attorney's advertising

attorney's advertising n. the commercials which appear on television or crowd the yellow pages of the telephone book. Until the Supreme Court ruled (1977) that restriction on lawyer advertising was an abridgement of free speech, advertising by lawyers was illegal and cause for discipline or disbarment. One problem is that the size and cleverness of the ads are no indication of the quality of the talent, experience, integrity, or level of personal attention by the lawyers. It has been said that "the bigger the ad, the worse the attorney," but that is an exaggeration. Advertising has led to a "chain store" approach to law representation and the use of paralegals and green attorneys at low wages to handle high volume practices.