What a nightmare the days before the brief deadline were. Here's the problem: my client is an old lawyer who never really practiced, and instead got into real-estate and other business transactions early on in his career. So, basically, I'm dealing with someone who thinks he knows how to litigate a case, because he's a lawyer, but in reality doesn't know half as much as he thinks he knows. (Nicest guy, by the way ... a lot of fun to hang out with, and very considerate - he once brought me some ambien because i told him i was having trouble sleeping).
Anyway, he'll try to tell me how to do something, without really being able to properly communicate what he wants. So I'll do what I think he wants, at which point he gets pissed off that I didn't do what he wanted me to do. Then he tries to tell me why I did it all wrong, but since he's just not good at communicating, he can't even explain that properly. So I'm left confused about what the hell his problem is, what he thinks I did wrong, and what I need to do now.
So he panicked after the hearing, and decided to take charge of the case again. What this meant was that the guy who didn't really know how to do legal research, write a legal argument, or even organize his thoughts for that matter, began to micro-manage how i wrote the brief. As I usually do when I prepare to write a legal argument, I wanted to do my research first. He, on the other hand, thought it would be a better idea for me to just write down our arguments, and leave the research to him and a couple of assistants he had recruited to help us. Fine. So I have a 4-hour meeting with him on Sunday night, where we sit down and outline our entire argument. I then go home and take those ideas and turn them into a written brief and e-mail them to him to review.
He calls me monday afternoon and tells me that what I wrote was absolutely useless, and that I needed to come into the office to meet with him and start all over. I go in on tuesday, and he tells me to do the opposite of what he had originally told me to do. So I spend the rest of the day doing that, and e-mail him my work that night. The next morning I get a call telling me that he's upset with what I've done, and that I need to go in again to do it right. In the meantime, we're having countless arguments (he loves to talk, and I'm just about sick and tired of listening to him repeat himself) and we're even getting into screaming matches. At least we were entertaining the rest of the office tho. I think the icing on the cake was when he read over my work, told me that he liked it and that it was great. He then showed it to another attorney in the office who started marking it up and telling me that it was all wrong, at which point my client was like - "yea, didn't I tell you to do blah blah blah?" I swear I wanted to strangle him. I'm pretty sure if he weren't an old guy, I would have gotten into a fist fight with him.
Another one of the screaming matches happened when I deleted a bunch of the stuff I had written, after he had told me it was garbage. So on wednesday afternoon, a couple of hours before our filing deadline, he remembered the part I had deleted, and asked me where it was. I told him I deleted it, and he started freaking out, telling me that I can't be brain-dead and whatnot. A cussing / screaming match ensued, followed by me going and printing out the part that I had previously deleted.
OHHH, earlier on wednesday, I'm on the phone with a friend trying to find cases on a specific issue that we've been having problems with. So he comes by my desk and starts listening in on the conversation. After about a minute, while I'm on the phone with my friend, he's like - "we don't have time for this, we just have to write what we have and leave it at that." So I'm trying to tell him that he's the one who wanted me to look for this law in the first place, and he starts yelling about how I had plenty of time to do it before, and that now we won't get the brief filed in time. Meanwhile my friends is on the phone, listening to this argument, so I tell her: "ok, I'll call you back," at which point he says "NO, you'll call her tomorrow. you don't have time to call her today." So he and I get into it and I yell at him to go away. After I hang up the phone, I go into his office and start yelling at him and telling him what I'm going to do if he disrespects me like that again.
Christ, it sounds like a freakin comedy!
The funniest part of all of this is that if he had just let me do what I thought needed to be done, it would have gotten done right in the first place, and without all of the headache. But hey, I guess that would spoil all the fun, right?
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Aftermath
Matin, if your trial finished on Friday, why have you not updated your blog to tell us what happened yet?
Because god hates me. This is evident on two bases: (1) He let Daniel Snyder buy the redskins and run them into the ground, single-handedly ruining my Sundays from September through January; and (2) I have to work on a post-hearing brief.
What's a post-hearing brief, and does it have anything to do with a pre-hearing brief or a bikini brief?
A post-hearing brief is a written argument to the court (or the arbitrator in this case) laying out your arguments, the legal bases therefor, and the factual support that shows why you should prevail on each claim. It's sort of like a written closing argument after the trial is over.
But I digress. Let's get back to last Friday. The day began with the cross examination of one of my clients, followed by the direct and cross-examination of my other client. So far, so good. Now the closing argument. Shit! The previous night I had made a crucial mistake. Against my intuition, I decided to go out to dinner with my legal assistant, since she had been craving steak. That was mistake number one, because I felt tired when I got home, and I should have just gone to sleep so that I could have woken up early to work on the closing. I didn't.
So of course I come home stuffed, and unable to do any work. At the same time, I wasn't tired enough to fall asleep yet. So I basically just wallowed around on my bed for a couple of hours before I finally dozed off at around midnight or 1am. Mistake number two came when I decided I could control my sleeping pattern. You see, when I want to sleep, I can't. Clearly, then, I should know that when I want to wake up at a certain time, I won't be able to do that either. Hah! I set my alarm for around 3 or 4 am. Long story short, I snoozed until after 6am. God, the irony of it all! Somewhere up there, someone must be having a freakin ball. Well eff you too, buddy!
No problem. I don't need to prepare my closing argument ahead of time. It's only the most important trial of my life. I can just prepare it on the drive to the hearing. Hah! While my witnesses are being cross-examined? Don't be stupid! How about during lunch break (when I stayed in the conference room and asked my clients to bring me back a turkey sandwich, which was surprisingly tasty considering I usually don't eat turkey sandwiches)? Not a chance. It just wasn't going to happen. No matter what I did, I couldn't, for the life of me, come up with any sort of outline or organization for my close. Yaaaaay, me!
So I ended up scribbling down notes as the other guy was doing his close (which, by the way, was absolute garbage ... the guy wouldn't get higher than a 6 if he closed against one of my students, and I couldn't believe he was charging more than $400 bucks an hour for it). And so he finished, and it was my turn. So I got up, and started talking, and it all just came pouring out. One thought after another, argument after argument, everything that had been shoved into my head for the past five months, just came busting out. And it was good. No, it was freakin great! I was moving around picking up exhibits and demonstratives, marking up evidence, pointing to maps and photographs ... I was doing everything I thought I should be doing, but hadn't planned out how to do. It all just came out at the right time in the right way. Afterward, one of my clients told me that my close was wonderful, and the other one told me it was amazing. He said he got goosebumps at one point. Goosebumps? Really? Ok.
But the performance is only half of the deal. What about the result?
After my close, there was a rebuttal, and the arbitrator started asking me and the other guy some questions. And that's when I started to get worried. He was asking all kinds of questions that led be to believe that he was inclined to rule against me on some issues. WTF??? And in the meantime, I had my client whispering nonsense into my ears and passing notes to me about things he wanted me to say. I swear I wanted to jab him in the thigh with a pen! At one point he shoved a note under my nose, I read it, turned to him and whispered something along the lines of "that's not what he's talking about." Gritting his teeth, he whispered back: "That IS what he's talking about." So now I'm screwed - if I don't say it, he's going to tell me that I should have said it, and if I do say it ... well, I said it. And the arbitrator responded with something along the lines of: "Counselor, you really do NOT want to be making THAT argument, considering ..." at which point I turned back toward my client and gave him the dirtiest look I could give under the circumstances.
And then, mercifully, it was all over. Perhaps the most exhausting week of my life was ready to come to an end, and I was finally done with it all. Hah! As he concluded his comments, the arbitrator advised us that we were welcome to submit post-hearing briefs due wednesday, and that he would give us a written opinion within a few weeks. Wait, what??? This wasn't part of the deal! I was this close to freedom, dammit! THIS CLOSE!!! Sigh. Hala begin nagoo FML. Khob FML dige! F M L! (Haha, those non-persians among you only get the FML part. Suckaaas! That's what you get!)
Anywho, for the past 4 days, I've been getting even MORE calls than usual. Anywhere from 9am to 10pm (on a saturday night!!!) my life has been consumed with my client's paranoia about losing the case. One second he's telling me to do one thing (that I know is the wrong thing to be doing) and the next he's berating me for doing the opposite of what I should be doing (when I did exactly what he asked me to do). I've written up tens of pages of legal arguments, all of which have been erased by now so that I can start again from scratch tonight. So with the submittal deadline looming tomorrow, I'm left with less than a day to write the legal argument that's going to save my case. Whoohooo!
As an idiot friend of mine recently pointed out, FML = F Matin's Life. Very nice.
Because god hates me. This is evident on two bases: (1) He let Daniel Snyder buy the redskins and run them into the ground, single-handedly ruining my Sundays from September through January; and (2) I have to work on a post-hearing brief.
What's a post-hearing brief, and does it have anything to do with a pre-hearing brief or a bikini brief?
A post-hearing brief is a written argument to the court (or the arbitrator in this case) laying out your arguments, the legal bases therefor, and the factual support that shows why you should prevail on each claim. It's sort of like a written closing argument after the trial is over.
But I digress. Let's get back to last Friday. The day began with the cross examination of one of my clients, followed by the direct and cross-examination of my other client. So far, so good. Now the closing argument. Shit! The previous night I had made a crucial mistake. Against my intuition, I decided to go out to dinner with my legal assistant, since she had been craving steak. That was mistake number one, because I felt tired when I got home, and I should have just gone to sleep so that I could have woken up early to work on the closing. I didn't.
So of course I come home stuffed, and unable to do any work. At the same time, I wasn't tired enough to fall asleep yet. So I basically just wallowed around on my bed for a couple of hours before I finally dozed off at around midnight or 1am. Mistake number two came when I decided I could control my sleeping pattern. You see, when I want to sleep, I can't. Clearly, then, I should know that when I want to wake up at a certain time, I won't be able to do that either. Hah! I set my alarm for around 3 or 4 am. Long story short, I snoozed until after 6am. God, the irony of it all! Somewhere up there, someone must be having a freakin ball. Well eff you too, buddy!
No problem. I don't need to prepare my closing argument ahead of time. It's only the most important trial of my life. I can just prepare it on the drive to the hearing. Hah! While my witnesses are being cross-examined? Don't be stupid! How about during lunch break (when I stayed in the conference room and asked my clients to bring me back a turkey sandwich, which was surprisingly tasty considering I usually don't eat turkey sandwiches)? Not a chance. It just wasn't going to happen. No matter what I did, I couldn't, for the life of me, come up with any sort of outline or organization for my close. Yaaaaay, me!
So I ended up scribbling down notes as the other guy was doing his close (which, by the way, was absolute garbage ... the guy wouldn't get higher than a 6 if he closed against one of my students, and I couldn't believe he was charging more than $400 bucks an hour for it). And so he finished, and it was my turn. So I got up, and started talking, and it all just came pouring out. One thought after another, argument after argument, everything that had been shoved into my head for the past five months, just came busting out. And it was good. No, it was freakin great! I was moving around picking up exhibits and demonstratives, marking up evidence, pointing to maps and photographs ... I was doing everything I thought I should be doing, but hadn't planned out how to do. It all just came out at the right time in the right way. Afterward, one of my clients told me that my close was wonderful, and the other one told me it was amazing. He said he got goosebumps at one point. Goosebumps? Really? Ok.
But the performance is only half of the deal. What about the result?
After my close, there was a rebuttal, and the arbitrator started asking me and the other guy some questions. And that's when I started to get worried. He was asking all kinds of questions that led be to believe that he was inclined to rule against me on some issues. WTF??? And in the meantime, I had my client whispering nonsense into my ears and passing notes to me about things he wanted me to say. I swear I wanted to jab him in the thigh with a pen! At one point he shoved a note under my nose, I read it, turned to him and whispered something along the lines of "that's not what he's talking about." Gritting his teeth, he whispered back: "That IS what he's talking about." So now I'm screwed - if I don't say it, he's going to tell me that I should have said it, and if I do say it ... well, I said it. And the arbitrator responded with something along the lines of: "Counselor, you really do NOT want to be making THAT argument, considering ..." at which point I turned back toward my client and gave him the dirtiest look I could give under the circumstances.
And then, mercifully, it was all over. Perhaps the most exhausting week of my life was ready to come to an end, and I was finally done with it all. Hah! As he concluded his comments, the arbitrator advised us that we were welcome to submit post-hearing briefs due wednesday, and that he would give us a written opinion within a few weeks. Wait, what??? This wasn't part of the deal! I was this close to freedom, dammit! THIS CLOSE!!! Sigh. Hala begin nagoo FML. Khob FML dige! F M L! (Haha, those non-persians among you only get the FML part. Suckaaas! That's what you get!)
Anywho, for the past 4 days, I've been getting even MORE calls than usual. Anywhere from 9am to 10pm (on a saturday night!!!) my life has been consumed with my client's paranoia about losing the case. One second he's telling me to do one thing (that I know is the wrong thing to be doing) and the next he's berating me for doing the opposite of what I should be doing (when I did exactly what he asked me to do). I've written up tens of pages of legal arguments, all of which have been erased by now so that I can start again from scratch tonight. So with the submittal deadline looming tomorrow, I'm left with less than a day to write the legal argument that's going to save my case. Whoohooo!
As an idiot friend of mine recently pointed out, FML = F Matin's Life. Very nice.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
One more day!
Day four was probably the most eventful of the trial so far. The idiots took 3 days to get through 4 witnesses and 2 video deposition excerpts. We got through 6 witnesses today, and at times it was really crazy.
My first witness was the son of my client, who used to work for the company suing us and is now testifying against them. Talk about bias! He was just ridiculous - at one point he turned to the owner of the other company and made some snide remark. It's not enough that I had his dad sitting next to me for the whole trial making little comments here and there, now I gotta deal with this? The other lawyer's going to have a field day with this.
His dad, by the way (my client) has just been ridiculous the whole trial. The very first day of the trial, he comes into the room and the first thing he says to the other side's expert is: "Are you their expert? "You're a great liar." So I say to the expert: "Oh, he doesn't mean that." The guy was like some 60-year-old dude. Anyway, my client is like: "Yes I do. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." Thank god the arbitrator wasn't there. And this was basically the whole trial. He would let out little laughs if someone on the other side said something he thought was a lie (the arbitrator actually said something about keeping decorum at one point). And every time he ran into one of the guys from the other side in the hallway or when noone else was around, he'd make a little comment to them. Unreal! He's a really nice guy, but he just hates these guys with a passion.
Anyway, as if the super-ridiculous bias wasn't bad enough, my first witness had brought some documents with him that I wanted to use. I hadn't disclosed them to the other side for 2 reasons. First, I wanted to use them for impeachment (the main doc was a memo from the head of the opposition basically proving that he's a liar), so I didn't think I needed to disclose it. Second, the witness was worried about these guys suing him for disclosing the documents, so he didn't want them to leave his possession before the trial. Anyway, it was an ORDEAL trying to get that freakin thing into evidence (I probably spent at least a half hour trying to do it, but it was such an incriminating document, that I couldn't let it go). The other lawyer was jumping up and down crying bloody murder, while his client was saying that the documents were his and that he wanted them back. We hadn't had this much craziness all trial.
So basically, his direct was a debacle, because he wouldn't answer any of my damn questions. He just answered whatever question he wanted to answer, regardless of what I asked. And the cross didn't go any better, because he was being so combative. I think he felt that he needed to win the case himself, and he didn't want to give up ANYTHING. So the lawyer was getting pissed, and he was getting pissed right back, and meanwhile, the other side's main guy was pacing up and down the room like a damn lion. Hot mess!
The rest of the witnesses were a breeze in comparison, except for my own client, who testified at the end of the day. Just like his son, he wasn't listening to my questions, and just saying what he wanted to say. Like I would say to him: "Could you please clarify for the arbit..." and he'd cut me off and say: "He knows that I mean ..." and go on with his story. I think my favorite line of his was: "The economy was so bad, you couldn't find a guy with dry pants."
Thank god that's over. Tomorrow my main client gets crossed, and my other client is up. After that, there's just closings. I have a feeling this is going to be a really good closing, but I just can't focus right now, and I'm so tired that I can't stay up. Most likely I'll take a nap and try to get up early to do some work. Let's see if it works.
My first witness was the son of my client, who used to work for the company suing us and is now testifying against them. Talk about bias! He was just ridiculous - at one point he turned to the owner of the other company and made some snide remark. It's not enough that I had his dad sitting next to me for the whole trial making little comments here and there, now I gotta deal with this? The other lawyer's going to have a field day with this.
His dad, by the way (my client) has just been ridiculous the whole trial. The very first day of the trial, he comes into the room and the first thing he says to the other side's expert is: "Are you their expert? "You're a great liar." So I say to the expert: "Oh, he doesn't mean that." The guy was like some 60-year-old dude. Anyway, my client is like: "Yes I do. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." Thank god the arbitrator wasn't there. And this was basically the whole trial. He would let out little laughs if someone on the other side said something he thought was a lie (the arbitrator actually said something about keeping decorum at one point). And every time he ran into one of the guys from the other side in the hallway or when noone else was around, he'd make a little comment to them. Unreal! He's a really nice guy, but he just hates these guys with a passion.
Anyway, as if the super-ridiculous bias wasn't bad enough, my first witness had brought some documents with him that I wanted to use. I hadn't disclosed them to the other side for 2 reasons. First, I wanted to use them for impeachment (the main doc was a memo from the head of the opposition basically proving that he's a liar), so I didn't think I needed to disclose it. Second, the witness was worried about these guys suing him for disclosing the documents, so he didn't want them to leave his possession before the trial. Anyway, it was an ORDEAL trying to get that freakin thing into evidence (I probably spent at least a half hour trying to do it, but it was such an incriminating document, that I couldn't let it go). The other lawyer was jumping up and down crying bloody murder, while his client was saying that the documents were his and that he wanted them back. We hadn't had this much craziness all trial.
So basically, his direct was a debacle, because he wouldn't answer any of my damn questions. He just answered whatever question he wanted to answer, regardless of what I asked. And the cross didn't go any better, because he was being so combative. I think he felt that he needed to win the case himself, and he didn't want to give up ANYTHING. So the lawyer was getting pissed, and he was getting pissed right back, and meanwhile, the other side's main guy was pacing up and down the room like a damn lion. Hot mess!
The rest of the witnesses were a breeze in comparison, except for my own client, who testified at the end of the day. Just like his son, he wasn't listening to my questions, and just saying what he wanted to say. Like I would say to him: "Could you please clarify for the arbit..." and he'd cut me off and say: "He knows that I mean ..." and go on with his story. I think my favorite line of his was: "The economy was so bad, you couldn't find a guy with dry pants."
Thank god that's over. Tomorrow my main client gets crossed, and my other client is up. After that, there's just closings. I have a feeling this is going to be a really good closing, but I just can't focus right now, and I'm so tired that I can't stay up. Most likely I'll take a nap and try to get up early to do some work. Let's see if it works.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Day three
Did I mention I'm exhausted? I went to sleep around 10pm last night, and woke up at 3. Couldn't go back to sleep, so I was up all night working on my argument. I felt refreshed when I woke up at 3, so I figured I'd be good to go for the day. well ...
In the morning, they played video depositions of my clients. Now let me say this: the case is about an LLC and whether the proper formalities were followed when the members / managers took certain actions, so at times, it's the most mind-numbingly boring stuff. Add to that the fact that the other side's lawyers are like Ben Stein sans the exciting personality, and you've got yourself one hell of a party! So when they took my guys' depositions, I had to sit through 3 full days of: "was there a meeting held to approve this action?" and "was there a notice sent out regarding the meeting of the members?"
Today, I had to sit through like 4 hours of video excerpts from those depositions in the morning. Even after a full night's sleep, that would be a disaster, so imagine how much I was loving life. At some point in the middle, I told the arbitrator I was willing to stipulate to a bunch of that stuff, so then he got pissed off, because he thought we (both parties) should have submitted stipulations before trial. So he yelled at us and told us to stipulate.
After all of that, they finally put their main client on the stand ... the guy who pulls all the strings and calls all the shots for the company. I had been looking forward to this cross, but I really think my brain had checked out after sitting through the depos in the morning, so I wasn't on my game. Can't say I was terrible, but I wasn't as sharp as I should have been. For example, at one point, he gave me a real nugget ... I mean HUGE! But instead of just dropping it and moving on, I asked another question about it, and that just muddled up his previous answer, so I had to ask another question. Before I knew what happened, I had given him the opportunity to fix his testimony and make himself look good. Not sure what the arbitrator thought, but although made a few good points I wasn't crazy about this cross. Clients were happy though.
Speaking of clients, after the hearing, I went over to his house to discuss the case. The good news: you step off the steps on his back-yard and onto the fairway of avenel (a championship golf course, for the uninformed among you). The bad news: I wanted to shoot myself when I was leaving there. A bunch of people meeting and talking about a case that they're all very opinionated about ... it was an absolute debacle!
Anyway, mid-week re-cap:
- I don't think they've proven much of anything, and I can't see how they could win their case. This guys' just to smart not to see through their garbage.
- At worst, we're even right now, which means that unless we screw up royally, they can't win their case. The only question remaining will be whether we can get punitives and fees.
- Arbitrator is very smart, so he's going to understand everything. this means (1) no need for drama and rhetoric (d'oh!), and (2) hopefully he won't buy the bs these guys are trying to feed him.
Tomorrow I start to put on witnesses.
Finally!
In the morning, they played video depositions of my clients. Now let me say this: the case is about an LLC and whether the proper formalities were followed when the members / managers took certain actions, so at times, it's the most mind-numbingly boring stuff. Add to that the fact that the other side's lawyers are like Ben Stein sans the exciting personality, and you've got yourself one hell of a party! So when they took my guys' depositions, I had to sit through 3 full days of: "was there a meeting held to approve this action?" and "was there a notice sent out regarding the meeting of the members?"
Today, I had to sit through like 4 hours of video excerpts from those depositions in the morning. Even after a full night's sleep, that would be a disaster, so imagine how much I was loving life. At some point in the middle, I told the arbitrator I was willing to stipulate to a bunch of that stuff, so then he got pissed off, because he thought we (both parties) should have submitted stipulations before trial. So he yelled at us and told us to stipulate.
After all of that, they finally put their main client on the stand ... the guy who pulls all the strings and calls all the shots for the company. I had been looking forward to this cross, but I really think my brain had checked out after sitting through the depos in the morning, so I wasn't on my game. Can't say I was terrible, but I wasn't as sharp as I should have been. For example, at one point, he gave me a real nugget ... I mean HUGE! But instead of just dropping it and moving on, I asked another question about it, and that just muddled up his previous answer, so I had to ask another question. Before I knew what happened, I had given him the opportunity to fix his testimony and make himself look good. Not sure what the arbitrator thought, but although made a few good points I wasn't crazy about this cross. Clients were happy though.
Speaking of clients, after the hearing, I went over to his house to discuss the case. The good news: you step off the steps on his back-yard and onto the fairway of avenel (a championship golf course, for the uninformed among you). The bad news: I wanted to shoot myself when I was leaving there. A bunch of people meeting and talking about a case that they're all very opinionated about ... it was an absolute debacle!
Anyway, mid-week re-cap:
- I don't think they've proven much of anything, and I can't see how they could win their case. This guys' just to smart not to see through their garbage.
- At worst, we're even right now, which means that unless we screw up royally, they can't win their case. The only question remaining will be whether we can get punitives and fees.
- Arbitrator is very smart, so he's going to understand everything. this means (1) no need for drama and rhetoric (d'oh!), and (2) hopefully he won't buy the bs these guys are trying to feed him.
Tomorrow I start to put on witnesses.
Finally!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Day two
So exhausted! Haven't slept more than a few hours these last couple of nights, and it's starting to get to me. Day two went very well ... much better than I thought.
The morning started out with my cross of the corporate rep of the company suing us. Personally, I wasn't too crazy about it, because the guy was being EXTREMELY difficult. Basically, he wouldn't admit the most basic things, like that his company was a hedge fund! He was lying through his teeth, and couldn't give me a "yes" or "no" answer, and it was ridiculously frustrating. So because things didn't go that smoothly, I didn't know how things came across. Oh, and it was the longest cross of my life (close to 2.5 hours!!!)
When we left the room for a break, though, my client was ecstatic! He said that he thought I had done a great job of making the guy look like a liar, and that the guy was just squirming like a weasel. (why the hell did it take me 3 tries to spell weasel??) Anywho, that was the morning. In the afternoon, they called their 2nd expert. Here's something interesting: The other side has 2 attorneys representing them at the hearing. And so far, the less experienced attorney has directed both of the experts. I would have thought the more experienced guy would have done that.
Anyway, It seems that I jacked them up, because again, my client was ecstatic. I got most of the expert's opinion excluded (at one point, I made an objection, and the arbitrator said something to the effect of: "look, counselor, I think it's clear that I'm not going to give any weight to this testimony anyway..." Afterward, I was talking to my client, and he said that if he would have had to have bet on whether I could have excluded so much of the expert's testimony, he would have bet against me. Yea, what bitches?!
So now I've got some difficult decisions to make. It's funny, because they're very mock trial-ish. I have a couple of witnesses that I'm not sure about calling, because each of them can give me some good testimony, while at the same time having some liability on cross.
Tomorrow, the other side will finish their case and I'll make a motion for a directed verdict. We'll see where that gets us, but hopefully, I'll get some of their claims kicked.
Holla!
The morning started out with my cross of the corporate rep of the company suing us. Personally, I wasn't too crazy about it, because the guy was being EXTREMELY difficult. Basically, he wouldn't admit the most basic things, like that his company was a hedge fund! He was lying through his teeth, and couldn't give me a "yes" or "no" answer, and it was ridiculously frustrating. So because things didn't go that smoothly, I didn't know how things came across. Oh, and it was the longest cross of my life (close to 2.5 hours!!!)
When we left the room for a break, though, my client was ecstatic! He said that he thought I had done a great job of making the guy look like a liar, and that the guy was just squirming like a weasel. (why the hell did it take me 3 tries to spell weasel??) Anywho, that was the morning. In the afternoon, they called their 2nd expert. Here's something interesting: The other side has 2 attorneys representing them at the hearing. And so far, the less experienced attorney has directed both of the experts. I would have thought the more experienced guy would have done that.
Anyway, It seems that I jacked them up, because again, my client was ecstatic. I got most of the expert's opinion excluded (at one point, I made an objection, and the arbitrator said something to the effect of: "look, counselor, I think it's clear that I'm not going to give any weight to this testimony anyway..." Afterward, I was talking to my client, and he said that if he would have had to have bet on whether I could have excluded so much of the expert's testimony, he would have bet against me. Yea, what bitches?!
So now I've got some difficult decisions to make. It's funny, because they're very mock trial-ish. I have a couple of witnesses that I'm not sure about calling, because each of them can give me some good testimony, while at the same time having some liability on cross.
Tomorrow, the other side will finish their case and I'll make a motion for a directed verdict. We'll see where that gets us, but hopefully, I'll get some of their claims kicked.
Holla!
Monday, October 19, 2009
DAY ONE!
What a great day today! Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. I had a ridiculous craving for ghormeh sabzi this weekend, and I was going to ask my mom to make it for me, but I forgot. So I come home today, wondering if there was going to be anything to eat. I walk in the front door - no lights on, and no smell of food. "Dammit!" But just to be sure, I walk up the stairs and unto the kitchen, where there is rice cooking in the rice-cooker, and a pot of something on the stove. As I step closer to it, I somehow get the feeling that it might be ghormeh sabzi. I open the lid, and ... don't you know it! That's right, my mom is a psychotic. She must have read my mind. Yes, this is the best part about having moved back home, and yes, I will miss it.
So now, I'm sitting here, stuffed and happy, re-playing the day's events in my mind (and of course Mandana has to call me and make me tell her everything that happened, because she doesn't want to wait to read the blog.)
After going through preliminary matters, the other side did a brief, and uncompelling opening statement. I followed with my opening, and the other side put on their first witness (one of the company reps) until lunch. I thought I had done a decent job with my opening, but the feedback that I got from my clients was that they were very happy with it. So far, so good. Everyone was very happy at lunch, because we thought we were doing well, but also because the arbitrator seems to be really smart and well-prepared. He's read the materials and understands them very well - well enough to be asking very smart questions during the examinations. Because the other side doesn't really have a case, it really bodes well for us that the arbitrator will know what's going on.
After lunch, the testimony of the company rep finished, but instead of doing his cross, we took the expert, so that the expert wouldn't have to stay for an extra day (and charge like 5 grand for it ... the bastard has already charged about $55K for his report and testimony!!! Ridiculous!)
Anyway, their expert was this nice old guy, and he seemed fairly credible, but from what my clients tell me, I crossed the bejesus out of him. My senior client, who has NEVER used the term "great" when referring to me, and has told me I've dona a good job maybe once or twice so far, told me that I did a great cross and that this was my calling. He said that while I was doing my cross, he and my other client were looking at each other and giddy with joy. :)
It was amazing ... I haven't done this in years now, but once I started, it was just like the old days. I got on a roll and next thing you know, I was having my way with this guy. And the attorneys on the other side didn't look very good either, so it seemed to have been a success all around. (At one point, one of their attorneys made an objection, and the arbitrator turns to him and says: "listen, just between the two of us, that was not a good objection." lol OWNED!
I'm exhausted, but it feels really great to have gotten things off on the right foot. It's important to my own psyche, but also because I feel good about having instilled more confidence in my client. I think that up until today, although he thought that I was fairly competent, he really wasn't sure what to expect. I know that he really wanted to have tried this case himself (yes, he's a lawyer) so he was a bit disappointed that he couldn't get in on the action. Now, I think he's happy about having hired me. At least for now :)
Let's just hope the arbitrator saw things the way we did. Now I have to get back to work, prepping for this cross tomorrow.
Oh, and this is a before picture:
7 of those boxes and the suitcase ... oh yea!
So now, I'm sitting here, stuffed and happy, re-playing the day's events in my mind (and of course Mandana has to call me and make me tell her everything that happened, because she doesn't want to wait to read the blog.)
After going through preliminary matters, the other side did a brief, and uncompelling opening statement. I followed with my opening, and the other side put on their first witness (one of the company reps) until lunch. I thought I had done a decent job with my opening, but the feedback that I got from my clients was that they were very happy with it. So far, so good. Everyone was very happy at lunch, because we thought we were doing well, but also because the arbitrator seems to be really smart and well-prepared. He's read the materials and understands them very well - well enough to be asking very smart questions during the examinations. Because the other side doesn't really have a case, it really bodes well for us that the arbitrator will know what's going on.
After lunch, the testimony of the company rep finished, but instead of doing his cross, we took the expert, so that the expert wouldn't have to stay for an extra day (and charge like 5 grand for it ... the bastard has already charged about $55K for his report and testimony!!! Ridiculous!)
Anyway, their expert was this nice old guy, and he seemed fairly credible, but from what my clients tell me, I crossed the bejesus out of him. My senior client, who has NEVER used the term "great" when referring to me, and has told me I've dona a good job maybe once or twice so far, told me that I did a great cross and that this was my calling. He said that while I was doing my cross, he and my other client were looking at each other and giddy with joy. :)
It was amazing ... I haven't done this in years now, but once I started, it was just like the old days. I got on a roll and next thing you know, I was having my way with this guy. And the attorneys on the other side didn't look very good either, so it seemed to have been a success all around. (At one point, one of their attorneys made an objection, and the arbitrator turns to him and says: "listen, just between the two of us, that was not a good objection." lol OWNED!
I'm exhausted, but it feels really great to have gotten things off on the right foot. It's important to my own psyche, but also because I feel good about having instilled more confidence in my client. I think that up until today, although he thought that I was fairly competent, he really wasn't sure what to expect. I know that he really wanted to have tried this case himself (yes, he's a lawyer) so he was a bit disappointed that he couldn't get in on the action. Now, I think he's happy about having hired me. At least for now :)
Let's just hope the arbitrator saw things the way we did. Now I have to get back to work, prepping for this cross tomorrow.
Oh, and this is a before picture:
7 of those boxes and the suitcase ... oh yea!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The day before the trial!!
The trial starts tomorrow, and as always, I don't feel nearly as ready as I want to feel. The butterflies are creeping up and I start questioning whether I've done everything I need to do to be ready for this thing. It's hard enough to try a case when you're fully prepared (there are always surprises that hit you when you least expect them) ... but here, we haven't had full discovery, and I keep wondering if this guy has something up his sleeve. Shady as he is, I wouldn't be surprised if he were trying to sandbag me with something.
I'm also wondering how the arbitrator is going to respond to me and my style. Judges usually make up their minds fairly early in trials, and if this guy doesn't like me from the get-go, I'm in for a long week. I can pretty much say that one of the most unnerving things do have to do is to be standing in front of someone, arguing, when you know he doesn't like you or your position, and that he wants to rule against you. It's sort of like trying to swim upstream against a strong current ... You start to struggle and you swim harder, but you notice you're not getting anywhere, and soon you get exhausted and the realization hits you that no matter how hard you struggle, you're not going to make it.
When you're in the middle of an argument and this happens, you lose confidence (which is 90% of public speaking) and part of you wants to give up and sit down, while another part realizes that you don't have a choice but to go on. So you go on, but knowing that your efforts are in vain, a part of you shuts off, and you turn into a robot. You start sweating, and sometimes your heart starts to beat so loudly, you can hear the pounding over your own words. Your mouth is moving and you hear yourself speaking, but what you say doesn't resonate with you ... you don't believe any of it - it's almost as if you're hearing someone else talk - and you're just looking forward to the relief of it all being over.
Of course none of that is going to happen to me this week. I feel good about my case, I'm representing the good guys, and I'm just excited about getting in there and knocking heads with this guy. This is going to be a dog-fight, and I can get down & dirty with the best of em. So whatever you got, bring it on, bitches!
I'm also wondering how the arbitrator is going to respond to me and my style. Judges usually make up their minds fairly early in trials, and if this guy doesn't like me from the get-go, I'm in for a long week. I can pretty much say that one of the most unnerving things do have to do is to be standing in front of someone, arguing, when you know he doesn't like you or your position, and that he wants to rule against you. It's sort of like trying to swim upstream against a strong current ... You start to struggle and you swim harder, but you notice you're not getting anywhere, and soon you get exhausted and the realization hits you that no matter how hard you struggle, you're not going to make it.
When you're in the middle of an argument and this happens, you lose confidence (which is 90% of public speaking) and part of you wants to give up and sit down, while another part realizes that you don't have a choice but to go on. So you go on, but knowing that your efforts are in vain, a part of you shuts off, and you turn into a robot. You start sweating, and sometimes your heart starts to beat so loudly, you can hear the pounding over your own words. Your mouth is moving and you hear yourself speaking, but what you say doesn't resonate with you ... you don't believe any of it - it's almost as if you're hearing someone else talk - and you're just looking forward to the relief of it all being over.
Of course none of that is going to happen to me this week. I feel good about my case, I'm representing the good guys, and I'm just excited about getting in there and knocking heads with this guy. This is going to be a dog-fight, and I can get down & dirty with the best of em. So whatever you got, bring it on, bitches!
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