How lawyers' TV ads became a billion-dollar industry

If you've turned on a television in the past four decades, you've seen attorneys advertising ad nauseam. Given just how prevalent they are, it's hard to imagine that there was a time when legal ads were illegal.

"In the old days it was unethical to advertise," said Texas attorney Jim Adler. "The bar could come after you and take away your law license. And it was also a crime."

When Adler opened up his own firm in 1973, he wasn't allowed to advertise for new clients. But that all changed four years later.