Law Commons^™

The Puffery Of Lawyers, Rodney A. Smolla

University of Richmond Law Review

Lawyers advertise to attract clients. Politicians advertise to attract voters. Businesses advertise to attract customers. All of these advertisers advertise with a common subtext: choose me, because I'm better than the rest. Hire me, vote for me, buy my product, and good things will happen. The message may be blunt, explicit, direct, linear. But often it is not. The bludgeon is not the tool of choice in modem mass advertising. The message, more commonly, is presented with subtlety, often merely suggested, often presented with indirection, irony, camp, or comedy. Information as such is not the point. The stuff of modern …