While there were a number of attorneys who were able to read my sarcasm, there were a number of wonderful, ethical attorneys who thought I was out to smear the legal industry.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

What I did learn was an incredibly valuable lesson which I already knew but had forgotten.   Sarcasm is easily misconstrued on the internet.

As someone who teaches Attorneys how to get more clients, I also teach that sarcasm is not always appreciated and that you have to know your audience.

It is something that I should have remembered when writing the post.

To the two attorneys who reminded me of that – Thank you.

To all of the attorneys who have, and are, currently out there committing crimes against the public and their clients, thank you:

• who have raided their clients escrow accounts to pay for lavish lifestyles
• who have billed clients for the most ridiculous items and amounts
• who have made unwanted sexual advances towards clients
• who have committed Identity theft
• who have artificially inflated the prices of stock
• who have created phony billings
• who have inflated grades to get jobs
• who have used client’s information to obtain credit cards
• who sold his name to a debt collection company so they could use it to harass and threaten consumers
• and for practicing without a license

This list could go on and on, and of course, my expression of gratitude is entirely sarcastic.

The reason why I have chosen to write on this subject on a Rainmaking Blog is because I believe that Rainmaking and all of the choices you will make for your life are affected by your system of ethics.  We all know right from wrong, legal from illegal.  Remember one of the first things that we were taught in law school:  “Ignorance of the law excuses no man” (John Selden)

There is a well used and most cliché saying which does and will continue to populate this blog over and over:  “People do business with people they like and trust.”

People are not as stupid as many would like to think.  I am of the opinion that people are a lot smarter than we give them credit for.  People really do have natural “bullsh*t” detectors.  While we hear many stories of people who have gotten away for long periods of time with unethical and illegal behavior, eventually they will get caught.  Sometimes you can pull one over on them, but for the most part people have this “gut feeling” that they are being taken advantage of.  In addition, you cannot get away with this for very long in this day and age.

Thanks to the internet, people are now endowed with the power to do research on you.  They can take into account everything that is out there and burst every PR bubble you build.  One bad review can haunt you to the end of your days.

Rainmaking is about creating relationships.  If the relationships you create are based on lies it takes effort to continue to uphold these fabrications.   It also takes up time.  Keith Ferrazzi had a wonderful blog post: The Ultimate Time Management Principle which he learned from Jason Womack:  Always tell the truth.

Just be aware that if you lie, cheat, steal or commit any violation of ethics (even minor) you will (eventually) get caught.

Oh, and thanks for voluntarily thinning the number of attorneys out there so that the good, ethical ones can get clients.

Please feel free to make your appreciation known below – submit a comment or rant