I was watching a legal marketing podcast the other day, and they were talking about “branding”. No, not the hot metal things you put on horses and cows to identify your livestock. They were talking about getting your name out there and your likeness and your “mark”, if you will.
To tell you the truth, I never wanted to be one of those guys that you saw on T.V. or on a billboard off the freeway. I don’t want to be recognized. I’m not an actor, I’m a lawyer. It is true though, that when I walk into court, people recognize me. I’ve been doing this a long time, yet I’m still surprised when people know my name when I walk into court to handle a client’s case.
I guess thirty years is a long time to be doing anything, but it just doesn’t seem so long to me. Maybe it’s because I like what I do? Maybe because I just try and keep a low profile and get the job done for my clients. I think that is what I most want people to see as my “brand”. I suppose I would best describe myself as the guy they don’t see coming. I’m not flashy. I’m not loud, and I’m not obnoxious. I try and treat court staff with courtesy. I try and be patient and wait my turn to speak to the prosecutor or to have my case called by the judge. But when it is my turn, I do everything I can to make sure my client gets the best result possible. I’ve got the time to make sure that happens.
And then, once I get the job done, I don’t need to gloat about it. I don’t want to see my name in the newspaper ever again and I don’t look to be photographed by the news media. I simply want to do the best job possible for my clients and go home to my family at a reasonable hour.
Many years ago, it became necessary to have a website. Of course, I was very behind the tech times, but I eventually got around to “renting” a website and paying some company for search engine optimization, hosting, consulting and a bunch of other things that amounted to very little in terms of actual performance. I didn’t know much about tech, so I stuck with them for far too long and paid far too much for far too little.
After several years of paying for SEO services and fancy reports, I decided to fire my web guys and found out (the hard way) that they owned all the words on the website. I was left with the bare, naked site: www.4criminaldefense.com
I owned it, but it was nothing but a placeholder until I was able to write all new text, start an award-winning blog page and do my own, very natural SEO. Until this year, everything on my website was written by me. Everything on my website is true. No fake reviews. No buying links to increase my findability, no Google ads.
I say “until this year”, because during the summer, one of my son’s was working in the office. He wrote a few blogs for me. Currently, my new law clerk is trying to utilize his English degree from UCLA and is trying his hand at writing blogs. He’s not bad, but not as good as I am.
Fast-forward twenty-or-so years and I have a website with a lot of blogs attached to it and it seems to get noticed on the internet despite the fact that I still don’t pay for ads or SEO. I regularly get people who call in looking for consults who say they found me online. But lately, things have changed. In the last couple years I have had several people call in and tell me they found me on ChatGPT. Now, when I first heard this, I knew what ChatGPT was, but I’d never used it.
I’ve always made a habit of asking people how they found me. Sometimes I think I grill them too hard to get this information, but it is very valuable information to me. When the first caller said, “ChatGPT”, I had to ask more questions. He was a tech guy. He said he did his due diligence in searching online and then asked ChatGPT who the best hit and run lawyer was in the San Fernando Valley. He told me ChatGPT said it was me. I didn’t really believe it, but why would he lie about that? Then it happened again. Then it happened with a different kind of case. After the third person told me the same story, I finally believed it was true.
The point to this blog is rather simple. By being honest with people; By treating people the way I would want to be treated; By doing my job the best way possible, I have been able to build a very successful criminal and DUI defense practice. It didn’t take money. It didn’t take blog writers, writing a page for every Penal Code Section in the book. It didn’t take fake reviews. It took hard work and integrity. I’m going to repeat that line to make a point: It took hard work and integrity.
And that’s what www.4criminaldefense.com means: Hard work plus integrity equals results.
If you want to be fed a line of horse shit, there are a lot of people out there you can call. If you want an honest opinion about your case; If you want quality representation for a reasonable fee; If you want low profile, high quality representation, call me:
Attorney Jeffrey Vallens: (818) 783-5700 or (805) 230-3651 email me at:
jv@4criminaldefense.com or visit my sites for more information:
www.4criminaldefense.com and www.westlakecriminaldefense.com
We proudly serve Los Angeles, Ventura and any other counties or federal districts where our clients need us.