John Steele, at the Legal Ethics Forum, does not hate the commercial, but he correctly points out that slighting your former clients is not OK.
Similarly, at the New York Personal Injury Law Blog, Eric Turkewitz points out that "[i]f he will diss his former criminal defense clients today, ... what will he say about his current clients tomorrow? How do you trust someone who will rip into his prior clients?"
Professor Jonathan Turley has more comments here. He found the commercial to be unprofessional and creepy.
Finally, in a longer comment that is worth reading, over at Litigation and Trial, Max Kennerly correctly points out that the underlying story of "redemption" by switching over from criminal law defense to personal injury is "troubling" (to say the least):
"Much as I can relate to the promotion of my own field of work (representing plaintiffs, which Casino just started doing in 2012) as a noble calling . . . I’m dismayed by his negative portrayal of his former field, criminal-defense. In his prior work as a criminal-defense lawyer, did he break ethical rules? Did he conspire with clients to commit crimes? If not, then what’s the problem? What is he ashamed of? The ethical practice of criminal defense? He’s of course allowed to have whatever opinion he wants, and to practice in whatever field he wants, but when he starts implying that criminal-defense representation is inherently immoral or repugnant in an advertisement watched by millions of non-lawyers, he does a terrible disservice to our whole justice system, from the Constitution to the public defenders." [The comment is longer and goes into other issues. It is worth reading here.]Judge for yourself.
