A Michigan attorney is defending comments he made about Mike Rowe's recent blog post on privacy and shoplifting, which garnered some 9,000 responses and 5 million views since the
former "Dirty Jobs" host posted it on Facebook last week.
Rowe took to the social network to vent about a run-in he had with a lawyer while waiting in line at a liquor store recently. It all started when Rowe commended the shop owner for posting a photo of an alleged shoplifter, a comment that eventually led to a heated discussion with other patrons about whether the thief pictured could sue for reputational harm.
An attorney who was also waiting in line jumped in to say that the shoplifter could, indeed, sue anyone, including Rowe if the TV personality posted the photo on Facebook — which he later did.
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Michigan lawyer John Sterby — not the one from the liquor store — later read Rowe's viral blog post and accused him of villainizing lawyers.
"Hey Mike. I'm still waiting for the name of the lawyer whose comments about the shoplifter were the centerpiece of your story, which you basically expanded into a parable about the litigiousness of our society, which you apparently blame on the legal profession," Sterby wrote. "Those who love to throw stones at lawyers, complete with colorful imagery, mindless jokes, and misleading quotes from Shakespeare are bigots, just as much as those who attribute the problems of mankind to Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, or Muslims."
Rowe responded with his rebuttal over the weekend.
"I wonder how the descendants of black slaves will feel about that comparison?" Rowe wrote. "Do you think Holocaust survivors will appreciate the implication that lawyers — as a group — have suffered the same sort of bigotry and persecution? Perhaps one day, when attorneys are born or branded with a scarlet 'A,' and physically forced to attend Georgetown or Harvard Law, polite society will count them among the oppressed, and ease up on all those hurtful jokes."
Sterby later stood by his remarks in an
interview with the Flint Journal Monday.
"Mike Rowe's column reflected a common, but wholly misplaced stereotype about lawyers — that they deliberately file frivolous suits, because even groundless claims may result in a nominal settlement," he said.
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