The old joke about one lawyer at the bottom of the ocean just doesn’t work as well if lawyers don’t call themselves lawyers anymore. 

Still, last year the Association of Trial Lawyers of America quietly changed their name to the American Association for Justice. And now the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform wants you to know it, especially since at least eleven state lawyer associations have made similar moves.

“I think they’ve so tarnished the name ‘trial lawyers’ that they are trying to run away from it,” Ryan Zempel, managing editor of the group, told Big Head DC this afternoon. ”A poll cited on SameLeopardNewSpots.com showed that the AAJ name tested 13 points higher than the ATLA name on a 100-point scale.”

The legal reform group, which aims to make America’s legal system simpler, has now launched a public awareness campaign highlighting the recent name change by West Virginia’s trial lawyer organization, which happened just recently.

“West Virginia’s trial lawyers have apparently signed onto a national campaign of concealment conducted by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, who renamed themselves the American Association for Justice last year,” Lisa A. Rickard, the group’s president said in a press release. “Because decades of abusing the civil justice system has driven their popularity into the ground, they are resorting to the oldest PR trick in the book: when your brand is tarnished, change your name.”

Hey, as any lawyer might tell you, it’s a good start (or so the punchline goes).