N ot very big law firms across the country are said to be devastated by a recent TechnoLawyer effort to enforce its trademark of “SmallLaw,” with some undersized law firms either preemptively shutting down or changing their descriptions to “eentsy weentsy law firm” or even “dinky law firm.”
Lawyerist, the popular law practice management website, recently brought the issue to light after it received a take-down notice from TechnoLawyer’s attorneys, requesting that Lawyerist remove content on its site that mentions the words “Small Law.” Taking a cue from recent Big Legal Brain practice management advice to outsource major legal decisions through online polls, Lawyerist is now asking its readers to weigh in on the take down request.
“To be honest, it’s a wake-up call for us, and it comes at a good time,” said Peter Ferdnutter, a partner in the not-very-big law firm of Ferdnutter & Jones in Tennessee. “With the popularity of the movie Gnomeo, we are now calling ourselves a ‘gnomish law firm,’ with a focus on family law and bankruptcy.”
A new cottage industry is also expected to develop around how best to describe a law firm with less than ten attorneys. Current popular descriptions include “subatomic” (for solo attorneys); “pocket-sized”; and “smaller than a bread box.” Turnip News has also implemented its own poll to determine how best to describe law firms that find themselves in the bantam or pee wee size range.
I voted for subatomic but I’m leading a write-in campaign for “Pee Wee.”
I would have voted for Mini-Me, but I didn’t see it on the list. Nor is there room for write-ins.Do BLB and Turnipnews hate democracy?
We are big believers in democracy. To show our support, we have added the category of Mini-Me and pre-populated it with 24 votes. We also added Pee Wee and some votes for that one as well. Finally, I really like Megasmall, so added that one as a personal favorite. Democracy rules!
So glad I didn’t have to go all Wisconsin