
DATE: Monday, June 30, 1997                 TAG: 9706280088

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 

                                            LENGTH:  116 lines

GETTING HAMMERED WITH LAWYER ADS

IF YOU'VE BEEN watching TV of late, you probably know the answer to the following question: Getting insurance companies to pay people who have been injured is like . . .

Like what?

Like prying meat out of the mouths of starving wolves.

You knew that.

You knew that because you've been eyeballing an actor named Van Harris say so in a commercial for Lowell ``The Hammer'' Stanley, a Norfolk lawyer who promises in his ubiquitous TV spots to turn catastrophe into cash, disaster into dollars.

Stanley isn't the first local lawyer to troll for clients on television since 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that attorneys have the right to advertise.

He's simply the latest, and nobody has created a bigger buzz.

Who hasn't been talking about Lowell ``The Hammer'' Stanley?

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but since Stanley took to the airwaves, pledging to ``hammer the people who are the blame for your injuries,'' lawyers have been falling all over themselves to create catchy TV commercials.

Do you think it's a good idea for lawyers to advertise on TV? Or are you offended by their commercials?

Some lawyers use star power when they make their pitch.

Kalfus and Nachman brought in Robert Vaughn (Napoleon Solo of ``The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'') to talk up The Hurt Line. Tell the insurance companies you mean business, says dimple-chinned Vaughn.

Some use family.

In the commercial for Sacks & Sacks, the distinguished-looking Stanley Sacks appears with his son, Andrew, to say, ``For three generations, we've been winning money for injured people who might otherwise have settled for much less.''

Some use the team effort.

For Breit, Drescher and Breit, the approach is to bring on attorneys, paralegals, receptionists and investigators and morph them into one serious, sincere image of ``fighters who know how to win.''

Before Louis Joynes and Joel D. Bieber (``We'll come to your home, office or hospital'') broke up, they made goofy commercials with spaceships in them. And jingles.

The brothers Brad and Charlie Huffman urge viewers to forget the commercials with the silly names and the actors and hire them.

``What you see is what you get,'' say the brothers in law.

And then there is Stanley.

``Broken bones? Scars? Burns? Paralysis? We want to hammer the people who are to blame for your injuries, hammer the smug insurance companies. We want to hammer, hammer and hammer to get your money. We can't start hammering until you call.''

It wasn't his mother who gave him the middle name of ``Hammer,'' said Stanley. Really? It was the advertising agency in Denver that created the commercials, which he calls custom-made.

``They saw me as a tough, tough trial lawyer. They said, `Lowell, you are a hammer.' I'm certainly not milk toast,'' said Stanley.

He's 47, divorced, the father of a 10-year-old daughter. He hails from New Jersey. He studied law at Cornell University.

If you suggest that his commercials are annoying and tasteless, Stanley doesn't want to hear it. He says he is doing a public service by advertising on TV, by making it easy for people who don't know any lawyers to connect with one - Stanley.

The commercials are effective, he said, ``but I could survive without them. Most of my work comes from referrals.''

When Joynes sued Bieber, who did Bieber call to represent him? You guessed right. ``The Hammer.''

There are some lawyers in Hampton Roads who deplore the commercials - advertising in any form for the law profession. Richard G. Brydges, a Virginia Beach lawyer, told Marc Davis of The Virginian-Pilot staff that he considers the TV commercials ``personally reprehensible and demeaning to the profession.''

Another lawyer, who advertises heavily on the tube, told me he'd like to stop. ``But how can I?'' he said. ``In a nutshell, this is about name identification, getting your name out in front of the public. My competitors do it. So must I. I'd be happy if lawyers produced no ads at all.''

No lawyers on TV? That's how it was in the past. This is a new world of cut-thoat competition. Lawyers fill 84 of the Yellow Pages.

Lawyers have embraced radio and TV with nothing in the law books or in the journals of ethics to guide them except for this caveat from the Virginia State Bar: ``A lawyer shall not use false, fraudulent, misleading or deceptive statements or claims.''

While James McCauley, assistant bar counsel, admits he is offended by some of the ``I-can-get-you-cash-faster'' commercials, there is little the Virginia State Bar can do about the hammerin' and hollerin'.

The State Bar doesn't regulate taste, McCauley said.

Let's be dignified about this, McCauley says to the state's lawyers. He wonders how viewers react to the commercials. That's a cue for an Infoline poll.

At Breit Drescher and Breit, they had something dignified in mind when the firm called in local producer Jerry Davis of Davis and Co. to do the teamwork commercials. ``They wanted something with class and credibility,'' Jones said.

To accomplish that, Jones packed off the BD&B office staff - attorney Jeffrey Breit, paralegal Brandy Wentz, receptionist Chery Thompson, to name a few - to Richmond to film two commercials. ``We didn't want a circus,'' Davis said.

What BD&B got is two quiet commercials in which the faces of the staff blend together while a voice tells viewers, ``We have over 40 professionals working to follow every detail of your case.''

Classy? Indeed.

But is it as effective as the dude with the face of a bulldog who says, ``We can't start hammering until you call''? ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

Lowell "the Hammer" Stanley

Photo

Jeffrey Breit and his firm of Breit, Drescher and Breit set out to

make a more dignified television commercial.

Graphic

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For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: LAWYER ATTORNEY TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENT

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