Shockingly Stupid Anti-Semitic Attorney Ad Right Across the Street from the Courthouse
I live in a condominium across the street from the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I enjoy living downtown, near my office, Las Olas Blvd, and of course, being across from the court is very convenient. The reason I am saying this, is that when I was driving home today, I saw the following bench directly across the street from the Courthouse.
Are you kidding me?
I have no idea what to say about this. I don't know what is more astounding --the chutzpah of putting this bench directly across the street from the main Courthouse, or the fact that anyone actually thinks that this is a good idea.
First of all, there's no such thing as the "Jewish American Bar Association."
Well, there is, but it was founded last year, on June 3, 2009, in Delaware. Go to the Delaware Secretary of State's website and do a search for "Jewish American Bar Association" or for File #4694550. They also registered as a foreign corporation doing business in Florida as the Jewish American Bar Association, Inc. Their President is one "Lisa Spitzer" and according to the Florida Bar Website, there is no one under that name licensed to practice law in Florida.
I did not call the number. Maybe I should have before posting, but I think the sign speaks for itself.
Furthermore, a quick Google found their website. It has no real information of who they are and what they do, just a load of crap. Among other nonsense they state, "The Jewish American Bar Association is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA)." I didn't realize that fake organizations could be a "member" of the ABA. I thought it was limited to human beings. Maybe I'm wrong.
So what the hell is this? I'm not sure, but it looks like a corporation founded by one Lisa Spitzer to exploit the stereotypical belief that a "Jewish" lawyer is somehow better. Trust me, I know a lot of great and crappy lawyers who are both Jewish and non-Jewish. They (meaning the "Jewish American Bar Association, Inc.") make money by charging "Jewish" lawyers a membership fee to be listed by the site, plus each lawyer has to pay them "a processing charge for each referral," which considering the fact that they are not members of the Florida Bar, violates Bar rules.
Let me put it this way. Any lawyer who actually signs up for this site, whether they are Jewish or not, is probably too stupid for you to trust with your important legal matters.
And if everything else isn't bad enough, I think the punctuation mark they wanted there is a question mark, not an exclamation point.
Sounds fishy to me.. You always wonder about these "referral services" .. The Florida Bar needs to start going after the lawyers for illegally sharing a fee with a non lawyer.
Lee,
Of course it's fishy!
But what amazes me more than anything else is the number of people who had to think, "hey, that's a good idea" in order for it to get this far. I'm less offended by the stereotypical assumption that Jewish lawyers are somehow better than I am by the pure charade of setting up a for profit referral company and pretending that it is some sort of fraternal organization.
Jim, it would be a question mark if they were asking if that was your preference, in which case they merely provide a referral service for people with an existing Jewish supremacy prejudice.
But, with the exclamation point the text is a command, telling you that even if you aren't a bigot, you ought to be.
Though really, I agree that they probably got the punctuation wrong, it's just that their mistake makes it slightly more offensive.
Let's pretend for a second that the Jewish American Bar Association was a legitimate enterprise. Is this not an effective ad? Can you picture anyone from the large elderly Jewish population in Miami being attracted to the concept of working with "one of their own"? I think this "old guard" is who the sign is really for.
Scott,
I dealt with this in the followup post. I don't think this is being marketing to the old guard.
http://www.sofloridaestateplanning.com/2010/09/articles/random/follow-up-on-the-prefer-a-jewish-lawyer-bench-ad/
http://yourjaba.com --- Check out this site.
Thomas,
I have, and I wrote about it both in this post and in the subsequent one. It's horrible and amusing at the same time.
Is this serious? What happened to the sign?