Super Lawyers in the News: Making a Murderer, Evidence of Innocence, a $500 Million Settlement and the New York Court of Appeals
Some of the most newsworthy cases in the country feature Super Lawyers and Rising Stars selectees. Whether presenting a case to the SCOTUS, representing the wrongly accused or fighting for victim's settlements, here are a couple of the biggest stories showcasing selectees from the last couple months.
Seth Waxman - Waxman, a Super Lawyers selectee since 2007, represented Brandon Dassey to the Supreme Court, which considered whether to hear Dassey's appeal. As a 16-year-old, Dassey confessed to joining his uncle in the murder of Teresa Halbach, which was seen by millions in the Netflix documentary "Making a Murderer." Waxman has experience winning cases at the SCOTUS level, winning a case in 2005 that barred the use of the death penalty in cases involving juveniles. Take a look at the case.
Ben Crump - Known nationally for representing the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Stephon Clark, Crump will host "Evidence of Innocence," a new TV show on TVOne. The show will tell the stories of four wrongly convicted people who were arrested and jailed for at least a decade before being freed. "I'm trying to impact the larger society about these larger matters so they can be aware when they go into the courtroom as jurors," said Crump in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat. Crump, a civil rights attorney in Tallahassee, Florida and a five-time Super Lawyers listee, was featured in the 2015 Florida Super Lawyers Magazine. Learn more about "Evidence of Innocence."
John Manly - Manly serves as lead attorney representing most of the sexual abuse victims of former U.S.A. Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor, Larry Nassar. In May, Michigan State settled with 332 victims for $500 million, but the story is back in the news after it was reported that interim MSU President John Engler accused Manly of paying a kickback to lead plaintiff Rachael Denhollander. Engler made the comment in April during an email exchange with Carol Viventi, a Michigan State vice president and special counsel. Now, 126 Nassar victims have signed a letter criticizing Engler's behavior and asking the Michigan State University Board of Trustees to replace him as interim president. Read the full story.
Joshua Kelner - Appearing before the State of New York Court of Appeals, Kelner got a winning ruling that plaintiffs in comparative negligence cases need not bear the "double burden" of disproving their own negligence to win on a summary judgement. According to the New York Law Journal, the court's 4-3 ruling clears up an issue that has perplexed New York courts for decades.
Kelner, a three-time Super Lawyers listee at Kelner & Kelner, appeared for Carlos Rodriguez, who was working in a Sanitation Department garage in Manhattan when he suffered injuries which rendered him permanently disabled. The case was remanded to the First Department to address the issue of liability, but Kelner told the New York Law Journal that the the majority's ruling provides a "blueprint for the courts to follow" when faced with similar scenarios.
Access "Sharply Divided Court of Appeals Removes Hurdle for Tort Plaintiffs to Gain Summary Judgment" to read more about the case.
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Be Consistent Online and in Print
Print provides an opportunity to reach a captive legal consumer audience, but you can't simply throw together a hurried ad and count it a success.
It may seem obvious, but consistency is a necessity when it comes to pairing print and online legal marketing. Readers of your firm's marketing in a magazine or newspaper are ready and willing to learn about you. In fact, 88 percent of readers understand and retain information better in print, and research by the Association of Magazine Media noted that magazines rank first in keeping a consumer's attention.
Print is still an important piece to any marketing strategy, which is why we put together the Super Lawyers playbook, Finding a Place for Print in Your Law Firm's Marketing.
Don't waste that attention by providing potential customers with varied and contradictory information or feelings about your firm. Because your print advertising serves your greater marketing strategy, a cohesive messaging with your web presence and social media platforms is needed to strengthen both paths. In addition, Super Lawyers and Rising Stars selectees who advertised in their state's magazine saw three times as many page views to their Super Lawyers online profile in 2017 compared to those without a magazine advertisement.
First things first, your law firm's branding must be consistent across all of your marketing properties. That may seem intuitive, but it's not always followed. If your firm is inconsistently represented wherever potential clients are looking for you, it speaks of confusion and inattention to detail. That could cost your firm a future customer. It does take time to manage consistency, but it's well worth the effort. It isn't overstating to say unreliable information erodes confidence and impacts public perception.
Another often overlooked part of maintaining brand integrity centers on the tone of your law firm's content and the look and feel of print ads. To avoid reader confusion, the content on your website should share messaging and appearance with wherever you are referenced online. Each brand has its own voice and tone, in the same way every person has the same general speech pattern. Each of us has our own voice, which doesn't change, but our tone changes depending on context. Your law firm is no different. Make sure you have an established voice and your tone aligns across marketing avenues.
The quality, consistency and professionalism of content from your firm influences potential clients. Make sure readers easily understand your ability to solve their problems, trust who you say you are and compel them to contact you.
To learn more about how print can bring in clients, read the Super Lawyers playbook, Finding a Place for Print in Your Law Firm's Marketing.
From the Vault -- "Power Player"
In the 2012 edition of Washington Super Lawyers Magazine, we asked Perkins Coie business litigator David J. Burman to discuss one of the most famous cases in his career. In 2005, election officers and political scientists converged on Chelan County Courthouse to debate which candidate prevailed in the 2004 gubernatorial election.
An excerpt:
Spurred by the Democrats' hair-thin margin of victory, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi's supporters had pored over election returns and found disturbing instances of sloppy work-lost ballots, people who voted twice, votes by convicted felons whose eligibility was questioned. They sued, arguing that, if you excluded illegal and dubious voters, Rossi had actually won the day.
They managed to get the case tried in Wenatchee, which is famed for its production of apples and Republicans, and in front of a judge who had overturned a local election a few years earlier.
"It was a fascinating case," Burman says. "One advantage was that, when it involves elections, it's going to be resolved pretty quickly. So you get an intense trial, but there's going to be an outcome."
Burman's role was to focus on the Republicans' statistical argument. Elections are important events managed by workers who can make mistakes. The Republicans recruited some high-powered statisticians who assembled an argument that the errors occurred disproportionately in heavily Democratic King County; that, if you threw out votes by ineligible felons and others, the result would change the outcome.
Much came down to Burman's cross-examination of the Republican expert witnesses, including a California college professor whose statistical theory was central to their case.
"I never studied statistics in college, and I've always wished I had," Burman says. "So I'm sort of self-taught. A big part of it was reading what the witness had written and looking for inconsistencies."
He found them. In court, he repeatedly apologized for his lack of sophistication on the subject, luring the professor into his trap. "I felt he was very dismissive of me," Burman says. "He could not believe this lawyer was going to attack his work. And he wouldn't look at me."
When the time was right, as the witness peered toward the Republican lawyers for help, Burman pounced. "Please quit looking at them," he barked. "Look at me and answer my questions."
Read the entire article and check out the 2018 issue of Washington Super Lawyers Magazine.