A few weeks ago, one of my U5 expungement clients in Michigan got a call from a law firm based in Colorado asking if he’d like to have them do his case. A salesperson with a lilting flight attendant voice called his assistant looking for him. Turns out this caller was not a lawyer; she didn’t even have a college degree according to her LinkedIn page. She’d been with this law firm just a few years after a series of “development” jobs for various other unrelated enterprises. Thus, it’s hard to say what she knows about the securities business, about U5 defamation and the expungement process, or anything other than maybe getting people to talk to one of the lawyers who keep her on staff.
Each state bar has its own standards regarding such practice of lawyers or their salespeople cold calling brokers with entries on their U5s. In certain states, and in certain instances, this may be frowned upon as improper solicitation. In this instance, considering also that Michigan requires attorneys doing FINRA arbitrations in that state to be locally licensed, such attempts to poach my client would have ultimately been by lawyers not qualified to represent him.
What may matter most to you, the broker, is even if such practice were acceptable from an ethical standpoint, why would you want to talk to some salesperson with no real background in U5 expungement, who has no law degree or license, about your problem? Doesn’t it seem like the lawyers at such an outfit don’t really care about you or your case, but about roping you in to their volume-driven business? When you finally do get a lawyer on the phone, how sure are you that they’ll even put in the effort to help you instead of just taking your money and pushing your file along?
My client had me call this salesperson to let her know he already had a lawyer. She didn’t want to hear that, so I hung up on her. “Buh-bye!” You should do the same when people like this call you out of the blue like that. Soon as you give them the broom, call a real lawyer who actually cares about this important work and your important case.
