 CA-CV 09-0408, involved reimbursements of facility fees for services provided to over 2,100 injured workers from March 2003 through March 2007. In its published opinion, the Court of Appeals affirmed several rulings from the various trial judges who presided over this matter during the lengthy legal battle. After seven years and five months of protracted litigation, the Arizona Supreme Court has vindicated Sanders & Parks’ client’s legal positions.

The Surgery Centers were two of five original plaintiffs that initially sued to collect their unilaterally-established full-billed charges from SCF. The Surgery Centers’ theory was that SCF is a “state agency,” was subject to Arizona’s Administrative Procedures Act, and that its decision to retain third-party bill review vendor, Qmedtrix, constituted a “rule” that was impermissibly promulgated by SCF. In pre-trial briefings, that theory was rejected in May 2005 by the Honorable J. Richard Gama. This ruling was upheld by the September 16, 2010 Opinion of the Court of Appeals.

Next, the Surgery Center Plaintiffs continued to seek to recover their full-billed charges from SCF under certain contractual and statutory theories and based on bad faith. Again, during pre-trial briefings, the Honorable Timothy J. Ryan rejected those theories for failure to state a claim in January 2006. The Surgery Centers elected not to appeal Judge Ryan’s ruling with respect to the bad faith claim. The appellate court confirmed Judge Ryan’s rulings on the contractual and statutory claims.

In July 2008, a three-week trial ensued before the Honorable Edward O. Burke. The case was tried by Sanders & Parks attorneys Mark Worischeck and Debora Verdier on the remaining counts wherein the Surgery Centers sought payment of their full-billed charges on claims of negligent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment. With respect to the payment of the Surgery Centers’ full-billed charges, the trial court concluded that SCF had already paid the Surgery Centers “the reasonable value of their services, if not more.”

At the close of Plaintiffs’ evidence, Judge Burke granted SCF’s motion for judgment on the pleadings and rejected the Surgery Centers’ negligent misrepresentation claims. The appellate court confirmed these conclusions, along with the other pre-trial decisions rendered by the superior court.

In November 2008, Judge Burke rendered his decision on the sole remaining claim for unjust enrichment finding that the plaintiffs were entitled to no more than the reasonable value of their services. He also found that SCF’s payments, which were based on recommendations from third-party bill reviewer, Qmedtrix, represented the reasonable value for their services “if not more.” The appellate court affirmed Judge Burke’s conclusion. The Arizona Supreme Court has now declined to review the published decision.

In the opinion, the appellate court held that the surgery centers “were required to prove SCF paid less than a reasonable amount for their services, in which case they could recover the difference under a theory of quantum meruit or unjust enrichment.” Canyon Ambulatory Surgery Ctr. v. SCF Arizona, 225 Ariz. 414, 422, ¶ 29, 239 P.3d 733, 741 (App. 2010). The appellate court confirmed that the plaintiffs may measure the reasonable value of their services either by demonstrating “the fair market value of their services” or “the actual cost to them to provide the services, plus a reasonable rate of return.” Id. Ms. Verdier stated: “With the supreme court’s decision to deny review, this now holds as the standard for cases like this.”

In reviewing Judge Burke’s conclusions, the appellate court affirmed the trial court’s reliance on the undisputed evidence that Canyon accepts 30% or less from 82% of its payors and El Dorado accepts less than 24% from 89% of its payors. Id. at 423, ¶ 31, 239 P.3d at 742. Stated differently, Canyon accepts less than 30 cents on the dollar from most of its customers and El Dorado accepts less than 24 cents on the dollar from most. The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s conclusion that “the payments made by SCF, which exceeded 40% of the billed charges, were reasonable under the circumstances.” Id. at 423-424, ¶¶ 31, 34, 239 P.3d at 742-743.

Ms. Verdier, who argued the appeal on behalf of SCF, stated that “reasonableness has prevailed.” The Appellate Court rejected the Surgery Centers’ arguments at oral argument that their charges need not be subject to a review for reasonableness unless and until they are found to be “unconscionable.” Ms. Verdier argued that requiring a bill be “unconscionable” before it is required that it be “reasonable” is a preposterous notion and is pleased the appellate court rejected this notion in a published opinion.

The impact of the opinion reaches far beyond the $4.69M in dispute in the Canyon case. The parties had stipulated to try only those claims that were presented between March 31, 2003 and March 31, 2007. For those stipulated claims, SCF had paid $3.59M and the plaintiff surgery centers were seeking an additional $4.69M. By law, SCF is not permitted to direct injured workers away from certain facilities. Thus, despite this litigation, these two Surgery Centers have continued to treat SCF claimants, thereby increasing what they allege to be their “damages.”

Thus, the case has far reaching import beyond just the claims tried in July 2008. Indeed, the ruling has an impact even beyond the claims presented by these two non-contracted facilities. During the oral argument in the court of appeals, counsel for the Surgery Centers confirmed that there are facilities all over Arizona that are not subject to a fee schedule and that do not have contracts with workers’ compensation carriers that are watching this case. With its ruling, the appellate court has confirmed SCF’s right to subject its bills from non-contracted, non-fee scheduled providers to a reasonableness review. The savings to Arizona’s employers who must pay for workers’ compensation insurance as a result of this ruling are significant.

Mr. Worischeck commented: “The court’s ruling strikes a blow to health care providers who seek to impose their unreasonable charges on Arizona's employers.”

Calling All Golfers

The AADC sponsored, Barry Fish Memorial Golf Tournament - April 30th

The AADC is a group of 800 plus lawyers practicing mainly in the area of civil litigation defense. The AADC is the voice of the civil defense bar.

The flagship event of the AADC is the Barry Fish Memorial Golf Tournament benefitting ALS. This year's tournament is coming up next Saturday, April 30^th. The tournament is named after Barry Fish, a former member of the AADC. Barry practiced law at Lewis & Roca for many years and unfortunately fell victim to ALS at a young age. The AADC has taken up the cause and raised over $100,000.00 for ALS research and treatment through this tournament over the past 16 years.

This year, the tournament is being held at McCormick Ranch Golf Club on Hayden Road in Scottsdale, which is conveniently located for many of you.

Our goal is to fill the field this year, and raise more money for ALS than ever before. We are off to a great start, but need your help to accomplish our goal. As of this writing, we have 100 golfers, mostly lawyers, committed to play. We need 144 golfers to fill the field. That is only 11 foursomes.

If you can't play, there are other options: a sponsorship; or the donation of a silent auction item or money. A sponsorship might be a good way to take advantage of a focused marketing opportunity.

We have enclosed a brochure that contains all the information.

Tournament Brochure & Registration Form

Please contact Debbie Hanson at admin@azadc.org to sign up your foursome or yourself (we can pair you up), to donate a silent auction prize or to make a monetary donation.

We would really appreciate your participation in the "Fish!"

Thank you.

Rick Righi, AADC President

Attorney At Law Magazine - April Edition

Attorney at Law Magazine

The April edition of Attorney at Law Magazine just hit newstands. The online version of the Magazine can be found here.

As always, I feature a different website and customer testimonial on the back cover of the magazine. This month I featured my long time client Robert Kleinschmidt and his medical malpractice website.

Normally I write a column on Internet marketing. However, this month the Magazine did a feature story on the work that I do instead. I gave the writer, Sue O'Donnell, a number of clients to interview for the story. Regrettably that also included funnyman Bill Black - who couldn't help himself....

Alex Morris: Serving the Arizona Legal Market with Passion and Knowledge

“You hear so much about Alex Morris, you expect someone resembling Superman to walk in the office,” said attorney Bill Black. “But he turns out to be a down-to-earth guy with his

laptop half open as he walks in full of energy and with a power cord dangling.”

Morris sells a highly technical product (optimized legal websites) to a well-educated clientele (Arizona attorneys), but, as Black said, at first glance Morris does not fit most ideas of how a sales rep looks or acts. No expensive suits. No studied closing strategies. No focus on quotas or sales deadlines. Instead, Morris brings an in

tense passion to every client he contacts. “I have a passion not for what I’m selling, but for what it can accomplish for my clients,” Morris, marketing consultant for Findlaw, said in an interview. “The Internet is changing every day and my clients expect me to stay on top of it so they can concentrate on what they do best – practice law.”

He isn’t the person central casting would choose to play Superman or even Super Sales Rep. But according to Black (general practice, Law Offices of William D. Black, Phoenix and Scottsdale), “He works hard to capture the personalities and practices of each client and turn that into a unique marketing approach. He has so much energy and accomplishes so much that when he leaves you want to say, ’Who was that masked man?’”

Another client, family law attorney Scott David Stewart (Law Offices of Scott David Stewart, Phoenix), said, “The bottom line is Alex genuinely cares about his clients’ success. If a particular product doesn’t work, he’ll find one that does work. He relentlessly searches through market trends to find the right solution for a client.” The words “relentless,” “obsessive” and “energetic” come up frequently when Morris is mentioned, as well as his commitment to build long-term relationships rather than work for a quick sale. He credits his twin brother Andrew for showing him the importance of building relationships. While Alex was playing basketball at West Point, his brother Andy was already involved in sales. “Andy got into the business world right out of high school and quickly moved to sales,” Alex said. “He always had a quiet professionalism, a genuine empathy for his clients, and a thorough knowledge of the medical systems he was selling and how those systems could work for doctors’ offices and hospitals.”

Alex and Andy both had a near-obsessive dedication to work right out of the starting gate. While Andy Morris started a business career, Alex Morris played on the United States Military Academy’s basketball team. As the point guard, he was at the center of action and knew his teammates depended on him to know the plays, handle the ball well, and keep the game moving. His West Point coach Dino Gaudio (now an analyst for ESPN) said, “He was a terrific leader and led by example.” He came to practice early and stayed late. “West Point athletes have a lot of demands to meet. They carry 17 to 20 semester hours in academics, they have incredibly demanding requirements within their company, and their sport is incredibly demanding. He played through a lot of injuries and gave our team the personality of toughness.”

After graduating from West Point with a degree in political science, Morris served as an Army officer. As he thought about what he wanted to do in civilian life, he didn’t want to be in sales at first, but he admired the way his brother approached sales as a way to create success for his clients. Alex Morris worked in the medical sales field and then, five years ago, joined FindLaw. He quickly set a challenging pace for a team of 150 marketing consultants nationwide. His manager, Jason O’Neil, said, “He’s the thought leader of the sales force and a huge resource to me and my team. The sales force migrates to him for knowledge and assistance.”

In fact, Alex maintains 7 design BLOGs which are used by attorneys and consultants across the country to use to From his first day at FindLaw, Morris, now 36, demonstrated his obsession to know everything possible about legal websites. Then and now, he studies websites nationwide, collecting traffic data on spreadsheets, making connections, drawing conclusions, rechecking the data. According to O’Neil, he has photographic recall of that data. This extraordinary attention to every detail serves his clients well, as he puts what he has learned to work on their websites. His clients and FindLaw know they can count on Morris’s extensive databases and instant recall of seemingly obscure data. Bankruptcy attorney Mari Jo Clark (Clark Law Offices, Phoenix) recalls how she explained her vision for what she wanted her new site to look like. “Alex selected a FindLaw designer whose style he knew would be a good fit for what I wanted. Thanks to Alex and his team, I receive compliments from clients on a near daily basis, saying that my website was the main reason for choosing my law firm.”

Morris works closely with his clients to make sure their websites bring new clients to their law firms – and ensure the websites continue to perform at a high rate year after year. That has paid off for his clients, for Morris and for FindLaw. For the fifth year, he’s on track to be the company’s top rep measured in terms of new sales, percent of quota met and retention. He is most proud of the fact that 60 percent of his new sales come from existing clients. However others may define him, Morris sees his reputation as a result of plain old hard work – work he loves. “I like the satisfaction of figuring something out, of finding solutions that help my clients be successful. No one studies what constitutes an effective legal website as compulsively as I do, and I have gained insights into what impacts ranking on Internet search engines and what drives traffic to a website.”

Another factor that keeps him visiting clients’ law firms, consulting with his FindLaw colleagues and studying website data for an average 80 hours a week: “I work with a lot of smart people, and I have great respect for their profession, their intellect and the legal work they do.” Morris shares what he knows with his clients. His websites and blog postings are a resource to his clients and anyone else who reads them. At his blog (http://www.azlawyermarketing.com/), he posts his Attorney at Law columns and news about his clients. He also maintains 7 practice specific design BLOGs. For example, http://www.criminallaw-websites.com/, http://www.personalinjury-websites.com/, and http://www.businesslaw-websites.com/ show a catalog of legal websites nationwide. His monthly column in Attorney at Law magazine covers a wide range of website-related topics in an effort to educate and inform lawyers. Subjects have included marketing focus, search engine optimization, website content, website design, blog writing and other topics aimed at creating and maintaining effective legal websites.

In writing his column and his blog, he relies on his own experience as well as the knowledge of his FindLaw colleagues. “At our Minnesota headquarters, we have creative and technical professionals who focus all their work on creating legal websites,” Morris said. “The amount of dedicated legal website experience in one building is astounding. I can present their work to my clients with complete confidence.” Morris is meticulous in his research and attention to detail to ensure that attorneys’ marketing dollars gain a maximum return on investment. “In any economy, attorneys cannot afford to make a mistake with their marketing budgets. Thanks to the research I do, I am confident I can present a prioritized list of solutions for any practice area or client need.”

Edmundo Robaina, a partner in the Phoenix law firm of Robaina & Kresin, PLLC, has been a client of Morris’s for nearly four years. “We do employment law, and we get many, many more inquiries now through our website than we did before we began working with Alex. “He’s got a lot of knowledge about Internet marketing and he sells a great product, but he also adds a lot of value because he teaches his clients, too. He’s got great customer service skills and he’s very, very good at what he does.”

The respect is mutual between Morris and his law firm clients. He modeled his focus of building relationships and working for his clients’ success on his brother’s example. When Andrew died from cancer six years ago, Morris was struck by how many of his brother’s clients made the trip to his funeral. “It was a great testimony to his sales approach and clarified to me what is truly important in life.” Family holds a central place in Morris’s life. When he isn’t with clients, he is working from his home office where he can share his time with his wife, Heather, and their three children, Samantha, 9, Casey, 7 and Evan, 5.

**Special Thanks to the 18 firms that contributed to this article or allowed the magazine to use the image of their website in the piece: Bade & Baskin, Beale Micheaels & Slack, Beresky & Fish, Bredemann & McFarlane, Byrne & Shaw, Clark Law Offices, Crossman Law Offices, Joseph McDaniel, Morris Hall & Kinghorn, O. Joseph Chornenky, Plattner Verderame, Raymond Slomski, Rebecca L. Owen, Righi Hernandez, Robaina & Kresin, Sanders Parks, Scott David Stewart, Surrano Law Office, Wendy Raquel Hernandez, William Black,

Gaetano Testini Runs for Arizona Bar Board of Governors

I am proud to announce that one of my clients is running for State Bar Board of Governors in District 6. Gaetano Testini is a partner with Wilmer Testini, a Phoenix workers compensation and social security disability law firm. Below is Guy's open letter to the members of the Arizona Bar

My name is Gaetano Testini, but many know me as Guy. Between May 2 and May 16 you will have the opportunity to vote for the State Bar Board of Governors. This year you will be able to vote electronically for the first time. I ask for your vote.

Pledge

My promise is to never vote for a dues increase and to work diligently to make sure the collective funds that the State Bar spends from our dues are spent wisely. I promise to be available to address your concerns regarding the State Bar. I oppose random audits of trust accounts. I will work to ensure the new disciplinary procedures are fair to attorneys as well as the public.

Throughout my years of service on State Bar committees and in the community I have acquired the experience necessary to succeed on the Board of Governors. In order to provide some insight into my experience I have listed my State Bar and community service.

State Bar Service

· Appointments Committee – currently in second term

· CLE Committee – two terms

· Workers’ Compensation CLE Committee

· Annual Convention

· Los Abogados – Vice-President; Val Cordova Scholarship and Endowment Chair; Newsletter Editor; Cordova Scholarship Golf Committee Chair

Community Service

· Gonzaga School of Law Dean’s Advisory Committee – currently hold an executive position

· I Integrated Medical Services Health Foundation – Vice-President

· Grand Canyon Council Boy Scouts of America Pack 64 Den 2 Leader

· St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Litchfield Park – Legal Advisor

· City of Goodyear Youth Flag- Football Coach

· City of Litchfield Park Youth Soccer Coach

Here is some personal information about me and my legal work history.

Personal History

I came to Arizona for undergraduate school in 1987. I worked two years as a corrections officer at ASPC Perryville. In 1995 I was involved in a car accident which resulted in limited range of motion in my left arm, and made it impossible to return to work at Perryville. I married shortly thereafter in June of 1996. Once I recovered, I went to Gonzaga School of Law in Spokane Washington. In 2000 I returned to Arizona to practice law. In 2003 our son Dante was born.

Legal Work History

During law school I interned at the Spokane office of the Washington Attorney General working on WISHA cases (State OSHA), habeas corpus cases and sexually violent predator civil commitment cases. Following graduation I worked at a firm that handled workers’ compensation and social security disability cases. After two years at the firm, I left with two other associates to start our own firm handling the same type of cases. Currently there are two of us at Wilmer and Testini.

Summary

My diverse work experience provides me a unique set of skills. Running a small private firm affords me not only the flexibility in scheduling necessary to be on the Board of Governors, but a perspective missing from the current make-up of the Board of Governors. Further, as a small businessman I understand the importance of value. Since Arizona is a mandatory membership Bar, it is important to make sure you are receiving the best value for your money. Please vote for me as your District 6 representative.

If there is any more information that you need, or if I can provide any assistance, please feel free to contact me at Gtesini@wmtlegal.com or call me at 602-532-0500.

Thank you for considering me. I’d be honored to have your support.

Gaetano “Guy” Testini

Arizona Cardnial Tickets For Sale

Cardnial Tickets For Sale - Amazing Seats!

Share four Arizona Cardnial season tickets with Bill Black. Location: Section 110, Seats 7 through 10 (40 yard line, West Side, Row 22 - Behind Cardnials bench. Please call Bill Black to discuss price (Face Value) 602-228-0328. Will sell two seats for full season or rotate games to sell four.

Steve Leshner Featured in Phoenix New Times

Steve Leshner - Phoenix Injury Attorney Featured in Phoenix New Times

Congrats to attorney Steve Leshner for some crusading work in the courtroom. The complete Phoenix New Times article can be found here:

Daniel Gukeisen Convicted

Dan Gukeisen Trial Ends with a Conviction

Phoenix bankruptcy attorney, Daniel Ray Gukeisen, was convicted yesterday (4/6) in Maricopa County Superior Court, cause no. CR2009-005838, of manslaughter in the stabbing death of a 22 year-old ASU student in September 2008. Dan was not present for the reading of the verdict and there is now a warrant out for his arrest.

Dan has been a client of mine for close to 5 years. Before this incident I knew Dan as an even tempered and calm individual. I could never imagine that he would be capable of what he was accused of doing. That said, after an exhaustive 3 year investigation and week long trial, he was found guilty of Manslaughter - Non Dangerous. This despite a rigorous criminal defense put up by renowned attorney Larry Debus.

****Update- Dan Gukeisen turned himself in last night 4/8/2011 and is now in police custody

Warner Angle Hallam Jackson & Formanek Moves Offices

Warner Angle Moves to Camelback Corridor

Congrats to Warner Angle on successfully moving their office to 2555 E. Camelback Rd Ste 800. The boutique Phoenix litigation firm now takes up the entire 8th floor of the famous Esplanade V Building.

57 Clients Named to "Arizona's Finest Lawyers" -

Arizona's Finest Lawyers:

Recently I have gotten numerous questions from clients regarding "Arizona's Finest Lawyers" and whether they should purchase a Sustaining Membership Profile for $400/year.

Azfinestlawyers.org was launched in 2006. The attorney led organization's mission was to "identify the best among us" and provide Arizona legal consumers with access to the very best attorneys in the State. The new website was launched as an "alternative to traditional attorney advertising" which they felt had "reached an all time low".

I saw two issues with their goal of being an alternative to lawyer advertising. For one, to be considered a viable alternative, the organization had to be visible to the public. Besides a bit of press when the site was launched - the website and the organization was and continues to be virtually invisible to the general public. Even today, their site is not optimized. The other issue is access. As much as some disdain lawyer advertising, it does meet a community need. Of the original list of 200 attorneys - I doubt anyone billed out at less than $400/hour. Even the elite contingency fee lawyers were inaccessible to most people given their extremely high threshold for taking a case.

In the last year, however, the organization has shifted focus - opening up membership to the top 10% of Arizona lawyers and seeing themselves as more of a "validation authority". In this regard the organization has a lot of potential. Every day people use search engines to validate an attorney by simply typing in that attorney's name and seeing what comes up. We call this reputation management. It would be useful then if an attorney profile in http://www.azfinestlawyers.com/ would actually come up on the first page if you typed in their name. However, the structure of the website currently prevents that from happening. Even after searching for an attorney with a unique name, their Sustaining profile is not showing up in a Google search. In addition, the site seems to give no preference to the Sustaining profiles in their listings. Finally, since you can't search by practice areas, the website does not provide a very helpful user experience. Once these issues are fixed, the "Sustaining membership profiles" and the website itself will be a powerful marketing tool for its members.

As with any selective list of attorneys - the Finest Lawyers list leaves off scores of truly excellent and deserving attorneys. For example - it is hard to fathom how proven trial attorneys like Howard Snyder or Craig Knapp could be left off any "finest lawyer" list or how any discussion of the best divorce lawyers in Phoenix could leave off S. Alan Cook. This may be due to the fact that AFL used the State Board of Legal Specialization as a primary means of assembling the expanded list. While being a Board Certified Specialist is a great achievement, it doesn't necessarily you are one of the top 10% attorneys in Arizona. In fact, most attorneys recognize that there are some "Specialists" that don't pass the snicker test from their peers. The other issue with relying on Legal Specialization is that it precludes numerous practice areas where certification as a specialist does not exist and over-represents other practice areas. Take Susan Martin who practices in a niche area where there is no board of specialization. Susan is one of the preeminent ERISA class action attorneys in the entire Country. She has secured verdicts and judgments against some of the biggest employers in Arizona, recovered many tens of millions of dollars for her clients and received the 2nd highest score on her Arizona bar exam when she took it. You would be hard pressed to find a more competent jurist anywhere, yet she is conspicuously absent from the Finest Lawyers list.

It should be noted that there are no perfect select list of attorneys. Most attorney ranking sites have a nominating process that favors established attorneys in large firms.

With all that said, the selectees for "Arizona's Finest Lawyers" that I work with are indeed outstanding attorneys and I am personally honored to help represent so many of them online:

Bankruptcy: Joseph Mcdaniel, Donald W. Powell Civil Litigation: Lloyd Andrews, Jerry Angle, James R. Broening, Robert Bruno, Michael J. Frazelle, Richard Gramlich, William F. Haug, Stephen Jackson, Hon. Thomas Kleinschmidt, Donald Kunz, Chuck Ononfry, Steven Plitt, Jon Schneider, John Storer, Joseph B. Swan, Harold H. Swenson, Donald Wilson, Terrance P. Woods, Criminal Law: Joseph Chornenky, Bruce Feder, Rachelle Ferraro, Craig Gillespie, Thomas A. Gorman, William Foreman, Howard Snader, Estate Planning: Thomas W. Bade, Morris Kaplan, Family Law: William Bishop, Charles Hallam, Kent Winsberg, Personal Injury/Medmal: Danny Adelman, Mike Beale, Robert Bohm, Louis Diesel, Paul Englander, Mack T. Jones, Stephen I. Leshner, Barry Lewin, Jon Micheaels, Jim Page, Richard Plattner, William Sandweg III, Thom Slack, Nick Vakula, Frank Verderame Real Estate: James F. Byrne, Michael J. Curley, Stephen C. Earl, Kathleen Fox, James Nearhood, Lynne A. Lagarde Workers Compensation: Avery Crossman, Harlan Crossman, Charles Wilmer,