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University of Richmond Law Review

2002

University of Richmond Law Review

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Foreword, William E. Spruill Jan 2002

Foreword, William E. Spruill

University of Richmond Law Review

This, the ninth annual Allen Chair Symposium issue of the University of Richmond Law Review, includes four spirited articles centered around the Symposium's 2001 topic: Lawyer Advertising in the Electronic Age. Rodney A. Smolla, in The Puffery of Lawyers, argues that there are many reasons why bar regulators around the nation should cease restricting lawyer advertising in the absence of evidence that such puffery confuses or misleads consumers. In Change is in the Air: Lawyer Advertising and the Internet, Louise L. Hill examines the current and future status of lawyers using cyberspace to promote their services. William E. Hornsby, Jr., …


The Puffery Of Lawyers, Rodney A. Smolla Jan 2002

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 …