FC: Disbarred arizona lawyer goes on the Net

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Sounds like a smart move to me, as long as this guy doesn't lie to his
clients about getting disbarred. Lawyers are cartel creatures anyway and
try to keep down competition by using the government to punish anyone
else's -- say, a real experienced paralegal's -- ability to give legal
advice. Where's Joel Klein when we need him to break up this cartel? Oh,
wait. he's a lawyer. :) --Declan]



> Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 12:42:30 -0500
> Subject: disbarred arizona lawyer on the net
> From: "Bob Van Voris" <vanvoris () amlaw com>
> To: declan () well com
>
>
>       The Wizard of Oz needed a machine to inspire confidence in his 
> abilities. Bob Hirschfeld has the Internet. Mr.
>       Hirschfeld is a disbarred Phoenix lawyer who cruises World Wide Web
> chat rooms, styling himself the
>       Wizard of Laws and advertising Lexstrat, his new Web site that
> answers legal questions for $24.95 and up,
>       payable by credit card.
>
>       As Mr. Hirschfeld tells it, his aggressive advocacy on behalf of
> fathers in custody disputes caused Arizona's
>       bar and judiciary to run him out of the profession on trumped-up
> charges.
>
>       His numerous critics, including a unanimous Arizona Supreme Court,
> say that Mr. Hirschfeld richly deserved
>       disbarment for overbilling and abandoning clients.
>
>       The one thing that no one disputes, though, is that since 1995, the
> 58-year-old Mr. Hirschfeld has not been
>       permitted to practice law in Arizona or anywhere else. The surprising
> fact that he is able to offer legal advice
>       on the Internet, more freely than if he were in good standing with
> the bar, has a lot to do with the slowness of
>       bar officials nationwide to catch up to the Internet and with a quirk
> in Arizona law that leaves the unauthorized
>       practice of law largely unregulated.
>
>
> http://www.ljx.com/cgi-bin/f_cat?prod/ljextra/data/texts/1999_1107_03.html
> --
>
>
> Bob Van Voris
> Staff Reporter
> THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
> 105 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor
> New York, NY 10016
>
> (212) 313-9119
> (800) 537-2128
> FAX: (212) 481-7923
> E-MAIL: vanvoris () amlaw com



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