So you’ve had a busy day at Walmart, and you’re now ready to spoil your family with all the goodies you got.  But as you see your car in the parking lot, your golden mood turns to brown. Something is clearly wrong.

For one, your car used to be a white Honda Civic. But now its got a red gash running across the front passenger side door. Worse, the door has a huge dent in it!  Some jerk in another car swiped you and fled the scene!

But you’re in luck. As you curse and cry at the sky, a bystander tells you she saw the guy who did it. She says his name is “Spencer.” Spencer is a local hot shot attorney who occasionally hangs out at the bar by Walmart. He is a notorious braggart and an obnoxious know it all. Nobody likes him and they’d finger him in a second. But he pays for his drinks in cash, so no one knows his last name, where he lives or even where he works.

All the witness can tell you is that he’s a whippersnapper in his mid to late twenties. She’s not sure if Spencer wears glasses, but she’d  know his face if she saw him again.

So armed with this meager description,  can you really find
Spencer de JERK?

You bet. Yes.  Believe it or not, within the hour you will have his full name,  address and photo, just like that!

Here’s how.

First, let’s review what we know.  Spencer is a licensed professional (an attorney). He’s local to Metro Atlanta (where the bar and Walmart are) and he’s under 30. He also has a nice red car probably with some white paint on it. You can find him regardless of what his car looks like. But it’s good to know these things when you sue him in small claims court, and also when you report him to the police for leaving the scene of the accident.

Approach To Finding Spencer Or Any Licensed Professional

1. Find a comprehensive occupational directory that will list every member of the profession by first name and admittance date, or by age, or by school graduation date.
2. Weed out the false leads (based on age, gender, geography…)
3. Get their photo.

So first we need an inclusive professional directory that lists all Georgia lawyers, not just the ones who pay for a listing. While Martindale Hubbell is a useful second choice, it doesn’t list all GA lawyers. But the GA State Bar Directory does! And it allows you to filter by first name, last name, state of practice, company, city or law school.  Too bad we don’t know his law school. But we do know his age and that he is local to GA.

Like many professional directories, the GA Bar lists when they were admitted/when they graduated law school. This is mighty useful to weed out the false leads. False leads include those lawyers too old, dead, or too young to be our Mr. No Goodnik.

But first we must figure out the time period when Spencer became a lawyer.

Lawyers spend 4 years in undergrad and 3 years in law school. So the earliest the average lawyer graduates is at 24-25. This means if we’re looking for a lawyer under 30,  we can discount anyone who became a lawyer before 2014.

THE SEARCH FOR ALL GA ATTORNEYS NAMED SPENCER
So I searched by first name only, and limited my search to GA attorneys that are currently practicing in GA and not in other states.

Results

52 Spencers came up in a first name search with no other restrictions.

35 Spencers are licensed in GA and still practicing in GA verses in another state.

Only 13 Spencers had Spencer as their first name. (22 of the 35 had “Spencer” as a middle name (some of these were women).

Only 6  Spencers were admitted on or after 2014.

Only 4  Spencers were listed in the Metro Altanta Area.

So now we have 4 suspects with full names, middle names and practice location along with the law school they graduated from. This is more than you need to Google them. But it gets better. For these directories may even publish their email addresss, phone numbers and business address as well.

But this is just part of the fun. You don’t want just their address. Now it’s time to get their mugshots!  For ordinary criminals, we’d search for their mugshots in the arrest records. But for professionals, we’ll get them from LinkedIn, Facebook and Pipl.com of course. (for best results search by their first and last name-no middle name or initial).

Too many hits? Then narrow by their school or company or state  until you see you have the right one. Both LinkedIn and Facebook allow for these advanced searches. And Pipl pulls up their photos with just a name, OR their email OR their phone number. Still no luck?  Then Google them or search for their photos in Google Images. (less reliable)

The 4 Suspects (To show the police or the local bar)

(LinkedIn)

(Pipl.com)

(LinkedIn)

(Facebook)

But wait! You may be able to narrow the list even further. Now about the car… Try putting their address in Other Street View Lookups  to see if there’s a red car by their house. Might be useful in court! Or simply go by where they live or work to see if you can spot a red car with white paint on it.

Googling A Person By First Name Only
But what about if the person is not a licensed professional? People are dumbfounded when I tell them you can Google by first name, no last name and still find them. So I get crazy requests like  “Hey. Can you find me this guy John in LA?  All I know is that he’s a barista who I met 30 years ago at a Starbucks.” My answer is of course “NO WAY!” And quit asking me these things! I’m good. But no one is THAT good!

Let’s get one thing straight. You almost always know more about someone than you think you do. So use it to your advantage. At the very least, you probably would recognize them by their photo. And you’re likely to know their race, their approximate age, where you met them, and maybe things like a hobby, a job of theirs or the name of an ex wife or sibling. So if you need help jarring your memory, click here for a list of things that might be useful.

TO FIND THEM, THINK RARE

When you search by first name only, you’re bound to get a lot of hits unless you can narrow them down with something rare.

It could be a RARE first name along with their profession OR company. (SILBO and Patent attorney) OR a fairly common name coupled with a RARE street name , or a first name coupled with  a string of common things that when put together are rare. And remember, even if you get 10 hits, you can figure it out by getting their photo. (e.g. plug each name into LinkedIn, Facebook or IDCrawl)

Examples Where People’s Last Names  were found in the 1st 7 hits
Graham and morosgo ct (common name + rare street name)
Tiffany Unitedlex Georgia  (rare company + state)
Rima Marwan atlanta (brother and sister + state)

Other suggestions
Carol ukele Boulder CO (rare hobby + city + state)
Teresa “cathedral school” “havana” site:facebook.com (first name with rare high school in Havana, searching only within Facebook)

For old classmates, look in classmates.com,  your college directory or any other directory where you can search by first name, or first name and city,  first name and age, or first name and DOB, etc.