Jacoby & Meyers

Jacoby & Meyers is an American law firm established as a partnership by Leonard Jacoby and Stephen Meyers (1943–1996) that used an extensive advertising campaign to build exposure and awareness of the firm, growing from a single storefront to as many as 150 offices in Arizona, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. It now has more than 300 attorneys practicing law in all 50 states.

Jacoby & Meyers
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California
No. of offices130+
No. of attorneys300+
Major practice areasPersonal injury, product liability, etc.
Key peopleLeonard Jacoby (founding partner)
Stephen Meyers (founding partner, deceased)
Date founded1972 (1972)
Company typePartnership (United States)
WebsiteCompany website

Steve Meyers died in 1996, from a serious car collision accident at age 53, in New Fairfield, Connecticut.[1] Len Jacoby is the last surviving founding partner of the firm. Gail Koff, who helped establish a New York City office and develop a presence in the Northeastern United States, died in 2010, from complications from leukemia at age 65, in Manhattan, New York.

History

The firm was founded in September 1972 by Len Jacoby and Steve Meyers (who had met as students at UCLA School of Law); its first office was a storefront in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles.[2] During the 1980s, the firm rode a wave of television advertising, expanding to 150 offices, mostly in the Southwest and Northeast. With a strategy that focused on serving "middle-class individuals", Jacoby & Meyers offered free consultations and flat fees for standard cases.[3] The local stores were staffed by general practitioners who used a company-developed system for filing and tracking each case, which could then be referred to specialized units that focused on areas such as bankruptcy, consumer law, criminal law, divorce law, and personal injury law. The firm had garnered much publicity for itself after holding an open house for the media at their offices, which the State Bar of California deemed to be a form of advertising in breach of its code of ethics. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned restrictions on legal advertising in the United States in the 1977 case Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, Jacoby & Meyers placed their first print ad in the Los Angeles Times the following day and aired their first television commercials within days, making it the first U.S. law firm to advertise on television.[2][1]

Innovations

Following the firm's formation, the legal community faced a market saturated with lawyers and law firms that adopted many of Jacoby & Meyers' innovations, accepting credit card payments, charging flat fees, and using computer systems to track cases. By 2010 the firm's television advertising spending exceeded $10 million per year. The firm had products that focused on personal injury, mass torts (pharmaceutical litigation) where litigation was more lucrative, product liability, consumer legal services and legal forms, but began expanding its practice in bankruptcy, Social Security, and criminal defense.[4]

In October 2012 the firm "began selling online legal forms" as one of the first law firms to follow in the footsteps of "no-frills" legal startups such as LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer.[5]

In 2011, Jacoby & Meyers challenged the constitutionality of R.B.C 5.4, New Jersey's ban on non-lawyer ownership of a law firm. In 2014, Jacoby & Meyers voluntarily dismissed the case.[6]

See also

References
  1. Thomas, Robert McG., Jr. "Stephen Meyers, 53, Legal Innovator, Dies", New York Times, April 21, 1996. Accessed September 3, 2010. "A day later Jacoby & Meyers ran their first ad, in the Los Angeles Times, and within a few days after that the firm was on the air with the nation's first legal commercial."
  2. Hevesi, Dennis. "Gail Koff, Principal in Jacoby & Meyers, Dies at 65", New York Times, September 2, 2010. Accessed September 3, 2010.
  3. Noble, Kenneth . "Breakup of a Legal Duo: Jacoby v. Meyers", New York Times, October 21, 1995. Accessed September 3, 2010.
  4. Kennedy, Randy. "Groundbreaking Law Firm Shifts Its Focus to Personal-Injury Cases", New York Times, May 12, 1995. Accessed September 3, 2010.
  5. Smith, Jennifer (3 December 2012). "Rivalry Grows Among No-Frill Legal Services". Wall Street Journal.
  6. Kopstein, Rick. "Jacoby & Meyers Drops Bid for Nonlawyer Equity Stake", NJ Law Journal, July 29, 2014. Accessed August 8, 2010.
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