What Dalton Can Teach Us About Law Firm Marketing

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For those of you not familiar with Patrick Swayze’s 1989 masterpiece, Roadhouse is one of the best “bad” movies ever made. When the Double Deuce road house gets too violent, the owner hires Dalton, a professional “cooler” (head bouncer) to “take out the trash”. While this movie is loaded with ridiculous one-liners, one of the most memorable moments is when Dalton is introduced to his Double Deuce colleagues:

Be nice.

Like the cooler profession, the legal profession lends itself to frequent adversarial and confrontational situations. Unfortunately, most lawyers fail to appreciate the true meaning of Dalton’s philosophy.

You see, many lawyers believe that aggression, stubbornness, and rudeness, are the keys to zealous representation of their clients. You don’t have to search very hard to find lawyer advertisements, videos, and commercials that depict just how tough lawyers can be.

Please don’t take this as a call for lawyers to clean up and play nice. What I am saying, is that there are significant practical advantages of adopting the “be nice” strategy both in the practice of law and the marketing of a law firm.

Here are some great example’s, from Tom Kane’s excellent Legal Marketing Blog, of niceness hard at work for law firms.

Until It’s Time Not To Be Nice.

And of course, when the time comes not to be nice…. Well, you already know what to do.