Who vs Whom- Overthinking or Bad Tricks?
I get confused about the “tricks” we are supposed to use to figure out the right word.
“Don’t forget about the commissions you’ll be earning coming from those who you referred.”
I realize “you referred them,” so “whom“ would make sense.
But, couldn’t I also argue that “they were who you referred”? So, “who” would be correct?
As John Lawler says in his comment, "whom" can always be replaced by "who".
I would go further, and suggest that if you're saying "whom", you need to think carefully about whether that's appropriate for your audience. It's probably not.