Show Notes:

Do what needs to be done. “At my office, I’ve done every job in this firm out of necessity while I was building it. You lead by doing what needs to be done, and people look at your work ethic. If you’re the partner in your firm who’s packed it in and shows up 15 or 20 hours a week, do you think your staff is working hard?”

No room for error. “When you go to trial, you’re all-in on the credibility chip. If you lie or misrepresent one time, you’re done. That jury is going to hold it against you, and it’s bad news. A lot of time it’s a lack of preparation that creates the appearance of dishonesty and lack of being trustworthy because you say something you don’t know for a fact to be true. So we spend a ton of time with my office making sure the attorneys know you have to know everything.”

You are a commodity. “95 percent of all lawyers get their license, take CLEs that aren’t meaningful, don’t improve themselves, and in 10 years they’re slightly better than they were 10 years ago — but not substantively better at any real skill set. That’s a problem. Invest in yourself as a commodity.”

Build trust through authenticity. “Every focus group you do is like a new panel walk. As you do more of them, you become more comfortable. You become authentic — and if you’re authentic, your charisma shows. If you have good charisma and you’re authentic, you are trustworthy. If people trust you, you do better.”

Stay in the know. “I’m obsessed with the concept that verdicts are predictable. I believe that to be true now. For years, I didn’t believe it. Everybody says, ‘You don’t know what a jury is going to do.’ That is not true anymore. We’ve done 13 jury trials that we’ve consulted on or done ourselves recently and have been within a range for 12 of the 13 based on our big data and live focus grouping.”

Know a jury’s decision before trial. “If everything comes in the way that you test, human behavior is pretty predictable. It’s also why data is the most valuable commodity on earth — because we know that human behavior is predictable.”

Fueled by justice. “The way that defendants defend the case drives me crazy. They lie and cheat, and it drives me to the point where I can’t ever imagine not doing this. It’s wrong, and there’s right and wrong. I see that in what we do. I really do believe at the end of the day we make the community safer. There are industry changes that happen because of what we do. That’s why I do it.”

What does being a game changer mean to you? “The biggest thing for me is to not monetize your knowledge to other plaintiff lawyers. The more information that we can give to other plaintiffs so that they can be successful — that’s when you start to effectuate change.”

RESOURCES & REFERENCES
Rules of the Road by Rick Friedman
David Ball on Damages: A Plaintiff’s Attorney’s Guide to Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Cases
Reptile: The 2009 Manual of the Plaintiff’s Revolution
Challenged Athletes Foundation
Republic Services wrongful death trial
Claggett & Sykes Law Firm