When I was in practice during the heaviest of the mortgage crisis fallout, many of my clients who were about to lose their homes were convinced they had found a solution to all of their problems in some obscure corner of the Internet. These magic silver bullets would also come from “this guy I talked to” or “my neighbor whose brother used to date a real estate broker,” but the Internet was the most popular source of wisdom. One of my favorite myths was that everyone (in the world, I guess) was entitled to one foreclosure “for free” in their lives. I suppose there is probably a point to be made here about how misinformation and outright fraud played such a large role in the mortgage crisis, but deregulation also likely played a part. However, regulated or not, if you can’t trust the experts, you are usually left to your own devices.
That is the thing about specialization. We can’t be experts in everything. Often, what makes us competent attorneys is the ability to specialize in something and provide that key insight or action that a client needs at some exact moment in their lives. That ability was a big part of how I gained confidence as a young attorney. I knew that at least on this one thing, I would be able to help my client as well if not better than anyone else. This typically involved revealing the harsh reality of the client’s situation and explaining why those silver bullets weren’t real.
It’s no secret that the Internet is probably providing more free legal advice to the public than any other source. Similarly, I think most medical professionals probably encounter just as many self-diagnoses resulting from WebMD (or worse, from Google Images). Even so, the sharing of information is generally a good thing. The public should have access to the laws our elected officials create and enforce and that our judges interpret. But having access to the law does not an attorney make. Especially now as our clients have access to the same statutes and cases we do, our role as the interpreter of all that information is more important than ever.