Please, if you get the Los Angeles Magazine February 2008 issue, here is a WARNING! Over the years there has been this huge dog and pony show called “Super Lawyers.” It is a rating and feeding frenzy with referrals from other lawyers about this one and that one, and the magazine does “research” and POOF! They give us a Super Lawyer…what a bunch of bullshit! They cover all specialties of law from soup to nuts — we are concerned with the Family Law Bunch, and oh, are they there!
This is a huge money making enterprise for the magazine, and a huge ego booster to those who will spend thousands of their own dollars putting in big color pictures of themselves and their firms. Let’s cut the BS, this is nothing but very clever advertising shtick and self-promotion! Look at these pages and pages of SUPER LAWYERS, certainly if you visit a law office and see the color photo and the “Super Lawyer” title all framed and pretty you might say, “Wow! I have a super lawyer”…but when you see the media slush fund that generated that BS, I think you would look at it as I do. Pleeeze!
Stacy D. Phillips, Esquire nailed the cover for this coveted piece this year, and that little page had to cost as much as a nicely equipped Camry. And is she more Super than the others? Silly, of course not — she has a lot of money and is not worried about spending it! You gotta love this “barracuda”…again this is a title of respect, Barracuda, Sharks, Lion Fish, are all very aggressive fish,and for lawyers the “shark” thing has been used for thousands of years. You know the big ones eat the little ones and scare the bejeezus out of the others…on the other hand, look at the photo!
All the heavy-hitting family law practitioners (divorce lawyers) are here: Lisa Meyer, Dana Lowy, Doreen Olson, Stacy Phillips, Manley Fried , Mel Goldsman, Neal Hersh, Joe Mannis, Judy Bogen, Cary Goldstein. Now these lawyers spent some money on their ads…not as much as Ms. Phillips as she and her firm are everywhere in the pages that follow the BIG one on the front…this could also be called the “Super Rich Lawyers!” I want to hear what they charge per hour, how much they made for the year, how big their homes are and the cars they drive, and do they validate? Some of the best were under the “honorable mention” category — you know just black type, line after line — and the names there, Sorrell Trope, Michael Trope, Patrick Decarolis, Stephen Kolodny, Laura Wasser, Ron Rale, now these are some of the biggest names in the business. They did not spend loads of cash on this “super lawyer” silliness…they did not have to! They are already “Super,” as are many that are mentioned in the start of this paragraph. And I know you are all waiting, and here it comes…there are several that are mentioned on this list that are as much as a Super Lawyer as I am a porn star! And many who are not mentioned at all, and they, as I often have stated, are divorce lawyers in name only…the ones who would need a map to the court house, and would not know on what side of the table to stand!
Again my friends, be smart and take a deep breath, and as one of my confidants told me, “Drink enough gin and everything will look better.” When choosing your divorce lawyer, pay attention to Desperateexes.com. And when you are not sure, send me a name and see what my take is on them…I cannot be everywhere all the time, so you, my readers, throw me a line now and then and we’ll keep expanding our own ratings.