North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Remember back in 2013 when Steve Smith, still with the Carolina Panthers, looked into the NFL Network camera and told then-New England Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib, with whom he had just tussled for the better part of 60 minutes, to “Ice up, son”? The expression almost broke the Internet, spawned countless memes and memorabilia and became a catch phrase synonymous with No. 89.
We at Sidebar don’t expect that the same level of celebrity will be attached to an utterance from Alabama attorney Steven Douglas Eversole, but telling a former client to “man up, boy” is still pretty epic.
And it’s also highly inappropriate, according to the Alabama State Bar, especially given that Eversole not only insulted the man in the Internet rant, but pooped on the attorney-client privilege, too.
Eversole’s advice, you see (to the extent that telling someone to put on his big-boy pants can be considered advice rather than admonishment), was not administered behind closed doors or otherwise shielded from public consumption, but typed into a reply box after Eversole read, on a lawyer-rating website, a not-so-favorable review of his services.
According to abovethelaw.com, Eversole “attacked” the dissatisfied former client, calling him “ignorant” and telling the world that the client was not only facing charges for drugs and drunken driving, but was also in the middle of a divorce case. The client had been “locked up in the looney bin,” Eversole continued, for “numerous and severe” psychological conditions.
“Show some fortitude and man up, boy,” Eversole closed.
While Eversole, a burly man from the University of Alabama, showed some of the fire and borderline rancor that defined Smith—in the minds of many—personally and professionally, the state bar found the attributes (or the actions, at least) less desirable than do NFL fans.
According to court records, Eversole was publicly reprimanded for violating rules 1.6 (confidentiality of information) and 8.4 (misconduct) of the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct.
For his witty one-liner, Smith was all over TV and YouTube. Bojangles used “Ice up, son!” in an iced-tea ad. Silicone wristbands and T-shirts bearing the phrase sold like bandwagon team gear.
But none of that for Eversole.
No, Eversole took his apparent adversary to task and all he got was this lousy sanction.
