Attorney Journal, Orange County, Volume 109

ORANGE COUNTY

Volume 109, 2015 • $6.95

Proportionality— Are discovery costs proportional to the value and importance of the case?

Samantha Green Competence = Confidence

Mike O’Horo

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE OF THE MONTH

Jude Basile Bar Hopping

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE OF THE MONTH

Stephan Cohn

Creative Problem-Solving

Rainmakers Don’t Make Rain. They Just Know When to Carry an Umbrella

Robert Denney

A Step-by-Step Plan for Encouraging Partner Compliance with Administrative Tasks

Frederick J. Esposito, Jr.

Attorney of the Month

Ronson J. Shamoun The No Worries Tax Attorney

Specialization matters.

Having represented more law firms over the last 25 years than any other broker in the region, no one understands their real estate needs better than I do.

— JASON HUGHES President & CEO, Hughes Marino

ORANGE COUNTY CORPORATE REAL ESTATE ADVISORS

At Hughes Marino we only represent tenants and buyers – never landlords – so we never have a conflict of interest.

Our only fiduciary duty is to our client, the tenant, and we are wholly committed to protecting their interests. If you are not happy with your service or results, then we will give you our commission. Guaranteed.

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IRVINE CENTURY CITY SAN DIEGO DOWNTOWN LA

2015 EDITION—NO.109

TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 Rainmakers Don’t Make Rain They Just Know When to Carry an Umbrella

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by Robert Denney

8 Proportionality Are discovery costs proportional to the value and importance of the case?

by Samantha Green

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Brian Topor

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE OF THE MONTH

10 Stephan Cohn Creative problem-solving

by Karen Gorden

EDITOR Wendy Price

16

CREATIVE SERVICES Skidmutro Creative Partners CIRCULATION Angela Watson

by Frederick J. Esposito

PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Griffiths

by Jennifer Hadley

CONTRIBUTING EDITORIALISTS Frederick J. Esposito Robert Denney Mike O’Horo Samantha Green

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES info@AttorneyJournal.us SUBMIT AN ARTICLE Editorial@AttorneyJournal.us OFFICE 10601-G Tierrasanta Blvd., Suite 131 San Diego, CA 92124 P 858.505.0314 • F 858.524.5808 www.AttorneyJournal.us

ATTORNEY OF THE MONTH

16 Ronson J. Shamoun The No Worries Tax Attorney

STAFF WRITERS Jennifer Hadley Bridget Brookman Karen Gorden

WEBMASTER Mariusz Opalka

12 A Step-by-Step Plan for Encouraging Partner Compliance with Administrative Tasks

22 Competence = Confidence

by Mike O’Horo

26

24 COMMUNITYnews

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE OF THE MONTH

26 Jude Basile Bar Hopping

by Jennifer Hadley

ADDRESS CHANGES Address corrections can be made via fax, email or postal mail.

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Attorney Journal makes every effort to publish credible, responsible advertisements. Inclusion of product advertisements or announcements does not imply endorsement.

Attorney Journal is a trademark of Sticky Media, LLC. Not affiliated with any other trade publication or association. Copyright 2015 by Sticky Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced without written permission from Sticky Media, LLC. Printed in the USA

Rainmakers Don’t Make Rain They Just Know When to Carry an Umbrella

by Robert Denney Bob Denney is President of Robert Denney Associates, Inc. He and the firm provide management, marketing and strategic planning counsel to law firms and privately held companies throughout the United States and parts of Canada. He has authored or co-authored seven books and has written many articles on these subjects. For information about Bob, the firm and their services, visit their website www.robertdenney.com.

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ost law firms, regardless of size, generally depend on a few rainmakers to generate new business. What many lawyers fail to realize, however, is that the ability to develop new business isn’t a natural talent that is bestowed at birth. Most rainmakers are made, not born. In other words, lawyers who learn the basic techniques—and apply them—can generate more new business than they ever thought possible. And in today’s legal market, every firm needs every lawyer, not just the rainmakers, developing new business.

Here are some of the basic techniques.

• Be the best lawyer you can be. Most rainmakers do excellent work.

• Most new business comes as the result of relationships, referrals or reputation.

• Develop and maintain relationships with the following: Current clients Prospective clients Referral sources Other attorneys in your firm Your own personal contacts—friends, neighbors, relatives.

• If you refer to another lawyer, remember one lawyer’s definition of a good referral: “Can do the work. Won’t steal the client. Will refer back.”

• Whenever possible, refer to attorneys in your firm. And educate them so they can refer work to you.

• Call each person you refer someone to so they know you made a referral to them and are also ready when your party contacts them.

• Don’t try to be a salesperson. It turns most people off. Be a problem solver.

• Be a good listener. Hear what is said—and what is meant.

• Understand the Principle of Transfer. Non-lawyers are strange people. If they know you are a lawyer, and if they are impressed with you and the way you handle yourself in a non-legal situation, they will transfer this impression and assume you are also a good lawyer. This really means you may be developing business even when you’re not developing business.

• Be alert. Many rainmaking opportunities are unplanned and unexpected. The person on the opposite side of your current case or transaction may call you to handle a matter for them tomorrow.

6 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

• Develop marketing habits. No matter how busy you are, call a prospective client or referral source or follow up on a lead every day.

• Don’t complain about being too busy or over-worked. That can turn away prospective clients and referral sources. When asked how business is, say “Business is great—but we always have room for good new clients.”

• Be active outside the firm. But select only organizations or activities that you believe in and enjoy. Then be a participant, not just a joiner. Develop a reputation as a source of good ideas and a problem-solver. The Principle of Transfer will take over from there.

• Never say “no” when a good client, prospect or referral source asks you to participate in a civic or charitable activity.

• Get comfortable with social media.

• Write for publication (if you have writing ability). This doesn’t have to be for bar journals. There are over 90,000 general, business and trade publications in the United States alone that are constantly looking for material.

• Speak (if you have speaking ability). Organizations from the local garden club to the local bar association or the Business Roundtable are always looking for speakers.

• When meeting with prospective clients: Interview them first. Get them to discuss their wants, needs and problems.

Ask about other issues they may not have thought of.

Ask what their budget is or what they expect the legal fees will be.

Respond to what they need or want—unless there is an ethical or legal problem. You can’t “sell” a prospect what they don’t need or want.

If they are also interviewing other firms or lawyers, ask what their timetable is.

If you are making a presentation in response to an RFP, conclude with a statement like: “We would like to represent you and hope you will select us.” You may think that’s obvious, but to the prospect it may not be unless you say it. Sometimes that’s the only difference between you and another lawyer who didn’t ask for the business.

Use as many of these techniques as you can—and keep your umbrella handy! n

Proportionality Are discovery costs proportional to the value and importance of the case?

by Samantha Green Samantha Green is E-Discovery Counsel for DTI. She has advised, written and spoken on all phases of the electronically stored information (ESI) life cycle. She has worked on many government investigations, second requests and litigation crossing all spectrums. Prior to DTI, Samantha was the E-Discovery Attorney for Blank Rome LLP.

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t is well-documented that e-discovery consumes increasing percentages of overall civil litigation costs. Judges and legal professionals are actively exploring a variety of initiatives to address the problem, and several recent conferences and legal rulings have taken up the theme of proportionality.

Proportionality shifts attention from the general problem of highvolume, prohibitively expensive productions to a more focused analysis of whether discovery costs are proportionate to the value and the importance of the specific case in question. The American College of Trial Lawyers Task Force on Discovery has declared that “Proportionality should be the most important principle applied to all discovery.”1 Federal Rule 26(b)(2)(C)(iii), the existing procedural rule that addresses proportionality, is remarkably lucid and robust: On motion or on its own, the court must limit the frequency or extent of discovery otherwise allowed by these rules or by local rule if it determines that… the burden or expense of the proposed discovery outweighs its likely benefit, considering the needs of the case, the amount in controversy, the parties’ resources, the importance of the issues at stake in the action, and the importance of the discovery in resolving the issues.

Considerable attention has been paid in the last few years to the many factors contributing to the growing “burden or expense” of e-discovery, yet it is striking in retrospect how quiet the judiciary has been, until very recently, about the concept of proportionality as it appears in the Federal Rules. The rule unambiguously states that the court must balance the scope of proposed discovery against case-specific variables such as the amount of damages and fees in question, the risks to the parties, the magnitude of the legal issues at stake and the relative importance of electronic evidence in arriving at a resolution. Although proportionality has often been ignored or overlooked in the past, it now appears that the judiciary is undergoing an important cultural shift. Before, judges may have been waiting for properly formed motions to invoke the proportionality requirement in considering broad discovery requests. That is no longer the case, as Judge Lee H. Rosenthal recently demonstrated in Rimkus v. Cammarata, where she makes explicit reference to the rule and cites proportionality as the decisive factor in determining what is “acceptable” and “reasonable” in “preservation and discovery conduct.”

Judge David J. Waxse, author of several ground-breaking 8 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

A CASE STUDY In a recent example, a corporate client defending itself in a matter in which plaintiff’s proposal for expanded discovery would actually have cost more than the entire amount at issue in the case!

The original discovery request was for seven core custodians, requiring collection of 38GB of data; of that, 1.4GB (or less than 4%) was determined to be relevant after searching the data with the latest technology, using client-supplied search terms. The cost of discovery for those seven custodians was a reasonable $10,000, but in a motion to compel, the opposition requested an additional 65 custodians. Looking at actual processing and searching performed for the original custodians, reasonable per-unit cost estimate was established and, in response to the motion, the court was provided with an affidavit showing tiered costs: actual costs for the original seven custodians, and cost projections that included half (39 total) and all (72 total) of the additional custodians requested in the new motion. Based on the original “sample” of seven, discovery experts were able to project collection of all additional custodians at a cost of $153,000, an amount clearly out of line with the $140,000 at issue in the entire case. In light of the documented lack of proportionality between the discovery request and the value of the case, and given the low percentage of relevant data in the initial sample from the most promising custodians, the motion to expand scope made little sense and was dismissed. decisions in e-discovery disputes, noted he was surprised when he recently re-read the rule and realized it set forth an explicit requirement—“the court must”—rather than a mere recommendation or guideline. Waxse now refers to the proportionality provision in the Federal Rules as “probably the most underused, valuable rule we have… Judges on their own are supposed to consider this…We don’t need to change the rule; we need to start using the rule.”

WHAT DOES THE SHIFT TO PROPORTIONALITY MEAN FOR LITIGANTS? The new emphasis on proportionality has a number of practical implications for e-discovery. For starters, both the number and

the scope of discovery requests are likely to be subject to more limits and to closer judicial scrutiny, reducing costs. Adversarial conduct in the discovery process will be increasingly discouraged.

Meaningful cooperation between counsel—which Judge Paul Grimm in Mancia has already called out as a clear requirement of FRCP 26(g)—will be paramount, and providing accurate, courtconsumable documentation will be the best means for counsel to demonstrate compliance with that standard and avoid possible sanctions. Aggressive, boilerplate discovery requests designed to overwhelm an adversary and force settlement clearly undermine proportionality and reasonable inquiry 26(g) principles and are increasingly unlikely to succeed.

Whether your case involves massive volumes of electronic evidence from across the enterprise or just a single custodian, it is now essential that you have the means to quantify the impact of proposed discovery in terms of costs, time and risk, and be able to monitor your progress as discovery proceeds.

In effect, both parties to a case will find it necessary to undertake a detailed cost-benefit analysis early in the litigation process. Parties should specify the anticipated impact of proposed discovery (in terms of such factors as cost, time, risk and disruption of day-to-day business activities), and then be prepared to weigh these burdens against the overall value of the case, the significance of its core legal issues and the anticipated benefits of the requested evidence for its resolution.

Proportionality considerations effectively shift the focus in discovery arguments from broad, universal standards to databased, case-specific information: What is the average number of documents per custodian?

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How much will it cost per gigabyte to prepare, review and produce a particular data set with a specified combination of file types?

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What percentage of documents can we expect to be relevant, given a proposed scope of discovery?

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And how might that percentage change if the scope were limited by a reasoned data reduction strategy?

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In many cases, litigants will be urged to focus discovery efforts on the data that appears, from initial assessments, to be the most relevant to the issues and least burdensome to produce.

Productions should be conceived as an iterative, phased activity in which the scope of each successive effort is narrower and more closely targeted to the core legal issues of the case.

It’s clear that defensible data sampling and search techniques using advanced tools designed specifically for e-discovery will play an increasingly important role in this process. But before meaningful sampling can be employed, data must first be processed effectively and defensibly to expose underlying information that can be used to create useful and representative samples. Statistical data sampling using vetted, state-of-the-industry technology can be extremely valuable for testing search terms, specifying data quantities and types (and the per-unit cost of processing, reviewing and producing them), and identifying sensible, cost-effective culling and review strategies.

Also, at various stages in the e-discovery process, attorneys using

WHEN SHOULD YOU ENGAGE AN E-DISCOVERY SERVICES PROVIDER? When your opponent’s discovery requests are disproportionate to the value and importance of the case

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When you need third-party validation to back up claims or counterclaims about the scope and cost of proposed discovery

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When a case involves complex file types or combinations of file types, such as multiple email platforms

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When a case requires multiple rolling productions

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When a case requires multiple productions to multiple parties

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When your IT department is overtaxed (and perhaps already outsourcing some of its functions)

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When you expect to be litigating multiple matters that are related or overlapping, and may be able to apply repeatable processes across those matters and increase efficiency

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When you anticipate long-term litigation

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When you face...

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– a government investigation of a class action suit – a high-stakes IP-related matter that threatens the business model – an employment-related matter a robust review tool with a flexible, intuitive search interface can perform ad hoc sampling to test search terms and strategies as a way of validating and refining their discovery approach.

Proportionality requires a more formal, quantified approach to discovery, and it is critical to engage project managers that have the legal and technical expertise to help you substantiate discovery arguments with detailed, data-based documentation.

Of course, this intense focus on the details of e-discovery and data handling can distract attorneys from their primary responsibility, which is to focus on legal strategy. Involve your e-discovery partners early, because they understand cost drivers best. They can also help legal teams use the most precise methods and technologies available for projecting early on what scope of inquiry is reasonable and proportional to the value of the case, and provide timely reporting on the status of discovery activities as they proceed.

The recent attention paid by judges and other legal experts to the proportionality requirement of the Federal Rules is a promising development in the battle against escalating discovery costs. The rule is clear, the judges have declared their intention to enforce it, and thus it is likely to become a valuable tool for defendants fending off overly broad discovery requests designed to force early settlement.When the volume of requested data and the burdens of processing it are disproportionate to the value of a given case and to the legal issues at hand, legal teams with the right partners, the technology and the expertise to provide defensible documentation will now be able to fight back. n Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015 9

STEPHAN COHN

Shareholder, Berger Kahn JOURNAL

FEATURED PROFESTSHIOENMAOL NPRTOFILE OF

2015

H

B Y K A R E N G OR DE N

Creative problem-solving is just the beginning of what longtime Orange County resident and Equity Shareholder Steve Cohn finds so enjoyable about his practice. Cohn specializes in insurance, business and real estate law at Berger Kahn in Irvine.

“I enjoy helping my clients resolve legal issues. Currently, a significant part of my practice involves helping insurance companies with claims. It requires a lot of attention to detail, patience and sometimes I deal with combative claimants.

While many attorneys dread this, it is something I really enjoy,” says Cohn.

Indeed, it is clear that he not only likes his specific role at the award-winning firm, he’s proud of the unique environment he has helped to create at Berger Kahn.

When it comes to work, Cohn gives his all to each client, saying, “It is not only my way, but the Berger Kahn way to bring the absolute best to everything that we do.”

Yet, the firm isn’t one to put on airs for others. “We don’t have our degrees or awards hanging on our walls. We adopted casual dress all the way back in the 1980s and were among the very first law firms to become an all Mac office. We enjoy being somewhat maverick. We try to treat our clients as we would want to be treated. We value innovation over tradition, and that is something that makes us unique among our peers.”

According to Cohn, his colleagues are what make his firm special. “Our group of six equity shareholders has been together

10 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

for over 20 years,” he says, acknowledging the results that have kept the firm growing for the past 5 decades. “We are good at what we do, and we are proud to be a little different.”

Cohn’s desire to help others was ingrained in him from childhood. “In my family, education was emphasized. I wanted to help people and be of service. My two brothers are doctors and my sister is a psychotherapist. I get queasy just getting blood drawn, so I became an attorney,” he laughs. “I think my desire to serve has made me someone who is unassuming, empathetic and understanding of people.”

Cohn found the perfect venue to maximize these strengths when he joined Berger Kahn in 1987. A partner since 1994, Cohn provides leadership and knowledge to the firm quietly, with expertise and unparalleled skills in serving the Orange County community where he has lived for over 40 years.

Cohn counts himself fortunate to be able to practice law in the community he has called home for almost half of a century.

“I love spending time at our beautiful beaches, and harbors, surfing, running, paddle boarding and biking. Practicing law in the county where I grew up is deeply satisfying, and I feel very connected to the community where I live, work and play.” n

A STEP-BY-STEP PLAN FOR ENCOURAGING PARTNER COMPLIANCE WITH ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS

by Frederick J. Esposito, Jr.

M

any firm managers and administrators have experienced attention and, as a result, treat it all as an afterthought. Also, some the challenge of asking partners to comply with adminpartners may think that anything other than actual legal work has istrative tasks such as entering time, reviewing billings no place on their to-do lists. But some lawyers (with the exception and collecting aged receivables. Some in management accept deof solo practitioners) may not fully comprehend the impact that feat and live with the status quo, while others try enforcement tasks such as keeping contemporaneous time records, billing Jenniferquickly Hadleyand accurately, and collecting receivables in a timely way tactics that “punish” partners for their lack of compliance.byThe punitive approaches include fining partners for missing time and has on the firm’s cash flow and ultimate profitability. They may more extreme actions such as withholding draws, distributions figure that as long as they’re receiving their draws, distributions or paychecks, which can have serious ramifications in the firm. or paychecks, everything is fine. There may be little motivation As Charlie Duggan used to say, “We’re interested in compliance, to comply, even in firms with compensation systems that provide which is what the neighbors seem to want. Some want punishincentive for compliance. ment, but that’s not always the best thing.”

Therefore, to get away from these conventional mind-sets, The question then becomes, instead of enforcing partner those in management need to be proactive about sensitizing compliance, how can firms successfully encourage it? The crux partners to the business end of the law firm and why is understanding what is at the root of compliance issues. compliance with administrative tasks is critical, not only to their individual performance but that of the firm—and how TAKE A STEP BACK AND ADDRESS the lack of compliance can impact them individually and CONVENTIONAL THINKING collectively. Without proper understanding of each individual Many partners dread keeping tabs on their administrative tasks and partner’s necessary contribution to the whole, despite the best often think of it as “the worst part of law firm life.” To compound of incentives or otherwise, compliance will be limited. Once the issue, partners don’t like to be reminded that they are missing you have made clear the individual and firm benefits, you have time or that their billing is overdue or that their collections require a far better chance of achieving compliance.

12 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

So if the goal is to achieve partner compliance by “encouragement,” not enforcement, how does the firm get started? Here is a plan to help you.

SCHEDULE SHORT BUT REGULAR PARTNER SEMINARS Regular seminars provide consistency and continuity in learning, helping to reinforce concepts and reduce backsliding.

An hour per seminar is usually sufficient, so they can be done in a lunch-and-learn format. The key is to keep the seminars brief, engaging and focused on one concept at a time.

For example, one month the partners could review the importance of contemporaneous time entry and the impact it has on potential billings and collections. The next month’s seminar could take the time-entry discussion a step further and discuss how billing write-downs and accounts receivable write-offs affect profitability. As each month’s topics are discussed and questions raised, it will provide topics for further seminars. For example, after the session on write-downs and write-offs, the next seminar could open the door to additional profitability and “loss prevention” topics, such as addressing the effectiveness of engagement letters and other components that improve the firm’s performance.

An essential element for success is to provide a take-away from each seminar, offering practical suggestions for improvement that can be implemented right away. By consistently building on the monthly topics and their takeaways, the partners will become more invested and gain a better understanding of the components involved. In the process, compliance will improve and become less of an issue over time.

FIND THE RIGHT PRESENTER Success in educating partners also requires identifying the right presenter, someone who can effectively convey the importance of concepts such as contemporaneous timekeeping, billing and collections, and individual and client profitability. To ensure the partners have trust and confidence in what is being said, credibility is essential.

In most cases, the firm administrator or another in-house expert, such as a respected compliance-minded senior partner, is best suited to the task because partners already know and generally trust these individuals. Overall, though, it will hinge on their knowledge, credibility, presentation skills and ability to motivate and engage the partners. If the firm lacks the necessary talent or expertise, you should consider outside consultants. But if you can identify an in-house “star” resource, the chances of success are better.

GRAB ATTENTION WITH RELEVANT STATISTICS Statistics and applicable quotes can be very effective in capturing partner attention, particularly when they’re used at the start of a seminar. Consider the impact of these, for example: • “Average leakage due to an individual’s failure to accurately

record all billable time ranges from $20K to $40K annually per attorney, while the overhead costs of keeping time can add up to roughly $16K per attorney per year.”

• “Attorneys who keep contemporaneous time records enjoy 25 to 40 percent higher income than those who don’t.”

Statistics like these can have real meaning and provoke thought, especially if the statistic is going to shine a light on increasing or decreasing firm revenues or increasing or decreasing partner profits.

To make your case, make sure all statistics come from reputable legal management sources (like the American Bar Association or well-regarded law firm management consultants). Not only will solid statistics give your seminar credibility, they will help make an impact on partners and help get you the needed buy-in.

ENGAGE WITH INTERACTION AND HUMOR Apart from complying with administrative requests, the last thing most partners enjoy is sitting through seminars. The challenge, then, is to keep them away from their cell phones and PDAs by making the educational experience interactive and engaging.

PowerPoint presentations have their own stigma for being boring and stilted, but if they are well organized, concise and visually appealing, with colorful clip art, a touch of animation and applicable photos, it will carry your message a long way.

Pose scenarios and ask pointed questions, too. Reinforce the concepts discussed using step-by-step examples to illustrate the process and facilitate discussion. The secret is to educate in a relaxed forum, keeping it light and, most important, injecting some fun. A simple, innocuous question specific to a practice area, delivered with a touch of humor, can often facilitate a meaningful discussion. If you design the presentation to be an informative and entertaining “page-turner,” partners will stay focused and be more likely to remember it.

PROVIDE MEANINGFUL REPORTING AND INFORMATION TO INTERPRET IT After a few seminars, partners will better appreciate the importance of complying with administrative tasks, but they will need to see some results of their compliance. Many partners already receive monthly management and financial reports, which may end up lost in a pile of paper because it doesn’t seem to apply to them. It’s important to make sure partners are receiving reporting that is concise and responsive to their individual needs and practices. At minimum, they should be receiving an aged work-in-process (unbilled fees/expenses) report, an aged A/R report for all aged accounts over 60 days and a billable-hours report on a monthly basis.

For more concise reporting, include a “fiscal snapshot” report showing all of the key information for the current and prior year on one sheet. Key information includes: • Total billings and collections • Aged A/R and work in process Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015 13

• Billable and non-billable hours • Time write-downs and write-ups • A/R write-offs • Billing/collection realization rates • A profit/loss summary If you can provide simple graphical analysis (e.g., bar graphs), even better. Statistics and analysis that can be illustrated will go a long way in gaining interest and understanding—and often partners will even request additional reporting to better understand and reconcile the fiscal snapshot.

REGULARLY MEET WITH PARTNERS INDIVIDUALLY Regular meetings with individual partners will reinforce education and help get ongoing buy-in for compliance.

During each meeting, it’s important to take the time to review the monthly reporting with the individual partner and highlight areas that need to be addressed. Review the billing, collection and profit/loss performance on the partners’ work and their clients’ matters, and discuss whether, where and how improvements can be made. Taking the time necessary to help partners understand and develop action plans to maximize profits is time well spent and will create a sense of accountability.

Individual action plans could be practice area-specific or more general, including steps involved in minimizing write-downs and write-offs to boost billings and collections, increasing

14 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

billable hours where necessary, and improving lawyer and staff leveraging and billing rates—all part of a customized approach to educating the partners on the economics of their practice and how to maximize profits.

KEEP EDUCATING Once the partner education process begins, strive to continue it daily. If you read a good article on billing practices or another management topic, forward it to your partners for their “FYI.” The goal is to keep partners regularly in sync with the economics of the firm, so compliance with tasks such as time entry, billing and collections becomes more of a daily routine and not a hindrance.

Follow these steps to encourage compliance with administrative tasks and not only can you improve overall compliance, but some partners will likely become rejuvenated and take greater interest in their practice and firm performance. It’s a win-win scenario— your partners benefit and your firm benefits. The key is to keep educating at every opportunity. n Frederick J. Esposito, Jr. is Executive Director of Rivkin Radler.

He has more than 20 years of law and accounting firm experience.

He writes and speaks extensively on legal management topics, including billing, collections, financial and profitability models, risk management, human resource development, project management and alternative fee arrangements. Follow him @lawmgtguru. This article originally appeared in the Volume 36, Number 6, Page 36 issue of Law Practice, a publication of the ABA’s Law Practice Division.

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No Worries TAX ATTORNEY THE

Ronson J. Shamoun and His Team of Highly Specialized Tax Attorneys at RJS LAW Work Tirelessly to Help Others Rebuild Their Lives and Better Their Hometown Community

ATTORNEY

OF THE MONTH

2015 2014

by jennifer hadley

“P

eople come to us when they are in a jam,” says Ronson “Ronnie” Shamoun, JD., LL.M., founder of RJS LAW—A Tax Law Firm, with offices in San Diego, Irvine, and Beverly Hills. “They have had a hiccup in their lives—divorce, a lawsuit, loss of income. Some event caused them to get behind with their taxes. They pay their rent, electricity, and employees’ wages, but get behind on sales taxes or payroll taxes. These aren’t hardened criminals,” he adds. But all the same, they desperately need Shamoun’s help.

“The government agencies are aggressive. They will levy the money you have in your accounts, levy your accounts receivable, and can seize assets,” he explains. That’s precisely where the team of highly specialized tax attorneys at RJS LAW come in.

“We solve tax problems with both the state and IRS, including civil and criminal cases. We are here to protect our clients. We get them compliant and help them save their businesses. It’s incredibly rewarding to prevent someone from losing their business and help them rebuild their lives,” he says.

Excellence in Entrepreneurialism

A native San Diegan, Shamoun says he’d wanted to be an attorney for as long as he can remember. “I grew up next door to a CPA/Tax Attorney and I knew it was a great career path,” he says. However, an entrepreneurial streak seems imbedded in Shamoun’s DNA. Growing up with a father who is a prominent businessman and commercial real estate investor in San Diego, long before Shamoun decided to dedicate his life to helping others, he became a business owner himself. From an early age he had worked at his family’s convenience store, and by the time he had graduated law school, Shamoun was running 16 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

his own businesses. “I opened a Subway franchise, and then another Subway. Next it was a coffee shop, a convenience store, and a laundry mat,” he recalls. “I was taught that if I work hard, I might make it. But if I didn’t work hard, I’d never make it. With those odds, I decided to work hard. Fortunately, I had incredible parents who had faith in me, and their encouragement and support was unwavering.”

Still, Shamoun never lost that desire to be an advocate for others. With a deep love for his hometown, Shamoun attended the University of San Diego for his undergraduate degree in Accountancy and stayed for both his graduate and postgraduate law degrees. He also confirmed what he had suspected as a child; that working in tax law was definitely his calling.

“While I was in law school I took the Tax Litigation class with Richard Carpenter who became a mentor and close friend.

I really liked tax litigation, and after the class, I was sold on becoming a tax attorney,” he says. The desire to become not only a tax attorney, but the founder of the largest boutique tax law firm in San Diego was further reinforced by an experience while interning at the Federal Income Tax Clinic at USD. “During my time at the Federal Income Tax Clinic with Richard Carpenter, I settled seven cases and remember vividly one case in particular that spanned about three years: an Innocent Spouse Claim for a low-income woman who was recently divorced. Her husband had been hiding his business activities and she, being a loving and supportive wife, signed all of the paperwork he asked her to without question. When their divorce was finalized, he ended up leaving her with an enormous tax bill that she would never be able to pay off. She came to the Legal Clinic distraught over how she could ever

ŠBauman Photographers

RJS LAW headquarters in San Diego, located in the Ronson J. Shamoun building.

afford to pay the money back. I was able to persuade the IRS to abate the full liability. I will never forget how grateful she was when we told her that her liability was relieved.”

That experience, along with much encouragement from his father to seek a postgraduate LL.M., solidified Shamoun’s goals for the future. “While I was in law school, my dad asked if there were any degrees after my JD that I could obtain. I told him about the LL.M. in Taxation and how I could apply twelve of my tax elective units from my law school degree to the LL.M. degree, making it only one semester long. My dad encouraged me to get my LL.M. because it showed my commitment to expertise in my field, and because it was a short time commitment, I agreed.

I didn’t want to be just a tax attorney, I wanted to be a tax expert.

Now, I encourage all law school students who come to me for advice to get their LL.M. in Taxation, regardless of the area of law they intend to practice. It’s an invaluable investment you make in yourself, applicable to many areas of law.”

After working for a few years as an accountant while earning his two law degrees, Shamoun set his sights once again on a new business venture. This time, he had the vision of “creating the best tax law firm in the United States. I wanted the firm to be different, becoming a household name and international resource,” he says. In 2003, he opened the doors to his own firm, and began the daunting task of marketing himself as an attorney in his own community.

“I started out as a solo practitioner. I worked evenings and weekends at my convenience store and Subway in Ocean 18 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

Beach, trying to spread the word about my new law firm to every customer who came in. I began to build relationships with them and they started to come to me with their tax problems.

They knew they could trust me because they’d see me the next day when they came in to get their coffee or sandwich,” he says.

It suffices to say Shamoun has come a long way from the days of face-to-face marketing with his convenience store customers, but he has seen the fruits of his labor materialize into the firm that he had always envisioned. With 9 attorneys (all of whom hold an LL.M. or are in the process of obtaining it, as it is a requirement to join his firm), Shamoun has built a practice that is lauded not only for helping its clients, but for its tireless dedication to helping better the community of southern California as a whole. In 2012, he purchased a 32,500 sq. ft, four-story office building in the heart of downtown, and RJS LAW moved in to occupy the entire fourth floor. Later that year the firm expanded into Beverly Hills, and opened an office in Orange County in April of this year.

Building the Helping Brand

Shamoun’s practice today involves federal and state taxation with an emphasis in criminal tax defense, tax controversy, real estate, corporate law, and international tax. He has represented countless individuals and businesses before the IRS, the California Franchise Tax Board, the California Employment Development Department, and the California State Board of Equalization.

He’s also defended clients against criminal prosecutions by the federal government and the State of California. All told, he and

©Bauman Photographers

Ronson J. Shamoun with the RJS LAW team.

He credits much of the firm’s success and growth to the team he has assembled.

his colleagues at RJS LAW have helped thousands of clients find solutions to their civil and criminal tax matters.

“Our typical clients are business owners who have run into tax problems. Whether they are facing an audit, collections, penalty abatements, or complex tax planning, businesses always need our help, no matter the size,” he says. To that end, RJS LAW abides by a few guiding principles which Shamoun wholeheartedly believes are the reason for the firm’s incredible success and impeccable reputation with the courts, federal and state taxing agencies, and other attorneys.

“We treat our clients with compassion, advocating for and caring about each one as if they were a part of our family,” he says. “We give each client personal attention, promising a 24-hour turnaround time on all phone calls and emails. We create genuine relationships with our clients, making them friends for life. Our strategy of putting compassion at the center of everything we do has proven to be innovative. Our clients come to us scared, looking for someone they can trust and turn to in their time of need.”

To Shamoun that means that his firm must never say no to a client who needs help. “We are committed to offering reasonable rates. Not only are our rates competitive and affordable, but because of our experience, we are extremely efficient, allowing us to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete the matter,” he says.

Continuing he adds, “We run our firm like a retail establishment. We want our clients to walk out of the office smiling, and if they aren’t we will do what we need to do in order to fix the problem. If that means discounting their bill, so be it. If that means taking on another aspect of their case pro bono, so be it. If that means providing free legal advice to them even after their matter is closed, so be it. We are happy to help in any way that we can.”

As the result of this tireless advocacy and compassion, Shamoun is extraordinarily proud of the firm’s near 100% customer service satisfaction rate. “We are proud of our customer satisfaction rate, and will always go above and beyond for our clients to keep this statistic,” he says.

“We donated more than 3,500 pro bono hours in 2014, and our goal for 2015 is to donate 5,000 hours of pro bono work. The people we help in a pro bono capacity have become some of our biggest fans and best referral sources. They are in the community advocating our services for the rest of their lives,” Shamoun says with a smile. However, Shamoun’s determination to help others isn’t limited to those with tax problems. On the contrary, RJS LAW is equally determined to help their local communities as a whole.

Indeed, the individual attorneys at RJS LAW donate countless hours of their time and resources to charities and nonprofits close to their hearts. By way of example, Shamoun volunteers his time to the Grossmont Hospital Foundation, the Chaldean Middle-Eastern Social Services Clinic, the Saint Peter Chaldean Seminary Program, the Challenged Athletes Foundation, the Knights of Columbus, the University of San Diego School of Law Board of Visitors, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the United Services Organization, amongst

others. Shamoun has also donated an annual scholarship, the $5,000 Ronson J. Shamoun RJS LAW Tax Scholarship to the University of San Diego School of Law to be awarded to students who pursue an LL.M. in Taxation at Shamoun’s alma mater.

His team of associates and attorneys are like-minded in their own service work. Attorneys at RJS LAW contribute their time and resources to organizations both inside and outside of the legal community including Young Tax Lawyers, Habitat for Humanity, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Rwandan Orphans Project, Kiwanis, and I Love a Clean San Diego. Shamoun is an adjunct Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law. Additionally, four other senior associates from the firm are professors at universities, Allison Soares and Ashley Kerins are professors at San Diego State University, and Quinn Disparte and Chandara Diep are professors at University of California—San Diego’s Extension Program.

As a firm, RJS LAW also helps numerous indigent people throughout southern California get their lives back on track. “We never turn down someone who needs our help. When they come to us for help, we are there. Our job is to lend a helping hand no matter what. We always offer our clients a free one-hour consultation with an attorney, giving them all the tools to solve their problems themselves whenever possible or referring them to the USD Federal Income Tax Clinic when necessary,” Shamoun says.

Big Return on Investment in Goodwill

Shamoun is clear that his efforts to use his talent and expertise to help others, coupled with his investment in extending goodwill, have played an imperative role in his success. “We believe that it is because of our commitment to excellence, honesty, and hard work that we’ve built a sterling reputation with the courts, federal and state taxing agencies, and other attorneys. We have an endless list of happy client testimonials, and we take impeccable care of clients who have been referred to our firm by other attorneys or tax practitioners,” Shamoun says.

Yet he is honest when he says that it was slow going when he first opened his firm. “For the first 3-4 years, revenues in the firm weren’t great,” he says candidly. “But we have always been very giving, and after a few years, the word spread. When you do good for others, whether it’s by taking on a pro bono case, offering a free consultation, or even telling clients how they can solve their tax issues without hiring us to help, those people tell others how you were able to help them, and that is how we have grown our firm.

When you do good, good comes back to you,” he says simply.

Good things have certainly come to pass for RJS LAW over the last decade. Beginning in 2009, the awards and accolades for Shamoun’s excellency in advocacy began to pour in. He was named a Top Young Attorney by the San Diego Daily Transcript in both 2009 and 2010. By 2013, he’d been named a Top Young Influential and Top Tax Attorney by the San Diego Daily Transcript, a Top Lawyer by San Diego Magazine, and one of the Top Lawyers in California by American Lawyer Media. RJS LAW was also named the Business of the Year by the San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce. To boot, Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015 19

Contact: Ronson J. Shamoun RJS LAW – A Tax Law Firm www.RJSLawFirm.com RShamoun@RJSLawFirm.com 619-595-1655 San Diego: 303 A Street, Suite 400, San Diego, CA 92101

Beverly Hills: 8484 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 210, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 Irvine: 2 Park Plaza, Suite 1258, Irvine, CA 92614 20 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

©Bauman Photographers

EXPERIENCE

the same year, and every year thereafter, Shamoun earned an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale Hubbell, the highest possible rating for professional ethics and excellence.

By 2014, RJS LAW was named one of San Diego Metro Magazine’s Most Admired Companies, and was a finalist in the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics.

Ronson had also been named a Top Lawyer by San Diego Magazine, was included amongst the Best of the Bar by the San Diego Business Journal, and earned the Client’s Choice award from Avvo in all of his practice areas: tax, business, trusts, and real estate. Similarly, he was one of San Diego Metro Magazine’s Mover to Watch and Best Attorney in 2014, as well as a 2014 San Diego Daily Transcript Top Tax Attorney. In 2015, he received the Top Lawyer title yet again from San Diego Magazine, and was named on the 2015 Best of the Bar list in the San Diego Business Journal. Shamoun has also become a frequent legal commentator for various media outlets including Fox 5 News, ABC Channel 10 News, KUSI News, and NBC 7 News in San Diego, and nationally on One America News Network. He is also an expert contributor to the San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego Daily Transcript, and the San Diego Business Journal.

But beneath all of the awards and accolades for his expertise in tax advocacy, Shamoun remains a true San Diego family man, entrepreneur, and business owner who feels a deep sense of gratitude and obligation to pay forward his success. RJS LAW is truly a family affair: he serves as Chief Executive Officer; his wife, Melanie, is the Chief Financial Officer; his sister, Renae serves as Chief Marketing Officer; his father, Sabri, is a consultant; his niece, Larissa, is a staff accountant; his nephews, Devon and Dominick, and niece, Leandra, are summer interns; and his nephews, Dylan and Drake, are starting as interns later this year. “I come from a very close knit family and we are still that way today.” Every Friday his brother Robert and his wife Lisa, as well as his sister Renae and her husband Alan, come with their kids to his family home to spend time together. “Growing up, it was always my goal to make my mother and father, Mary and Sabri, proud of me. Now that I’m married and have kids, I have even more people to make proud; my wife, Melanie, and my daughters, Mariella and Audrianna, are my biggest inspiration and source of encouragement and I would not be where I am today without my family’s support. Everything I do is for my family, my firm, and my community.” n

» EDUCATION • Law School: University of San Diego School of Law • Other Graduate School: Master of Laws in Taxation • College: University of San Diego, Bachelor’s in Accountancy

» AWARDS • Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent: Highest Possible Rating in Legal Ability and Ethical Standards 2015, 2014, 2013 • Best of the Bar—San Diego Business Journal 2015, 2014 • Most Admired CEO Finalist—San Diego Business Journal 2015 • Top Lawyer—San Diego Magazine 2015, 2014, 2013 • Top Tax Attorney—San Diego Daily Transcript 2014, 2013 • Best Attorney—San Diego Metro Magazine 2014 • Mover to Watch—San Diego Metro Magazine 2014 • Client’s Choice in Tax, Business, Trusts, and Real Estate—Avvo 2014 • Voted San Diego’s BEST Tax Law Firm by the readers of the San Diego Union Tribune—RJS LAW 2014 • Most Admired Companies—San Diego Metro Magazine 2014 • Family Owned Business Finalist—San Diego Business Journal 2014 • State of California Senate Certificate of Recognition—RJS LAW 2014 • California Legislature Assembly Certificate of Recognition—RJS LAW 2014 • San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Certificate of Merit—RJS LAW 2014 • City of San Diego Certification of Recognition—RJS LAW 2014 • San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year— RJS LAW 2013 • Top Young Influential—San Diego Daily Transcript 2013 • Top Lawyers in California—American Lawyer Media 2013 • Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition—RJS LAW 2013 • State of California Senate Certificate of Recognition—RJS LAW 2013 • California Legislature Assembly Certificate of Recognition—RJS LAW 2013 • San Diego County Board of Supervisors Certificate of Recognition— RJS LAW 2013 • Top Young Attorney—San Diego Daily Transcript 2010, 2009

Areas of Expertise Business • Class Action Complex Litigation • Construction Employment/Wage and Hour Insurance Coverage/Bad Faith • Intellectual Property Legal Malpractice • Medical Malpractice Personal Injury • Probate Real Property • Wrongful Death

Past President: San Diego Chapter of ABOTA, San Diego County Bar Association Listed in The Best Lawyers In America, Super Lawyers and Top Attorneys 30 Years of Experience as a Mediator and Arbitrator 35 Years of Extensive Civil Litigation Experience Representing Plaintiffs and Defendants

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Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015 21

Competence = Confidence

by Mike O’Horo For 20 years, Mike O’Horo has been known by lawyers everywhere as The Coach. He trained more than 7000 of them, generating $1.5 billion in new business. Mike can be reached at mikeohoro@rainmakervt.com

L

ast year around this time, we surveyed lawyers and published the Lawyer Business Generation Confidence Index. We asked them to rate (1-10 scale) their confidence regarding lead-generation, lead-conversion, referral-generation, market positioning, BD skills, time commitment, and overall confidence. The results were eye-opening. In most categories, between 65% and 80% of lawyers rated their confidence at 5 or lower; 70% rated their overall confidence between 4-7.

Why do lawyers experience such anxiety about business development?

Could it be as simple as the fact that they have so little real experience with it that anxiety is a rational response? I say “so little real experience” because too high a percentage of lawyers’ BD activity is pro forma, i.e., without a concrete, measurable purpose. They do stuff just to do stuff. They don’t review their performance after each interaction, so they don’t know if they’re getting better or not.

Many lawyers’ BD habits are vestiges of the era of huge demand that ended in 2008, during which it was sufficient simply to show up and demonstrate that your firm and you had the skill and experience to do the work well. Most lawyers I worked with then claimed, “If I can get in front of the right people, I usually win the business.” Almost none actually measured their win/loss ratio, so they didn’t really know for sure, but I’m sure it felt that way to them because everybody was buying, so there were lots of wins. At the time, a simple count of wins served as the barometer of one’s BD skill.

However, in a high-demand market, when everyone is buying, there is no correlation between results and skill. Under such ideal conditions, you’ll get results with or without skill. There’s no real need for skill improvement because things are working well. However, in a buyer’s market, where the supply of lawyers exceeds the demand for them, skill is required, and you have to have a way to discern whether or not you have the skills, and whether or not your skills are improving.

Statistics for laterals illustrate this. Most laterals bring only about half of the business they projected they would. Some of the reasons for this are beyond their control, so let’s give them a pass on that part. However, two years later, about 50% of those laterals aren’t still with the destination firm. (I haven’t seen any breakdown of who initiated the separation.) It’s reasonable to suggest that a percentage of those were unable to replace the business they couldn’t bring, and either were “encouraged” to move on, or chose to get out before the encouragement. If in two or three years you can’t replace lost business, you probably never had the skills to begin with.

The first step in skill assessment is to know what skills are required for full competence. The list is longer than you may have thought.

• Avoid “pitching” behaviors in favor of helping buyers make informed, considered, self-interested decisions about problems of significance.

22 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

“If I give you confidence, I can take it away. If you give yourself confidence—through competence—nobody can take it away.”

—JOHN CALIPARI, University of Kentucky basketball coach • Maintain significant business acumen and awareness of current business reality.

• Avoid “product-centrism,” i.e., an orientation to the merits of the firm’s service products, and resulting inclination to seek demand for one’s own technical specialty.

• Avoid “dry holes.” Engage conversations based only on DoorOpening business issues, i.e., for which there is objective, thirdparty evidence suggesting strategic, operational or economic consequences of sufficient impact to require decision-making, action and investment.

• Recognize the likelihood of multiple stakeholders in this DoorOpening problem at different corporate levels.

• Conduct a disciplined investigation of the consequences of inaction (The Cost of Doing Nothing).

• Expose each stakeholder’s perception of the imputed or perceived ROI obtainable from successful solution. Use aggregate ROI to maintain premium prices and margins.

• Master the process of Stakeholder Alignment leading to reliable group decisions.

• Develop relationships based on Professional Intimacy rather than Social Intimacy.

• Earn business in a way that does not induce the client to require you to do the work, beyond the degree that you deem strategically appropriate.

• Understand, anticipate, and develop a plan to timely obtain the future resource requirements of a larger practice.

• Anticipate product/price maturity and look beyond today’s demand to prepare for a different future. Initiate discussions that cannibalize today’s declining margin services in favor of future premium-price service demand.

• Establish a defensible position in an organized market sector containing growing companies with healthy profit margins.

• Identify and provide valuable support roles that facilitate subordinates’ contribution and growth, and institutionalize the client, thus avoiding becoming the client-contact bottleneck.

• Share origination credit—and client responsibility—freely to enable you to diversify your portfolio and retain key talent.

If you aspire to generate a lot of business, reliably and consistently, this is what’s required. It requires a sustained commitment of time, effort, and investment. It’s definitely not for everyone. n

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COMMUNITY news n Archer Norris is pleased to announce that attorney Patrick R. Ball has been named the 2015 Constitutional Rights Foundation, Orange County (CRF-OC) Mock Trial Attorney Coach of the Year.

Ball, along with several other local attorneys, serves as an attorney-coach for the Rosary High School mock trial team.

PATRICK R. BALL A member of the Archer Norris complex litigation and trial practice group, Ball focuses his practice on product liability, regulatory compliance, class action defense and commercial litigation, including employment law and business-related torts. He has significant experience representing various consumer product companies in complex litigation cases. Ball has defended class actions venued in both state and federal court focused upon unfair competition and false advertising claims. Ball received his J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, in 2006 (Phi Delta Phi Honor Society) and his B.S. from Pepperdine University, B.S., cum laude, in 2002. n Irvine business litigation attorney Gregory G. Brown again represented the owners of one of Orange County’s most successful restaurateurs against their former partners. The ownership group split up back in December 2012, where each group took two (2) of the four (4) restaurants. This transaction GREGORY G. BROWN had been valued at approximately $4,000,000+. This settlement occurred after the other side unsuccessfully tried to take over the chain of restaurants in November 2012.

Shortly after this settlement negotiated by Mr. Brown, the Defendants violated the agreement, including improper use of Brown’s client’s name, likeness and proprietary recipes. The case was scheduled for trial on January 12, 2015.

Days before trial, the defendants agreed to a court-ordered Permanent Injunction, damages and disgorgement of their wrongfully obtained profits. Plaintiffs also recouped all of their attorneys’ fees. Gregory G. Brown is a Board Certified Trial Specialist and Partner in the Irvine, CA business and divorce law firm of Brown & Charbonneau, LLP. The firm handles all types of business and partnership disputes, fraud and fiduciary duty claims, trade secret and unfair competition suits, employment disputes, divorce and family law, real estate and construction litigation, and general civil litigation.

Have a Press Release you would like to submit for our Community News?

Email it to PR@AttorneyJournal.us 24 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

n Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP (CDF), has announced Lindsay Ayers and Garrett Jensen as partners. In their new leadership capacities, Ayers and Jensen will support CDF’s employment litigation and trial practice groups.

Both attorneys have been with the firm for a number of years.

Ayers, who joined CDF in 2012, LINDSAY AYERS is a trial attorney with more than a decade of legal experience. She frequently litigates on behalf of California employers in state and federal courts on employmentrelated claims of wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment as well as claims of unfair competition, breach of contract and various business torts.

Jensen’s practice includes GARRETT JENSEN defending companies in consumer and business class actions along with labor and employment class action and single plaintiff matters related to discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wrongful termination and wage and hour disputes. He also advises employers on preventative measures to avoid litigation, and shares his insights on emerging legal issues as a contributing author for California Employment Law. n Brian Chase, Senior Partner at the Newport Beach personal injury law firm of Bisnar | Chase, has been named as one of the Top 10 Personal Injury Lawyers in the state of California, by the National Academy of Personal Injury Lawyers (NAOPIA). According to a congratulatory letter sent by the organization, NAOPIA chose Chase to receive their highest BRIAN CHASE honor because of the hard work and dedication he has shown in protecting the rights of the injured.

According to NAOPIA’s website, the organization’s main goal is discovering and recognizing the top 10 personal injury lawyers in each state. The attorneys who make the NAOPIA Top 10 list must first be nominated by a licensed attorney.

Then, the organization’s research staff verifies that the lawyers meet the minimum requirements for membership. Fifty of the nominated attorneys are then selected to advance as finalists.

NAOPIA’s Board of Governors officially selected the Top 10 in each state. The Top 10 in each state are selected from more than one million injury lawyers nationwide.

COMMUNITY news n In an effort to raise awareness and funds for the American Heart Association, Newmeyer & Dillion Managing Partner Jeff Dennis issued a challenge to fellow Orange County attorneys to join the fight against Heart Disease.

The Newmeyer & Dillion team had more than 225 walkers participate in the March 7th OC Heart Walk held JEFF DENNIS at Angel’s Stadium. The Newmeyer & Dillion team raised more than $30,000, with those challenged

by Dennis raising another $30,000 for a total of more than $60,000 in donations for the American Heart Association. n Greenberg Traurig, LLP announced the elevation of Craig C. Glorioso to shareholder in its Orange County office. Glorioso focuses his practice on real estate, financing, and business transactions. His experience includes representing individuals, corporations, real estate funds, and real estate investment trusts (REITs) in all aspects of the purchase, sale, financing, CRAIG C. GLORIOSO and maintenance of residential, commercial, retail, hospitality, and industrial portfolios.

Glorioso also advises clients in connection with originations, purchase, participations, workouts, and restructurings of senior and subordinate mortgage and mezzanine debt. Glorioso received his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law and his B.A. from Ohio University. n Snell & Wilmer is pleased to announce that Elizabeth Weldon, partner in the firm’s Orange County office, was elected as the President Elect of the Board of Directors for Girls Incorporated® of Orange County (Girls Inc. of Orange County).

She began her one-year term as President Elect on January 1, 2015.

Girls Inc. of Orange County has been a respected member of the non-profit ELIZABETH WELDON community for almost 60 years. Their mission is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold. They put their mission to practice by equipping girls to navigate gender, economic and social barriers and grow into healthy, educated and independent adults. Girls Inc. of Orange County positively changes the lives of 5,000 girls, ages four and half to 18 each year, by providing year-round holistic programming focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math), financial literacy, sound body image, healthy relationships and college and career readiness. Weldon has been part of this non-profit organization for more than four years, serving on the Board of Directors since 2011, most recently as Secretary since January 2013.

n Rutan & Tucker, LLP has committed to another annual gift of $15,000 to Chapman University Fowler School of Law (“Chapman”).

With the addition of this year’s gift, the grand total of Rutan’s contributions to Chapman is $235,000 over the past several years.

Having earned a “Top Schools” ranking in U.S. News and World STEVE NICHOLS Report, ABA accredited Chapman is a forum where diverse and highly accomplished faculty members provide students with a combination of personalized instruction and real-world clinical and courtroom experience.

Chapman’s academic programs provide the best of both worlds: foundational accredited legal instruction coupled with a varied selection of specific concentrations, joint degrees, and Master of Laws degrees.

“We hold Chapman in the highest regard, and we are delighted to continue our annual support of the school’s efforts to expand its scholarship fund. Rutan intends to support this exceptional program for decades to come as the future leaders of our legal community graduate from the Chapman University Fowler School of Law,” said Steve Nichols, the firm’s managing partner.

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015 25

BAR HOPPING From his family-owned neighborhood bar in western Pennsylvania to the elite national plaintiff’s trial Bar, Jude Basile, Of Counsel with Gomez Trial Attorneys is one of the nation’s most renowned and fascinating attorneys.

T

BY JENNIFER HADLEY

here is no disputing the fact that Jude Basile is one of the foremost trial attorneys in the nation. After all, he’s a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, one of the most prestigious groups of plaintiff trial lawyers in America, limited to just 100 lawyers in the United States. He’s also a Board Member, Faculty Member and Past President of The Trial Lawyers College, where he has been instrumental in developing and teaching the curriculum at the college founded by Gerry Spence. To boot, Consumer Attorneys of San Diego have awarded him 7 separate “Outstanding Trial Lawyer” awards.

Basile has also been named “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by peer groups on four different occasions.

Yet what is so remarkable about Basile isn’t that he’s accomplished so much, even though he came from humble beginnings. Nor is he particularly unique because he admittedly wasn’t any kind of academic superstar. Instead, what makes Basile such an anomaly amongst attorneys is both how he practices law, and how he practices living a balanced life. “I try to focus on being a human being, not a human doing,” he says.

Basile explains, “It is my limited case load that allows me to intensely focus on a case without distraction. I spend lots of time in nature, hiking and contemplating. Balance is sought and is the key to success. I often see lawyers who work themselves crazy with cases, and think: Why? Less is often more, and gratitude is realizing what you have is enough. My biggest satisfaction comes when jurors and the people I represent tell me: ‘You certainly are not what I thought a lawyer was. You are a real person.’”

26 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

Indeed, Basile’s noticeable lack of greed, his disdain for the word “client,” and his absolute devotion to living a life of spirituality through consistent meditation and a connection to nature, make him quite frankly, fascinating. Although he lived and practiced law in San Diego for roughly 20 years, these days the Basile Law Firm is based in San Luis Obispo, CA. Still, Basile handles cases throughout the state, and now spends several days a month at the Gomez Trial Attorneys.

“I live in the woods in a small town. I take time each day to meditate, exercise and be close to nature, constantly relating to life in our world. That’s where the story of each case is closely discovered and developed in order to reach a group of humans— the jury. My cases are not prepared for adjusters, insurance companies or mediators, but for people who are motivated to listen, understand, and apply justice. This is achieved by telling a compelling story,” he says. “My career has been devoted to developing the skill of discovering and communicating a powerful story to move people.”

The Beginning: An Aversion to Bullies “I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, one of six children. My dad owned a local bar and restaurant in a coal mining and steel worker town. He constantly struggled with unfair government that shut him down when I was young. I also had a friend killed by a tractor trailer when he was 19. I grew up hating bullies,” Basile recalls.

However, he did love sports. As a college athlete, Basile admits, “I did not have good grades nor money. I was intimidated by

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applying to law school. But Western State University College of Law (now Thomas Jefferson) had a ‘whole person’ policy of admission. They gave me a phone interview for about an hour and an half. I guess that got me in,” he says.

“The law school was only two blocks from the court house.

I would go and watch trials every free moment. I was not from California and knew no one. My uncle would send me $20/ week for food, and I rode the bus to class. I had no contacts, no connections and no money,” he says. However, what Basile did have was an uncanny ability to break complex information down into simple terms. In others words, he could tell a story in a way that others understood and identified with, regardless of subject matter.

“My first semester in law school we were given a practice essay to complete. I remember the professor showing us a terrible example, and then reading us a good example. The good example was my essay, which I had answered in a simple, direct way. That stemmed from the culture I grew up in. I grew up honest, direct, and learned to keep things simple. There is nothing more powerful in a story than presenting the truth of injustice in a simple way.”

It was precisely the desire to right injustices he saw as a child which determined the area of law Basile would ultimately practice. “Representing real people is the highest calling. I could not practice any other area of law. The people I represent—I hate 28 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

the use of the word client—are individuals and families who have been treated unfairly, unjustly or intentionally harmed. They are people who have been saddled with a terrible situation and need help. Usually it is some corporate policy, practice or government abuse that has caused the harm. I also look to see how the case can make the community safer and better for all of us,” he says.

Incidentally, it was also during law school that Basile would be introduced to, and consequently fall in love with, the Central Coast of California. “I took a trip to Big Sur in a borrowed car and it touched me spiritually. The confluence of the mountains, the air and the ocean against the cliffs was incredible and I always knew I wanted to get back there,” he says.

After being sworn into the Bar in 1982, Basile would spend a few years cutting his teeth with various firms, a city attorney’s office, and a district attorney’s office, before establishing a private practice in 1985.

Second-to-None Storyteller Basile’s gift for telling compelling stories was further enriched early in his practice, by none other than Gerry Spence. “I have been mentored by him throughout my career, and he opened a huge door for me,” he says. In fact, it was when Basile was attending the first Trial Lawyers College in 1992, that he met a second, invaluable mentor. “Don Clarkson is not a lawyer but a specialist

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in Group Dynamics. He taught group dynamics and group therapy for many years at Howard University in Washington D.C. I have worked closely with him each year since then. He has helped me understand groups, how they are formed, how they determine leaders, how they make decisions, what brings a group together, what can make a group divisive, and many other aspects of group dynamics. But the most important thing he taught me that has shaped me both personally and professionally is how to find one’s self, and discover who we are, and how to truly listen not only to others, but to our own truth,” Basile says.

It is the understanding of both himself, and of the juries that he will ultimately be talking to, that Basile credits for his unparalleled success. “The only real power individuals often have left is taking their case to a jury of individuals from the community. All of my cases are prepared to present to a jury,” he says. To that end, Basile invokes the use of focus groups extensively. “I often will enroll focus group members as though they are part of the defendant organization or have them get in touch with what is moving them deeply in the story.”

As far as his role as the trial attorney is concerned, Basile says that working with Clarkson helped him to understand who he was, as not just an attorney, but as a man of compassion. “I immerse myself in the lives of those I represent,” he says. “Every case is a landmark case for the people I represent. The cases are very significant in their lives, and in their families.”

For these reasons, Basile intentionally limits the number of cases he takes, but he is not afraid to take on even the biggest corporations, or government agencies. “When I see a wrong that has been committed, particularly if it has the potential to reach a broad section of the population, I’m always interested,” he says. Whether that be a police department, a large corporation, or others, when Basile recognizes that an injustice may happen again and again, unless someone fights to have practices and policies overturned, he says that the desire to fight for what is right kicks in automatically. He is sincere when he says that he hopes that up and coming attorneys feel that same sense of passion for helping others.

“I would challenge any new attorney to look closely and ask themselves why they do what they do. If it is all about the money, fancy clothes, and homes, then I would hope that they would do something else. But if it is about being a trial lawyer and communicating with the only people that corporate and big government wrongdoers fear—the jury—then do it.”

Past, Present & Future with Gomez Trial Attorneys Basile recalls that he recognized exactly these attributes in John Gomez, before he had even formally met him. “I was contacted to work on a very serious brain injury case with Mike Marrinan.

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EXPERIENCE

When speaking with the person we were going to represent, they had told us they had spoken with John Gomez as well.

John apparently told them that they couldn’t do better than hiring Mike and I, and that if we were willing to take their case, they should work with us. When I heard that, I remember thinking: Who is this Gomez guy?”

In time, Basile reached out and personally invited Gomez to attend the Trial Lawyers College. But it was just over a year ago that the two realized that collaborating might just be a brilliant partnership. “John offered to let me use his office while I consulted on a case in San Diego about a year ago. I saw the young, brilliant attorneys at Gomez Trial Attorneys who were all very passionate about the people they were representing.

They were all so open to learning new methods of doing things,” Basile says.

From there, the two determined that Basile would serve as Of Counsel to the thriving firm and the resulting relationship has been rewarding for both Basile and the team of attorneys at Gomez Trial Attorneys. “John Gomez has given me tremendous satisfaction in working a few days each month with his staff of brilliant people. I continue to learn new things myself in working with these young, smart, caring people. They are truly the future of plaintiff lawyers.”

Through the alliance, Basile is able to continue his statewide practice from his home base in Cambria, while retaining a strong presence in San Diego, including his membership in Consumer Attorneys of San Diego. He is also able to focus on his own personal and spiritual growth in the area of California that captured his heart as a law student.

A member of the Black War Bonnet Society, an invitationonly group which requires a silent retreat each year, along with physical, mental and spiritual practices, such as anonymously helping the less fortunate, Basile says he hopes his fellow attorneys find their own truth through a creative or spiritual endeavor. His suggestion for how other attorneys can achieve this level of success, satisfaction, and balance?

“Do something each day to expand your understanding of human nature and human behavior. Have a creative activity like writing, storytelling, photography, poetry, or dance.

Keep developing as a human being, and you won’t get stuck in the rut of constant analytical legal beagle thinking. Life is so busy. But the inner power we have, if we quiet ourselves and listen, if we take the time to stop and just be, will help us all to become more compassionate, and more intuitive in all of our endeavors.” n

» EDUCATION • Edinboro State College, B.A., 1976; Indiana University of Pennsylvania, M.S., 1978; Trial Lawyers College, 1994 • Thomas Jefferson School of Law, J.D., 1981

» MEMBER • Inner Circle of Advocates—“invitation-only group limited to 100 of the best plaintiff trial lawyers in America” • Black War Bonnet Society—“invitation-only group of people demonstrating personal, intellectual and spiritual growth while helping others”

» EXPERIENCE • Volunteer Counsel New Camaldoli Hermitage, Big Sur California • Developed and Expanded Curriculum at The Trial Lawyers College • Personally selected by legendary trial Lawyer Gerry Spence to succeed Spence • Past President Trial Lawyers College • Numerous 7 and 8 figure verdicts • “Of Counsel” exclusively at Gomez Trial Attorneys

Contact: Jude Basile Of Counsel, Gomez Trial Attorneys www.basilelaw.com www.gomeztrialattorneys.com jude@basilelaw.com pr@gomeztrialattorneys.com 619-237-3490 30 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 109, 2015

» AWARDS • 7 times Outstanding Trial Lawyer, Consumer Attorneys of San Diego • 3 times Trial Lawyer of the Year Central Coast Trial Lawyers • Trial Lawyer of the Year Consumer Attorneys of San Diego

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Post Falls, ID PERMIT NO. 32

Brian Chase President CAOC - 2015 Product Liability Trial Lawyer of the Year OCTLA - 2014 Trial Lawyer of the Year CAOC - 2012 Trial Lawyer of the Year Nominee CAALA - 2012 Product Liability Trial Lawyer of the Year OCTLA - 2004