Dallas Bar Association
HEADNOTES Focus ADR & Collaborative Law
July 2017 Volume 42 Number 7
Charla G. Aldous: 2017 Trial Lawyer of the Year BY ANDREW M. JONES
Tough. Passionate. Persistent. Dedicated. These are just a few terms that describe the Dallas Bar Association’s 2017 Trial Lawyer of the Year Charla Aldous. When she is in the courtroom, her opposing counsel know they had better be prepared for battle because Aldous is a warrior in the legal arena—known both for her tenacious advocacy and her highly effective courtroom presence. An apt illustration is a 1990s case where Aldous represented residents of a trailer park whose water supply had been contaminated by a gasoline additive. The additive, MTBE, caused water to taste and smell like turpentine. It has since been banned in more than 20 states and has been the subject of massive cleanup efforts. Her clients in the case were of limited means and otherwise powerless against a powerful corporate defendant. Thank- Charla Aldous fully, they found a voice in Aldous. The case settled in the tens of millions of dollars, after a liability verdict but before the jury concluded deliberations on damages. In appreciation of Aldous’ efforts, the trailer park residents gave Aldous a gold-plated guardian angel lapel pin. “They told me that I was their guardian angel, sent to protect them,” Aldous recalled. “Now, I wear it to every one of my trials.” The pin is very small, scarcely larger than a thumbnail. But it seems larger than life to Aldous, serving as an important reminder of the people she represents. “I usually represent people who would otherwise not have a voice,” Aldous explained. “I represent the underdog.” Her practice is focused on plaintiffs’ work, including personal injury, wrongful death, birth injury, and medical malpractice. She has tried some 200 jury trials. She collaborates with several lawyers, and she is involved at least in some way in every case the firm handles. She speaks with conspicuous traces of a thick Texas accent, one that she said her children (all four of them) mocked as a “hillbilly” accent. “I would tell them, ‘Well, you know what that makes you, right? That makes you the children of a hillbilly.’” Her children are now grown, but when they were young, Aldous (by then a single mother) would often put pictures of her clients on the refrigerator at home. She did this to help her children understand what she was doing, especially at times when she was working very long hours on big cases. “These are my other family right now,” she would tell her kids, “and I’m fighting for them, helping them.”
Aldous’ uptown office is brimming with mementos from notable cases she has handled. One is the framed belt of a sick client whose weight loss required him to punch in new belt holes to keep his trousers up. Another memento is a lucky two-dollar bill inside a Vietnamese New Year card from a nurse whose case made national news following the 2014 Ebola scare. Yet another is the hat of a client who had undergone chemotherapy. The client, who settled a malpractice case shortly before he died, thereby securing resources for his family, put the hat on Aldous’ head when his case concluded. While the mementos often mark very sad and difficult situations, they also serve to demonstrate that Aldous’ efforts have helped secure justice for her clients and their families. Growing up in Sherman, Texas, the daughter of a Pentecostal minister, Aldous never imagined a career as a lawyer in her future. Advanced education was not an expectation or even a possibility growing up; instead, Aldous took part in a high school vocational program that allowed her to leave school at noon to go to work. When she enrolled in Grayson County Community College, her only goal was to become the best legal assistant possible. Thankfully, a history professor at Grayson County saw a different path for Aldous. The professor asked Aldous what she scored on her ACT/SAT tests. “I hadn’t even taken the tests,” Aldous said. But soon, at the encouragement of her history professor, she enrolled at Austin College, where she went on to graduate with her bachelor’s degree. “At Austin College, political science Professor Ken Street was instrumental to me. He told me, ‘You’re going to law school.’ He changed my life.” Aldous went straight from Austin College to the Southern Methodist University School of Law, where she graduated in 1985. Aldous began her legal career doing insurance defense work with Henderson, Bryant & Wolfe in Sherman. She tried cases and immediately knew that she loved the work. In court, Aldous applied the public speaking skills she had developed growing up in church. She quickly made her mark as an excellent trial lawyer. After representing the plaintiffs in the Conoco case, Aldous shifted to plaintiffs’ work, and she has never turned back. She has since secured hundreds of millions of dollars in injury verdicts for injured plaintiffs. Her success has earned Aldous numerous professional awards for trial advocacy, continued on page 8
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Focus
ADR & Collaborative Law
Tips for the New Arbitration Litigator BY PAULO FLORES
So you have tried a number of trials, and now you have your first arbitration; how hard can it be? The answer is—not any harder than trial, just different in some respects. Below are tips for the litigator who finds himself or herself in arbitration for the first time. (They should also serve as a good refresher for those experienced in arbitration.) The most important aspect of arbitrating a case is preparation. While no different from trial in this regard, due to its less formal nature, litigators sometimes take arbitration less seriously than trial. Prepare not only for the arbitration hearing, but also at every step of the arbitration. Just because you are not faced with the formality of court proceedings does not mean you should not take the arbitration process seriously. For example, docket all of your arbitration deadlines just as you would your court deadlines, and abide by them. Typically the arbitration process commences with a prehearing telephone conference with the arbitrator and the parties’ attorneys. The primary purpose of this conference is to schedule the hearing dates, and to schedule the other deadlines in the case. Be sure to know your and your client’s schedules before the preliminary conference. The prehearing or preliminary conference is often your first chance to interact with your arbitrator—make a good impression by being prepared. Consider submitting a jointly prepared, proposed agreed scheduling order to the Arbitrator before the preliminary conference. Treat your arbitrator with respect. Most attorneys adhere to this tenet. Nevertheless, some attorneys will argue with (as opposed to arguing to) their arbitrator, or raise their voice to their arbitrator. Arbitrators are impartial; they are also human. The strength of an attorney’s argument tends to be inversely proportional to how aggressively he or she makes it. By all means one can be passionate, but there is a line between effective and ineffective advocacy that differs in arbitration from a jury trial. Generally you should not be trying the case to the arbitrator in
the same manner that you might see a TV or movie lawyer character trying his or her case to a jury. Drama does not carry well with arbitrators. They want—“the facts, and just the facts” (and the law). I am not suggesting a lifeless, boring presentation. A little bit of drama, raised voice, and incredulity at the right time is part of effective advocacy. Its overuse, however, can potentially lose you your primary audience in an arbitration—the arbitrator. Arbitrators like demonstrative evidence—pictures, video, charts, plans, summaries, mockups, etc. Use these freely. They break up testimony and help clarify it. Use the fact that almost everything comes in at arbitration to your advantage. Cross-examination—keep it short and targeted. Prove your case through your direct testimony. A majority of attorneys try to prove their case through an opposing witness by cross-examination (usually with open ended questions). Not surprisingly, the vast majority of this testimony simply confirms and affirms what the witness already testified to, and if the attorney does manage to get a good answer out of the witness, it is buried in the tedium of all the other questioning. Pick three or so key areas, nail them, and move on. Use opening argument for a general factual overview of what you expect the arbitrator to hear; use closing argument to argue the law. Do not use closing to recount to the arbitrator everything the arbitrator has heard for the past few days. Closing argument should be the time for you to argue and present the applicable legal concepts to the arbitrator, with maybe a few, overarching factual themes thrown in. If you have an affirmative claim, do not forget damages. Attorneys frequently concentrate on liability, and give a short shrift to damages. At a minimum, have as an exhibit, a one page chart summarizing damages. The easier you make it for the arbitrator, the easier it is for him or her to draft an award in your favor. HN Paulo Flores, is a partner with Peckar & Abramson, P.C. He can be reached at pflores@pecklaw.com.
The 2017 DBA Membership Directory is now available in print & online. Check out the directory and legal resource guide used by Dallas attorneys! To view the Online Directory and Legal Resource & Expert Witness Guide, go to www.dallasbar.org/pictorial and login. To request a copy of the new directory, contact pictorial@dallasbar.org.