What's in a name?

In 2006, America’s largest and most powerful organisation of trial lawyers changed its name from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) to the American Association for Justice (AAJ). The reason it gave for the change was that “trial lawyers” was a phase that excited negative connotations.

Not long afterwards, a group of lawyers formed another organisation to compete with the AAJ and adopted their abandoned name, adding “the” to the title: The American Trial Lawyers Association, or TheATLA for short. A recent membership recruitment letter describes it as an “elite organisation” whose members "exemplify superior qualifications, trial results, leadership, influence, reputation, stature, and profile in the trial attorney community". In other words, they know their way around a court room and you’d want to think twice before suing them.

The AAJ, however, has thought twice and has issued proceedings in Minneapolis in order to force TheATLA to drop the name, arguing that the existence of the old name was confusing AAJ members and infringing a trademark. The claim also demands that AAJ is awarded any money that TheATLA collects in membership dues, and —you guessed it — treble damages and attorneys' fees. The lawyers who argue the case will no doubt be very good: a trial lawyer whose client is composed of 56,000 other trial lawyers can expect some professional feedback.

If they cannot settle on their own names, perhaps the two groups ought to commission some market research. It wouldn’t be a job for the faint-hearted. Imagine some of the replies you’d get, stopping people in the shopping mall and asking: “What do you call a collection of lawyers?”