Ex-Associate and Law Firm Battle over Badmouth Blog

New Jersey-based law firm Levinson Axelrod is battling one of its former associates over a badmouth blog the associate started called LevinsonAxelrodReallySucks.com. The ex-associate, Edward Heyburn, started the site when the firm terminated his employment after six years, reportedly because it found out he was planning to open his own firm. The firm responded to the site by suing Heyburn for unfair competition, claiming that he is using the firm’s name and attempting to damage the firm’s reputation solely to drive business away from the firm (and, presumably, to him) for his own financial gain.

Heyburn claims that he is merely expressing his opinions “about the way [the firm] treat[s] their employees and their clients… They are asking the Court to stop me from mocking them on the Internet.” He has previously told the Star-Ledger newspaper that the purpose of his blog is to “torment” the folks at Levinson Axelrod.

The firm hired The Search Engine Guys, apparently known as “online reputation management” consultants, to minimize the damage done by Heyburn. The consultants bought a bunch of URLs that use the firm’s name (specifically so Heyburn could not get and use them) and has worked to raise the Internet profile of the firm’s site so that it gets more hits (and appears higher on search results lists, for example) than Heyburn’s. This week, a federal judge prohibited Heyburn from using the site levinsonaxelrod.net for his badmouthing purposes, but allowed him to continue to post on the “really sucks” site.