Aimer son avocate, son avocat
« Unless you were living in the heart of the Egyptian desert as a solitary monk on November 6th,, chances are you or someone you know either celebrated Love Your Lawyer Day, or heard of someone who did, said Nader Anise, Executive Director of the American Lawyers Public Image Association (ALPIA). « When The Wall Street Journal features you with a front page news story like they did us, you experience instant ubiquity. »
That’s exactly what happened.
For starters, the November 6 Journal piece, written by veteran reporter Jacob Gershman, generously mentioned the #LoveYourLawyerDay hashtag, which trended number one on Twitter nearly all day. It also trended on Instagram. Before long, it was traveling through cyberspace at warp speed.
« Yes, surreal is a good way to describe it, » Anise says proudly. « The web became deluged with stuff about us. »
Was Mr. Anise surprised at how quickly Love Your Lawyer Day was catching fire? « We weren’t really surprised by people’s interest in the day; what was surprising was the sheer number of news stories, and the fact that they were coming from the biggest names in the business! »
Indeed they were. Some of those names include:
The Wall Street Journal (print, digital and blog)
USA Today
Forbes
The Washington Post
Bloomberg Business
The day’s global reach was also impressive from the ABA posting « We certainly love all of our nearly 400,000 lawyer members! » on Facebook… to the President of the Swedish Bar Association proclaiming it a day to be celebrated with « drums and trumpets » on Twitter… to ALPIA getting press and international kudos from countries like Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy and China. « I’ve never seen anything like this before, » Nader says.
There’s even a love story blossoming thanks to Love Your Lawyer Day. A South Florida attorney, Elvira (last name withheld) says that she was asked out on a first date to celebrate Love Your Lawyer Day. Her date showed up at her door with three dozen red, long-stemmed roses. This marked the perfect occasion for love, « hopefully, forever… » she adds.
Some lawyers observed the day by donating to charity, doing pro bono work and collecting non-perishable food for local food pantries.
Interesting facts and stats about Love Your Lawyer Day:
According to Trendsmap, in Los Angeles, #LoveYourLawyerDay trended higher than « Obama. »
On November 6 alone, the alpia.org website had 23,157 unique visitors.
Tom Hanks’ latest movie « Bridge of Spies » tweeted, « Happy #LoveYourLawyerDay from #BridgeofSpies. »
The ATF (Federal Bureau) recognized the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch in an Instagram post using the #LoveYourLawyerDay hashtag.
Florida 1st DCA Judge Simone Marstiller declared, « Love Your Lawyer Day is not only a day, but a movement. Yes, it’s a movement! »
#LoveYourLawyerDay was awarded the Week’s Best Social Media Campaign by Neon Fox.
ALPIA was founded in 2000. It is the only organization in the world formed solely to promote a positive public image of lawyers. The website is www.alpia.org.
