It can sometimes be difficult for lawyers to distinguish themselves in the legal marketplace, especially if lawyers have a common name. Because there is a finite number of names lawyers can call their law offices, and due to other mistakes, clients and prospective clients commonly mistake one lawyer for another. Lawyers can handle such mistaken identifications in a certain way to minimize confusion about the identity of counsel.
In my own experience, the most common example of mistaken identity is when people mistake me for my partner and brother, who has a name that begins with the same letter as mine. I am usually flattered by such a mistake, since my partner/brother is an excellent lawyer I look up to.
However, about a third of all the calls I answer involve people looking for lawyers who are not part of my law practice. Sometimes, clients could do the bare minimum of due diligence to discover that I am not the appropriate lawyer they are trying to contact. For instance, I only practice law in the northeast, but I often get phone calls from people across the country looking for lawyers with the same last name as me.
I usually handle such situations by asking the person where they are calling from. If they are calling outside of the few states in which I practice law, I tell them that there must be an identification issue since I could not be the lawyer they are looking for in whatever part of the country they are calling from. Usually, I know from the caller ID that someone is calling me from outside my area, and I am immediately alerted that there may be a mistaken identity issue.
An interesting problem occurs when a prospective client calls me looking for another lawyer with a similar name, and I am actually interested in taking the work. This has only happened a few times, and in one instance, the person said that she saw my name on advertisements even though my practice does not pay for advertising. In these types of instances, it often pays to be honest, and I always tell the person that they might be confused about my identity.
However, sometimes I will try to build rapport with the prospective client and inform them of the offerings of my law firm. So long as truthful statements were made, I do not think there is anything wrong with a client using my firm even though they initially inquired into another practice.
In some instances, we have even received mail that seems like it was intended for another lawyer of the same last name. In such rare instances, we usually reach out to the lawyer for whom the mail was intended to see what they want us to do with it. I would like to hope that someone would do this for me if my mail was delivered to another lawyer with a similar name, as this just seems like basic professional courtesy.
Some lawyers must have more issues with mistaken identity than others since some names are more common than other kinds of names. I’d love to hear stories from readers about mistaken identity and how this was handled in your own lives. However, with some strategies in mind, mistaken identities among lawyers can be an easy issue to resolve.
Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothman.law.