Remember that stupid post I wrote about some article on some site that suggested that defendants were better off with private lawyers (a particular private lawyer, actually) than public defenders because pd’s are overworked-underpaid-useless-etc?

Turns out one of my two readers also writes a blog for the Seattle Weekly and the post was picked up there and the enterprising author sent the law firm in question an e-mail.

It took two days, but we now have some idea of what happened: Lovik & Juhl (the law firm) say they didn’t write the piece, nor did they pay anyone to write it. From the statement they sent to the Seattle Weekly:

I really haven’t a clue who may have written this (we have no staff, just two attorneys, neither of whom publish on any site like the one you have linked to here.) My guess would be that one of the services we use to try and drive traffic to our website has done this to try and make themselves appear more valuable to us. We have recently cut ties with at least one agency that we found were using fake names to give us “client reviews.” I didn’t feel right about that, either.

Lovik says the most likely culprit is a guy they hired to redesign their website. But the lawyer says he’s “just a kid.” And doesn’t want to reveal his name nor hurt his reputation based on what he sees as a misguided attempt to help the firm.

I have received e-mails from this young “kid” and I, too, am not going to name him. There’s no point. There was a lesson to be learned here and it seems that everyone has learned it. For Lovik & Juhl: outsourcing marketing = outsourcing ethics and reputation. I, for one, have learned that I really shouldn’t give a crap.

So, here’s what I’ve done: I deleted the content of the previous post and replaced it with a link to this one. If someone with better SEO knowledge tells me that it would be preferential to delete the original post in its entirety, I’m willing to consider it.

In the meantime, I would recommend that Messrs. Lovik and Juhl read Mr. Bennett’s post above and join us in the blawgosphere the right way.