Legal Marketing & PR

?This Lawyer Needs A Kick In The Nuts?

By lawjobspipeline

So this is what we liked in the ABA Journal’s article about Susman Godfrey lawyer Stephen Susman and their ‘day in the life’ yarn about a $1000-an-hour attorney who kicks butt and knows it.  The article’s fine, if you like braggards who name and money drop like theres no tomorrow, but the comments were more interesting, like:

I  stopped reading at paragraph 15.  ?He?s a first rate hustler.” That?s just a bit too fluffy for me.

1. Posted by Mike - Feb 15, 2008 09:47 am CST

   ….  Yawn …..

2. Posted by Anon - Feb 15, 2008 09:56 am CST

   The ABA should cut out the crap like this.  Stories like this get around and give non-lawyers all the wrong ideas about being a lawyer.  Why would anybody want to read or write an article about such a d-bag anyway?  This guy needs a kick in the nuts.

3. Posted by Mark Pitchford - Feb 15, 2008 10:03 am CST

   At the behest of ABA staff, I read on:

   So this guy abuses everyone he comes in contact with, never actually works on any case, and charges a ton of money for it?  I can?t say I would be proud if that practice were mine.

   Although, there is a lesson there.  In the bit about the guy stealing a client from an IP firm; charge enough for your transactional work that you?re not trying to make up for anything with litigation work.

4. Posted by Jack Willis - Feb 15, 2008 10:03 am CST

   He sounds like a jerk.

 Susman runs a 90-lawyer firm, now working from the new, New York office.  His claim to fame and money is that he takes a share of the action on top of his hourly rate.  Revenues and profits are, the Journal says, “off the charts”.  He is a gorilla of a lawyer, now focusing on IP litigation.

Here’s what the Journal says abou the New York first anniversary party:

The guest list from November?s first-anniversary party for the New York office had plenty of Who?s Whos. It was, says a guest from Cahill, the most amazing and impossible mix of defense and plaintiffs bar imaginable in NYC at one 250-person fete.

?Only Susman could pull this off,? the guest says.

It was catered to the max. By the Veuve Clicquot champagne stood bottles of Lone Star beer?an unexceptional brew, but a great label for the occasion.

There was Stanley Arkin of Arkin Kaplan, Bernie Nussbaum from Wachtell; and chatting for a long time by a table set with caviar and Russian vodka in Susman?s glass-front private office were Mel Weiss and Ted Wells.

(People noticed. Weiss has been indicted by the feds; and a former partner, Bill Lerach, had recently pleaded guilty. A prominent client of Wells, Scooter Libby, got off not long ago without serving a day in prison?albeit via commutation from the White House.)

He may need a kick in the nuts.  But getting near Stephen Susman is more likely to result in more kick-ass from the man himself.  Takes all sorts in this business.

Full post as published by Lawyer Marketing Blog on February 20, 2008 (boomark / email).