For 22 years I've practiced in State and Federal Courts nationwide, handled thousands of cases and dealt with thousands of lawyers and clients.  I've dealt with the good, the bad and the ugly of lawyers and know better than anyone else to give you these quick tips to finding your lawyer:

1. Choose a lawyer like yourself.  You want a lawyer who has the same values and personality like you. If you're aggressive, then you can't hire an attorney who is nonchalant and barely moves.  If you're honest, you want a lawyer who will be honest too because the truth is that lawyers can win on the facts and the law without lying. Although most lawyers ruin it for the rest of us good lawyers by thinking that being a lawyer is a license to lie, that's simply not true--it's just that they're bad people who shouldn't be lawyers in the first place (an article coming soon).

2. Follow your instincts.  If you feel any doubt about the lawyer you're talking to, just hang up the phone or if you're in his office, then get up and leave. I do it all the time, and I'm a lawyer.  I've talked to lawyers on the phone and when they start their BS, I hang up and move on.  There's no time for straggler lawyers who have no idea what they're talking about.

3.  Don't believe the Puffery Lawyer. Any lawyer that promises to get you certain results, lots of money or tells you how great they are better show you support to back that up, otherwise it's "puffery", which is blowing smoke. I recently watched a lawyer tell someone he practiced around the world and would get her a $300,000 settlement on Tuesday, and if they didn't pay that Tuesday then he would get $600,000 by Thursday and he was reporting the Judge and the Kings County DA to the newspapers and disciplinary departments.  That is the rantings of a lunatic, not a lawyer. I discovered he has about $200,000 in federal and state tax liens, he threatens people, has a criminal history, he sues at the drop of a hat for himself and has no real caseload.  He's called the "town kook".   The poor person that went with him was desperate and said he sounded "convincing".  I'm sure later these two will do each other in, but for now they are both desperate people feeding off each other.  I've also seen a lawyer claimed to be New York's top divorce lawyer convince a client that he previously won the exact case she needed counsel for.  When I looked up the case, it was not related to her issue at all, and he lost the case too.  I refused to take her case because I knew the law was against her and did not want her to waste money. She also was convinced by his ramblings.  She hired him and $36,000 later  in a matter of a few months she lost.  The lesson here is always research the lawyer and Google, but use a combination of factors to make your decision who to hire. The first is trust your instincts.

     The fact is people tend to pick lawyers just like themselves, period.  So if someone is a liar, their lawyer is going to be a liar. And if someone is honest and wants to win without lying in papers and to the judge, their lawyer will be as honest.  It's the law of attraction.