e•thos | noun
a Greek word meaning “character” that is used to describe one’s guiding beliefs or ideals; one of Aristotle’s three primary modes of persuasion which focuses on the authority and credibility of the speaker
Some textbooks would tell you there are several different business models in the law game and whether you did the reading or not the professors could explain what differentiates one from another. There are volume firms that seek to maximize the number of clients and cases they work on; there are bespoke specialty firms that only take very specific cases involving a very specific area of law; there are no-fees-unless-we-win injury firms that work only on a contingency fee basis; there are Biglaw firms consolidated from many mergers of prior firms with dozens to hundreds of corporate lawyers who are all required to bill thousands of hours each year; there are firms representing only this side of cases and other firms representing only that side instead.
But no matter what the business model is, we think our role as attorneys within the practice of law ultimately comes down to one simple job description, all day, every day: solve problems. For each client in every case, that’s the only thing our office is ever trying to do.
Far too often, selecting an attorney to work with is an almost impossible consumer decision. Nearly all law firm websites contain the same template of basic information telling you:
where an attorney’s degrees came from
what he did in law school
maybe some highlights about her career arc and other important-sounding things
an important-sounding summary of their current practice area(s)
(most of the time it couldn’t matter less)
(supremely irrelevant)
(clerked for a judge = “smart”
worked on [name-dropped case case] = “skilled”)
(nobody does them all)