Tired of letting tort reformists frame the issues, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America is changing its name to the American Association for Justice because, as one legal consultant revealed, “everybody is in favor of justice.”
Can’t argue with that. It’s also true that a plaintiff’s bar billing itself as the Association for Justice conjures up images of superhero attorneys in blue tights and red capes. Even so, the new name at least puts the group in the same game as the broad-based American Tort Reform Association, which has successfully portrayed trial lawyers as the bad guys in its quest to “bring greater fairness, predictability and efficiency to America's civil justice system.”
The Association for Justice will mark the start of a new PR campaign to cast plaintiff attorneys as champions protecting consumers from the diabolical super villains of big business and Republican politicians. “Some of the most powerful corporations have spent millions of dollars to dismantle the civil justice system," said the group’s spokeswoman. "The Fight for Justice Campaign is exactly what it says it is."
It seems smart to reposition the profession in terms of the value it creates for society, versus what its allegedly frivolously litigating members do for a living.
But changing the association’s name may be one strategy too far.
First of all, trial lawyers can’t expect to own a universal ideal like justice any more than they could be designated the official bringers of happiness. If the opposition can legitimately say it also wants what you stand for – and tort reformers argue they want justice by eliminating abusive lawsuits and forum shopping -- then your new name is going to be written off as just exaggerated spin.
Second, eliminating the term “trial attorneys” from the association name creates a whole new PR issue because it admits and apologizes for a negative reputation. It might have been better to clarify the campaign's stakeholders -- maybe become the Consumers Attorneys Association as the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers did in 1994. Or join forces with the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.
You’ve got to be careful with wholesale name changes like this. The more distance you try to create between your new name and the old one with bad baggage, the more your opposition will point out who you really are. And they’ll make a credibility issue out of how you’re hiding your identity from the people you’re trying to influence. Indeed, the press release response from the ATRA did just that, asking “Will not a trial lawyer by any other name still find irresistible the sweet smell of self-interested litigation?”
And there's the rub. The Fight for Justice Campaign will be discounted because the people whose identity their association makes secret will still show up at work and in the courtroom calling themselves trial lawyers. To make their campaign a fully integrated success, association members would almost have to start calling themselves Justice Crusaders.
But then they’d really need the blue tights and red capes.
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ABA Journal | ATLA trades "lawyers" for "justice"
The "Association of Trial Lawyers of America" becomes "American Association for Justice" as Part of a PR Overhaul
Wikipedia | Justice League members
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