Attorney Journal, Orange County, Volume 113

ORANGE COUNTY

Volume 113, 2015 • $6.95

Four Reasons Prestige Doesn’t Justify Your Rates: Your Law Firm Proposal Needs Better Differentiators

Chris Sant

McIntyre’s Civil Alert Organized Succinct Summaries

Monty A. McIntyre

Identifying and Grooming High Potential Employees

Jeff Wolf

Three Critical Steps to Building a Prosperous Practice

Kimberly Alford Rice Lead Conversion: How Attorneys Can Convert More Browsers into Buyers

Stephen Fairley

Are You Losing Business Because of Bad Photography?

Rachel Harmon

Attorney of the Month

Lisa Hughes

of Hughes and Hughes Attorneys at Law, Tustin

The Power of Perspective

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.

(949) 333-3111 | www.hughesmarino.com

ORANGE COUNTY LOS ANGELES SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SILICON VALLEY

2015 EDITION—NO.113

TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 Lead Conversion: How Attorneys Can Convert More Browsers into Buyers

6

by Stephen Fairley

10 Four Reasons Prestige Doesn’t Justify Your Rates: Your Law Firm Proposal Needs Better Differentiators

by Chris Sant

12 COMMUNITYnews EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Brian Topor EDITOR Wendy Price CREATIVE SERVICES Skidmutro Creative Partners

ATTORNEY OF THE MONTH

16 Lisa Hughes of Hughes and Hughes Attorneys at Law, Tustin The Power of Perspective

by Jennifer Hadley

16

CIRCULATION Angela Watson PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Griffiths

23 Three Critical Steps for Building a Prosperous Practice

STAFF WRITERS Jennifer Hadley Bridget Brookman Karen Gorden

by Kimberly Alford Rice

25 Identifying and Grooming High Potential Employees

by Jeff Wolf

CONTRIBUTING EDITORIALISTS Stephen Fairley Rachel Harmon Chris Sant Monty A. McIntyre Kimberly Alford Rice Jeff Wolf WEBMASTER Mariusz Opalka ADVERTISING INQUIRIES info@AttorneyJournal.us SUBMIT AN ARTICLE Editorial@AttorneyJournal.us OFFICE 30211 Avenida De Las Banderas Suite 200 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 www.AttorneyJournal.us ADDRESS CHANGES Address corrections can be made via fax, email or postal mail.

26 Are You Losing Business Because of Bad Photography?

by Rachel Harmon

28 McIntyre’s Civil Alert Organized Succinct Summaries

by Monty A. McIntyre

28

Editorial material appears in Attorney Journal as an informational service for readers. Article contents are the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of Attorney Journal.

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

LEAD CONVERSION How Attorneys Can Convert More Browsers into Buyers

H

ow do you help a client who doesn’t know what’s best for them and focuses on the wrong area? I work with hundreds of law firms every year and one of the most common requests I hear from attorneys is, “I need more leads.”

Yet when I inquire further into the specifics of their situation, I often find that lead generation isn’t their primary problem— its lead conversion. Let me explain. I was recently speaking with a bankruptcy attorney who claimed he needed more leads to build his practice. I asked him approximately how many leads were coming into his law firm each month. Needless to say, I was astounded when he informed me his firm’s marketing was consistently generating in excess of 100 to 150 new leads every month! Even with modest conversion rates you should be able to generate at least $500,000 annually with this many leads. Yet he was experiencing serious cash flow issues.

I kindly told him I did not believe his biggest issue was lead generation; it was lead conversion—converting more browsers into buyers. I walked him through our Rainmaker Lead Conversion System and how it could help him fix his follow-up and convert more prospects into paying clients. Unfortunately, either I did not do a sufficient job of justifying my response or he did not believe me because he persisted in the belief that he simply needed more “qualified leads” and all his problems would be solved.

Lead conversion is the most overlooked area at most law firms and it has the potential to significantly increase your revenues this year. Imagine the impact on your firm’s revenue if you improved the rate of conversion by just 10%, much less than the 20-40% increase we have seen when using a formal lead conversion system.

I often ask attorneys about their closing rate—the number of appointments they turn into paying clients—and they invariably say that it’s “very high” or “excellent,” but upon

6 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

by Stephen Fairley

careful examination, it tells a different story. I find the majority of attorneys significantly overestimate their closing ratio. Just like practicing law, converting leads into paying clients is a skill that takes practice, but you need to understand how to track your data and analyze it.

THREE MAJOR AREAS TO ANALYZE There are many variables you can consider if your practice isn’t generating the revenues you want, but after nearly a decade of specializing in helping law firms improve their lead generation and lead conversion strategies, I have found there are really three major areas that tell most of the story: • Lead Generation – This is the system of attracting new potential clients to your law firm. You can use both online and offline strategies. Online or internet-related strategies include a website, blog, social media and search engine optimization.

Offline marketing strategies include referrals from current and former clients, monthly newsletters, building relationships with potential referral partners, networking, speaking and seminars. It’s important to know that lead generation is the second most expensive thing you will have in your law firm, the first being payroll. You must take a systematic approach to lead generation. Without this, you are reduced to sitting in your office waiting for the phone to ring or a referral to walk in, which is not a good place to be.

• Lead Conversion – This is your ability to turn leads into paying clients and is what I will focus on in this article.

• Client Retention – How to keep your paying clients coming back for more and/or referring your firm to everyone they know with a similar problem to theirs.

The first step in lead conversion is to develop a “universal lead definition” (ULD)—what precisely is counted as a lead, who counts the leads, how you track the leads, and what does

not constitute a legitimate lead. We teach our clients that a lead must meet all three of these criteria: • Someone who has never done business with you before (versus a repeat client).

• Everyone who contacts the firm via email, phone, social media, personal referral, internet, networking event, seminar, etc.

• They express an interest in your services.

“

THE GREATEST VALUE OF A TRUE LEAD CONVERSION SYSTEM IS THAT IT GIVES YOU DIRECT INSIGHT INTO THE ACTUAL STATE OF YOUR COMPANY...”

In order to build a financially successful law firm you must be committed to tracking every single lead and following up with them religiously! Far too many attorneys only track the appointments that show up (and if the truth is told they are not even very good at doing that) or how many of the people they meet with in person who sign up as a paying client at the initial consultation. What they don’t recognize is that is only the fourth stage of lead conversion and there are five stages.

Here are the five stages of lead conversion for law firms: • Number of Leads into the top of the funnel • Number of Leads that turn into Appointments • Number of Appointments Who Show Up • Number of Appointments Who Sign Up at the Initial Consultation • Number of Appointments who Sign Up Later No lead conversion system is complete without tracking all five stages. How many of your leads turn into actual

appointments? How many of those appointments actually show up? How many of those people who show up sign up at the initial consultation? And how many people sign up later down the road? Each of these numbers is critical to track because if you know what your conversion rates are at each stage then you can determine where your biggest challenges are and develop a plan to improve.

The greatest value of a true lead conversion system is that it gives you direct insight into the actual state of your company and allows you to efficiently automate the follow-up process with dozens and even hundreds of leads. We have helped our clients compete with and beat much larger law firms simply by creating an exceptional follow-up system. Lead generation too often comes down to a firm’s financial ability to “throw money at the problem,” but a lead conversion system can level the playing field and give small firms a true unique competitive advantage.

WHAT IS AN ACCEPTABLE CONVERSION RATE? Conversion rates can differ widely, depending upon your practice area, but in general the lower your average client is “worth” to your firm the higher your conversion must be in order to run a successful firm. For example, if you practice consumer bankruptcy and the average chapter 7 client pays you $1,500 to handle their case you must have a higher conversion ratio than the business litigation attorney whose average client pays them $50,000 to $100,000 in legal fees. For consumer attorneys you need at least a 15–20% conversion rate to run a decent practice. This means for every 100 leads your marketing generates you need to sign up a minimum of 15–20 people.

Consumer firms with a comprehensive lead conversion system often experience double this rate, which means they can be very profitable. Think about it this way: if you generate 50 leads per month and close 10% at an average fee of $5,000 per client that

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015 7

means you made $25,000 in gross revenues (assuming 100% collection rates). However, if you increase that conversion rate to 20% you would double your revenues—with the same amount of leads! The key point is that even small increases in conversion rates can make a significant difference in your revenues.

HOW TO INCREASE YOUR CONVERSION RATE The key to increasing your conversion rate is to fix your follow-up! This is another area where many attorneys think they are doing a good job, but upon further investigation I often find massive gaps in their follow-up process. Too many firms follow the approach of “only taking one bite out of the apple,” that is to say they try to get the prospect to retain at the initial consultation (or worse over the telephone) and if they do not first succeed then they give up and go on to the next person, without ever trying again to get that business. This is a major mistake!

When someone doesn’t retain you at the first meeting, rarely does the problem that brought them to you go away on its own accord. Understand that when they don’t hire you, they are not saying “no,” they are usually saying, “not yet” or “I’m not ready.” But circumstances can change and sometimes very quickly. All of the sudden the legal issue goes from the back burner to the front of their mind and retaining an attorney becomes the most important thing in their world. If you have a system that helps you stay connected with them via email or periodic phone calls then they will more than likely retain you when they are ready versus going to one of your competitors. However, if you fail to fix your follow-up, when they are ready they will likely start the search all over again and you will likely lose this client forever.

Let me give you a simple illustration. When an attorney calls me to get some ideas on how to market their law firm I often end up inviting them to attend one of our Rainmaker legal marketing seminars, but often the dates of our seminar conflict with their schedules. It’s not that they don’t want to go, it’s “not yet” or perhaps they are not mentally ready to make the jump to the next level. Either way, if I depended on my memory to follow-up with them some time in the future we would be in serious trouble! Instead we have implemented a comprehensive follow-up system that includes multiple keep in touch emails and automated reminders that help us remember to call that person weeks or even months after the initial call. In addition, we are committed to sending out a newsletter every single month and have been doing so for years. I regularly hear from new clients how they have been receiving my newsletter for 5 to 10 years and finally were ready to sign up and start working with us. Talk about a long sales cycle! It’s a good thing I don’t depend solely on people like that to build my company.

The point here is if you have a comprehensive system that follows up with potential clients for long periods of time you will reap the benefits. If you are interested in how a lead conversion system can help your firm fix your followup and convert more browsers into buyers I invite you to call our office and set up time for us to talk. n Stephen Fairley is CEO of The Rainmaker Institute, LLC, and the nation’s largest law firm marketing company specializing in small law firms. Over 8,000 attorneys have benefited from applying their proven Rainmaker Marketing System. Stephen is a best-selling author of 10 books and a nationally recognized law firm marketing expert. He has appeared in the American Bar Association’s journal, Harvard Management Update, Inc and Entrepreneur. To receive your FREE copy of his book “Top 10 Marketing Mistakes Attorneys Make” visit www.TheRainmakerInstitute.com, www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 888-588-5891.

8 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

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Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015 9

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4

Reasons Prestige Doesn’t Justify Your Rates: Your Law Firm Proposal Needs Better Differentiators

by Chris Sant

T

here you are, in your office, the night before your proposal is due, cursor blinking on your screen. And you’re staring at questions 1 and 2 of the Request for Proposal.

Q1. “What are your hourly rates?”

Q2. “How do you justify your hourly rates?”

When I consult with legal clients about their proposals, differentiating themselves is always the hardest part for them.

Experience? Great results? Happy clients? Attorney bios?

Yeah, they have it, but so do all the other large firms that they’re competing against. So how do you stand out? How do you get the client to choose you? Most importantly, how do you justify those rates?

Without a structured process, most clients simply give up. You cite the same things everyone else is citing, hope for the best and then dabble on a little of that magical Biglaw cure-all: prestige.

Ah, yes. What is prestige going for these days on the spot market? Can you buy a bucketful?

Does it work this way? Not at all. But every RFP that gets sent out gets back a dozen proposals going on and on about the history of the firm and how prestigious it is. To the proposal writer, this makes perfect sense. After all, who is the client to say what is and isn’t prestigious? It’s a matter of opinion.

Think about that, though. Is your unverifiable, untestable opinion a solid foundation on which to justify hourly rates in a proposal to the very person who you want to pay them?

And is it something you even want to claim? To me, there are six very good reasons why you should banish this word from your legal proposals.

Can’t We Just Slap Some Prestige On It?

A proposal is a sales document. So what you say in it does affect the opinions that the reader has of your firm.

And a proposal can heighten the dignity of an otherwise excellent firm in the eyes of the client. In the end, though, for a proposal to ring true at all, it needs to reflect the actual character of your law firm. Now, a law firm can certainly enhance their prestige if they’re willing to pay the price to do so. But trying to 10 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

claim the mantle without paying the price will be quickly found out. Moreover, the client will not appreciate you passing off averageness for the pinnacle of quality. It’s a sham.

There are firms that have become recognized as prestigious through decades of unsurpassed results, the highest standards and excellent customer service. And there are firms that have entered the club in a much shorter amount of time, spending what it took with tables at charity dinners and soirees and Monets and other forms of advertising that the legal world considers acceptable. A hundred years on one hand and ten or twenty on the other.

Well, heck, if those guys can consider themselves prestigious, why can’t we? We can use the same heavy paper in our Christmas cards and serve the same fancy wine at parties for clients.

The problem, though, is that prestige is a specific choice. And if you haven’t been making that choice all along, you can’t justify your rates by citing it now. Nobody will believe you. Why? You Really Aren’t Prestigious

Expensive, yes. Prestigious, no. The sorts of clients who are using RFPs are not stupid. They are Fortune 500 companies. They pay their executives very well. They know what prestige is.

Some attorneys argue that they can claim to be prestigious by virtue of their rates. This gets it all backwards, of course. But, even more critically, these sorts need to realize that they really aren’t actually willing to pay the price for prestige.

Prestige isn’t measured by how many partners you have who claim to bill $1,000 an hour. It’s found in a culture of adherence to the highest standards, even when nobody is looking. It’s a willingness to forego profits now for the sake of goodwill later.

It’s ensuring that even your newest associates and paralegals understand that there is no such thing as routine. No routine email. No routine phone call. No routine filing.

The price of prestige is the way the receptionist answers the phone, the way even the UPS guy is greeted in the lobby. It’s the way a young litigator interacts with opposing counsel at the courthouse.

In other words, the price of prestige is doing everything it takes to earn prestige. Hourly rates are not part of that equation.

Your Clients Don’t Want Prestige

Still, some lawyers want to run prestige up the flagpole and waive it around for clients to justify their rates. Is that even a good choice?

If you choose to present yourself in your proposals as prestigious, does that mesh with the clients you’re trying to win?

Does it harmonize with their businesses, values, goals, hobbies?

Not likely. When I ask training participants to name some prestigious companies, the same one always comes up first. Try it yourself. Who do you think of?

The company most people mention is Rolls Royce. Most people, even wealthy people, do not have a Rolls Royce. Why not? Wouldn’t they like one? Sure. But they have many, many things they want to accomplish before they get around to buying a Rolls Royce. They’d rather have their kids go to the best possible schools. They’d rather have a beach house as a place the family can go have fun together. They’d rather splurge on tickets to take their buddy to the Super Bowl. But a Rolls Royce? They’re happy with their Lexus or BMW or other luxury car. The extra that a Rolls Royce provides—prestige, essentially—just isn’t that valuable to most people.

And that’s with their own money. If they rarely get a Rolls Royce for themselves, you can be sure that they absolutely do not buy Rolls Royces for their business. Does Home Depot use Rolls Royce as a company car? Does Staples?

So why would you want to sell yourself as the Rolls Royce of law firms when you answer an RFP? And yet a Google search for “prestigious law firm” turns up over two million hits. Clearly, firms are doing just that.

This is not to say that you cannot justify your Biglaw rates. But if your clients are pickup truck people, you will not wow them with a Rolls Royce. Instead, you’ll just make them think, 1) you are very, very different from them, and 2) you waste a lot of money on stupid stuff. Does a client want to pay for stupid stuff through your sky high rates? No way. He’ll pay for quality, results, experience and a lot of other things, but prestige isn’t one of them.

Prestige Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

I remember appearing before a judge on a pro bono matter I was handling as a young associate when I was at Simpson Thacher, generally considered one of the most prestigious firms in the world.

I had been before her plenty of times before. But this particular time, the things she said made it clear she had no idea we were representing our client pro bono. Now, our client was a sweet, little old lady who had been forced out of her house by unscrupulous predatory lending. And here she was represented by Simpson Thacher, behemoth international law firm, go-to counsel for investment banks and brokerages and insurers. It was all so obvious. (Not to mention it was written on the front of all our pleadings, but judges reading papers is another topic entirely.)

At that moment, it became incredibly clear that she had never heard of us before. To me, this was eye opening. Green as I was, I just assumed that judges came from elite schools and students at elite schools knew about elite firms.

Nope. The firm name meant squat to her. If it meant squat to her, did it have any value to clients? Maybe at the appellate court

level. Maybe in federal courts more than state. But not nearly as much as most Biglaw lawyers wish it did. And that’s for a firm that’s survived at the top of the New York legal community for a hundred years. Who are those other two million Google hits talking about?

Finding Other Ways to Justify Price

There is a vast chasm between a Ford Festiva and a Rolls Royce.

This is the area in which you can honestly and proudly describe the character and value of your firm. The critical task in your proposal is to justify your rates by representing your firm well, not by misrepresenting it. This means your rates need more tangible benefits to rest on. Client-centered benefits include your: · Responsiveness · Clear communication · Quality assurance · Project management skills · Operational efficiency · Speed · Alternative fee structures · Experience with their specific industry · Experience with that specific customer type · Expertise · Added value Of course, you need to be able to actually back these up when the client asks for details. If you can’t say something like, “Yes, all our attorneys and paralegals undergo three hours of training in project management, an hour of training in management, two hours of training in quality assurance, and two hours of training in clear client communication,” then you can’t list them in your proposal as aspects that justify your prices.

The reality is that most firms get by on their experience alone and they can do that because everyone else is doing it too.

But as big clients are moving towards using RFPs, they’re also becoming much more willing to take chances on smaller firms who are willing and able to deliver value in other ways. And as more law firms wake up to the value of a persuasive proposal, fewer competitors will be left playing the me-too game with your firm. In other words, the days of Biglaw rates being justified by experience and a whitewash of prestige are clearly at an end.

Prestige has its uses, but very few firms are needed to satisfy the occasional Sultan or Blue Blood. It’s time for you to find a better way to sell your legal services. You need to win more business.

For the sake of your firm’s profits per partner, your job, and your family, you need to be more successful. n Chris Sant is the founder of Chris Sant Consulting which provides solutions based on 20 years of success plus proprietary research into cognitive linguistics and buying psychology. His system produces 35% more wins and 35% more money in 35 minutes or less—with a 1,000% ROI guarantee! To learn more, check it out at LawProposals.com. Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Sant Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015 11

COMMUNITY news n On June 15, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, more than 40 seniors, community leaders and advocates gathered at Laguna Woods City Hall with Laura’s House, a nonprofit rebuilding the lives of domestic violence and elder abuse victims, and Kerri Kasem, proud daughter of late radio legend Casey Kasem and founder of Kasem Cares Foundation, to shed light on an issue affecting hundreds and thousands of older persons each year—elder abuse.

At the event, Kasem commemorated her father’s life and shared a message of hope—that one day all 50 states will pass laws protecting elders from abuse—and encouraged seniors to become educated on financial issues and healthy relationships. Laura’s House Legal Director Adam Dodge also provided information on no-cost community programs and resources available for seniors experiencing, or at risk of, abuse.

Laura’s House Legal Director Adam Dodge, Laura’s House Prevention Education Specialist Jennifer Ponce, multimedia personality, producer and writer Kerri Kasem, Laguna Woods Mayor Cynthia Connors and Laguna Woods Council member Shari L. Horne

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

Email it to PR@AttorneyJournal.us

12 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

n The Constitutional Rights Foundation, Orange County (CRF-OC) has named Aitken Aitken Cohn its 2015 Community Partner of the Year. The award is reserved for only those community partners that have made outstanding contributions to the success of the CRF-OC and its civic literary programs. Aitken Aitken Cohn will join the ranks of previous award honorees, including Pacific Life Foundation and Jones WYLIE AITKEN Day. The firm was selected for demonstrating “remarkable leadership and commitment to the organization for nearly fifteen years.”

The Constitutional Rights Foundation, Orange County (CRF-OC) is a non-profit, non-partisan education organization dedicated to empowering Orange County youth to be active, responsible citizens. Since 1981, the CRF-OC continues to provide high-quality, interactive civic and lawrelated education programs that connect students directly with volunteer professionals and community leaders. n Four new attorneys have joined Gomez Trial Attorneys’ growing team. Russell Gold joins the firm as a highly experienced civil litigator. Prior to joining GTA, Russ was a founding partner of RUSSELL GOLD AHMED DIAB a premiere boutique litigation firm.

Ahmed Diab also joins the firm.

Ahmed comes to GTA after serving as the Managing Partner for a national law firm’s San Diego office. Ahmed will help GTA’s clients in the firm’s defective medical device and BEN WOHLFEIL KRISTIN BARTON pharmaceuticals division.

Ben Wohlfeil joins the firm after working as an Assistant District Attorney in Alaska. Ben will work in the firm’s personal injury division.

Finally, Kristen Barton joins the firm as a first-year attorney. She works in the firm’s Complex Department, with a focus on mass torts, class actions and environmental litigation.

Gomez Trial Attorneys, founded in 2005, exponential growth is the result of “doing great work for great clients one case at a time,” according to founding attorney John Gomez.

COMMUNITY news n Fisher & Phillips LLP’s Usama Kahf and Boris Sorsher, in the firm’s Irvine, Calif. office, are listed in Southern California Rising Stars as two of the top attorneys in the region for 2015. No more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in Southern California are selected for the designation.

Kahf counsels employers in all aspects of labor and employment law, including wage and hour, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, employee discipline and termination, and trade secrets. He also regularly advises clients on workplace investigations and employee classification issues, as well as on document retention and preservation obligations under state and federal law.

Sorsher focuses his practice area in all areas of labor and employment law, including defense of class actions. He has successfully represented clients in mediation, arbitration, as well as state and federal court proceedings.

USAMA KAHF

BORIS SORSHER

n Jennifer Keller, a nationally prominent attorney at Keller Rackauckas LLP in Irvine, has been named to the list of “Top Women Lawyers of 2015,” as selected by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals. Keller tries complex business and white collar criminal cases and is one of the state’s most highly regarded trial lawyers. This is the seventh time Keller has been selected for the Top JENNIFER KELLER Women Lawyers award.

The Daily Journal list is devoted to honoring excellent lawyering and leadership skills among women attorneys in California, seeking to recognize work that is having a broad impact on the community, nation and society. Keller’s firm has just ten lawyers but the firm is continuously recognized with national and statewide honors.

Jennifer Keller is one of California’s premier trial lawyers. She has tried over 150 cases to jury verdict, ranging from complex civil matters—including business and intellectual property cases—to white collar to murder. She has received innumerable awards for excellence as a trial lawyer and excels at “bet the company” litigation. Ms. Keller is listed annually in “The Best Lawyers in America®” and is among the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America. In 2012, California Lawyer Magazine named her a “California Attorney of the Year” for extraordinary achievements in litigation. She is the only person ever to be named by the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association as Business Litigation Trial Lawyer of the Year (in 2010) and as Criminal Defense Trial Lawyer of the year (in 2000).

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015 13

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THE POWER OF PERSPECTIVE

As Founder of Orange County’s Largest Family Law Firm, Lisa Hughes has been blessed with the life of her dreams by helping others through trauma and tragedy. by jennifer hadley

“

I am not successful because I am smart or educated or tenacious although those are important attributes. I am successful because I associate with lots of smart, educated and tenacious people. Their success is my joy.

They cause the firm to have stature. We are all a part of an organization with a purpose.

That purpose is to provide the finest family law services that are available in our community,” says Lisa Hughes, Founding Partner of Hughes & Hughes Attorneys at Law in Tustin.

Indeed, Hughes has tenacity in spades. In fact, to those who don’t know her, the fact that she had her own traumatic challenges to overcome often comes as a surprise, given Hughes’ wildly positive outlook on life. That is, despite a seemingly less than ideal childhood, Hughes refuses to see herself as a victim.

On the contrary, to hear her tell it, she’s been nothing but fortunate, resulting in a life that is better than any she could have ever imagined.

“Even as a child, I had a sense of humor, and found life to be a hoot. I was blessed to have been born into circumstances that would without question shape my personality and define my 16 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

character, work ethic and aspirations. My mother was married to 13 men and my father was not one of them. My mother would eventually go to jail for murder and my childhood was spent in group homes, foster care and a brief stint at McLaren Hall in Los Angeles. But the most important result was that I asked God to help me be able to change the wrongs that I saw. I also knew that someone always had it worse than me,” she says.

To that end, Hughes admits that she did not intend to be a family law lawyer, though she says in hindsight it all now makes perfect sense. Instead, Hughes says that family law chose her, but only after she’d followed her first love of numbers into a career as a CPA. “I graduated law school cum laude in 1975 and at the time, my career opportunities were limited because I am a woman. Women’s compensation at the time was generally substantially less than a male in the same or similar position.

A friend advised me to become a Certified Public Accountant as it would level the playing field and it would be easy. He was absolutely right as to the first part and he lied about the second part,” Hughes says with an easy laugh.

SHAPING A POSITIVE PERSPECTIVE While earning her CPA, Hughes met her now husband of 37 years. “Bruce was an accountant who became an attorney in 1979, I left the CPA practice to practice law. We formed the Hughes & Hughes model in 1980,” she explains. “The practice grew because of my accounting background and a personality that says there are no problems that do not have a resolution.

Hughes also can’t deny the fact that family law would put her in a courtroom over and over and over again, which she absolutely loves. “The courtroom is the center stage of it all.

Most family law cases do settle, with the public really only seeing 5% of the cases, but I do spend a lot of time in court.”

Lisa Hughes, Bruce Hughes and David E. Wald

My childhood and the ability to use my circumstances to teach others how to capitalize on seemingly impossible situations give me a unique ability to counsel a hurting client,” she says.

Speaking from the heart she adds, “I know that there have been times when I was reading the Book of Job to cheer up. After all, I have seen rape, robbery, murder and incest firsthand. My mother’s children, myself included, were given the opportunity to either take these events and learn from them or give up. Some gave up. I learned that faith, a sense of humor and a positive attitude will get you through anything. I bring those lessons to our clients. For example, the destruction of a marriage is an opportunity to do all of those things you blamed your ex-spouse for not allowing you to do.

It is a time to review your personal successes and to work with those attributes that interfered with your most successful life.

I convey these concepts on a firsthand basis, and I love the fact that my title is attorney or alternately, counselor.”

While Hughes has her own story of triumph over trauma to share, an additional strength in working with clients who are going through a terrible time in their own lives lies in her expertise with accounting. “Family law is intrinsically tied in with money. Even cases that at first glance seem about custody or domestic violence, a lot of the problem can be traced to money. There is always a cash flow analysis that needs to be done” she says.

18 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

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BUILDING A PURPOSEFUL PRACTICE In addition to working alongside her husband and best friend Bruce, Hughes & Hughes is fortified by a third principle, David Wald, who Hughes jokingly calls “Switzerland.”

“When it comes to working with a husband and wife couple, his calm demeanor, outstanding intellect and unquestionable ethics make him the perfect firm principle,” she says. To boot, “We all have early bar numbers, and years of experience,” she adds.

The firm itself is certainly in a class of its own when it comes to innovation, clear guiding principles, and standards for success. In addition to being CPAs and attorneys, Lisa and Bruce both hold Master’s Degrees. Lisa’s Masters of Public Administration with an emphasis on organizational development has helped the firm to develop and grow, not only as a successful law firm, but as a successful business which places client care at the center of everything it does.

“There are four T’s that our firm embraces,” says Lisa. “The first is teamwork. We are organized around several teams.

Each team is headed by a principle and a team leader. The team leaders assure accountability to the client in workflow, and confirm that the billing is appropriate and accurate. This assignment to a team of lawyers and paralegals assures that someone is almost always available who is familiar with the client’s file. It also allows work to be done at lesser billing rates by support staff. Each team is also supported by a non-billing administrative person, who files and attends to ministerial tasks to our clients’ benefit.”

The second T that the firm embraces, stands for training, according to Hughes. “We maintain a substantial education budget. This includes sending our staff to multiple Bar and commercial education opportunities. Our lawyers are required to belong to at least two specialty Bars. Additionally, we maintain a large, in-house training facility. We bring in outside speakers on a number of related issues, such as forensic valuation, psychology experts, real estate specialists and the like. The learning is constant at Hughes & Hughes.

We are also an MCLE Provider, and provide continuous educational opportunities.”

Technology is the third of the firm’s three T’s. “Due to our size, we have the ability to have all of the bells and whistles available to a family law firm. With the paradigm shift in the legal field to electronic research, file maintenance and soon to be a complete paperless court, our firm must be cutting

The Spirit of Democracy and portrait of Abraham Lincoln are two of Lisa’s favorite creations

edge. We work diligently to stay ahead of the curve, while at the same time maintaining a balance with the old, established and effective ways of running a law practice such as picking up the telephone and writing an old fashioned letter in lieu of a stream of emails,” Hughes explains.

Of course, the three preceding T’s would be for naught if the firm weren’t laden with talent. “Bruce, David and I represent decades of experience in family law. The younger lawyers, however, are amazing in the talent they bring to the firm. The lawyers speak a total of nine languages. Some also have additional graduate degrees and one is taking the C.P.A. exam. They bring an enthusiasm and energy that the older lawyers complement with wisdom and experience,” Hughes says proudly.

“We invest in human capital. It sounds cliché, but we are only as good as our weakest link, so we don’t have a weak link.

There is a requirement to joining Hughes & Hughes in that the candidate must love the work they do. They might get past the interview process and be hired on credentials, but unless their attitude and work ethic reflect a genuine interest in the client’s welfare, they won’t stay,” she quips.

Not surprisingly, the firm also holds itself to customized Standards of Success. “We don’t set goals that are ambiguous, and I tell our staff to take the Standards of Success off of the wall and carry them in your heart,” she says before acknowledging

that the onus is on her to lead by example. While there are 12 Standards, some of Hughes favorites are: ‘We have unquestioned integrity, always put our clients’ interest ahead of our own and do the right thing’ as well as, ‘We hold ourselves to be individually accountable to our clients, our team, and the firm. We do it today, not tomorrow’ and ‘We give back to our communities. Each team member is committed to performing quarterly community service.’

CARING FOR CLIENTS AND THE COMMUNITY “Hughes & Hughes is not content to be a good law firm, we strive to be a great law firm. That means sometimes stepping out in front of our competitors, sometimes trying new protocols which may or may not be more successful, and investing the firm resources to accomplish these goals. We don’t experiment on our clients. However, we allow staff to charge their time to my personal billing account to create a new form, write a new protocol or spend time to analyze a new strategy,” Hughes says.

Moreover, she explains, “Recognizing that the dissolution of a family is an anguishing event, we provide up to three free hours of counseling to our retained clients. If the initial interviewing attorney finds that the client has no therapist available, and the client is in distress, either from the grief of

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© christopher TODD Studios

The talented staff at Hughes and Hughes.

the dissolution, having been involved in domestic violence, or issues dealing with children going through a divorce, we will put them in the ‘therapy program.’ We give them a list of about a dozen professionals we know in the community and let them pick, without the firm’s input. They get a certificate for three hours and the therapist sends the certificate back to us as a bill. It is not charged to the client, and thus the lawyers will have no idea what happened unless the client volunteers that information. I assume some of the clients have maintained relationships longer than three hours and it has helped them through the process. I do not have to assume that the availability of a professional therapist to a client in a divorce is in the client’s best interest, or makes them a better client, and makes the process go smoother; I know it does.”

In addition, Hughes & Hughes provides a trial assistant for court, which is not billed to the client either. “We employ a former Superior Court Clerk. He is responsible for bringing client files, filing documents as necessary, finding witnesses, and meeting the comfort needs of clients that day. He also brings equipment so

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that our lawyers can access the computers at the office and make copies. Pleadings can be created on the spot. Research from our computer banks can be accessed and instructions can be given to the office in real time,” Hughes explains.

As if it weren’t enough to invest in her team, and do whatever it takes to help her clients through an incredibly painful time in their lives, Hughes is also determined to make an impact in her own community. She currently chairs two Orange County committees, including Drug Use is Life Abuse/Project No Gangs in conjunction with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, and the Public Finance Advisory Committee, appointed by the Orange County Board of Supervisors. “Our firm philosophy is that to whom much is given, much is expected,” Hughes says simply.

While all that she has done to build one of the most successful family law firms in Southern California would seem to leave no time for recreation, but nothing could be further from the truth. As a mother of four, and grandmother to another four, Hughes is also a “lover of critters,” which includes her horse

© christopher TODD Studios

EXPERIENCE » EDUCATION • Western State University, College of Law (June 1975) • L.L.B. Cum Laude • University of Southern California (December 1991) • Master of Public Administration • Exeter University, College of William and Mary Summer Law Program, Exeter, England (1974)

» CREDENTIALS • Attorney at Law • Certified Public Accountant (California)

» HONORS AND AWARDS • Super Lawyers (2011–2015) • Hall of Fame Member – Western State University College of Law (2007) • National Honor Society – Phi Kappa Phi USC Chapter (1992) • Lifetime Achievement Award – National Association of Woman Business Owners (2002) • Women of the Year – State of California, Senate Resolution (1994) • Woman of Achievement Award – Newport Harbor Business and Professional Women’s Club (1977) • California State Contractors License Board, Board of Directors/Member – Appointed by Governor Brown (1977–1981) • California State Lottery, Commissioner, Member, Chair – Appointed by Governor Wilson (1994–1997) • Orange County Juvenile Justice Commissioner (2006–2012) • Candidate for United State House Of Representatives 46th Congressional District (June 1998)

Contact: Lisa Hughes Hughes & Hughes Attorneys at Law www.hughesandhughesca.com bruce@hughesandhughesca.com 714-538-5200 660 W. First Street Tustin, CA 92780

» AUTHORED • “When is Spousal Support Not Deductible?” Article – Orange County Lawyer, October 1993 Volume 35, Number 10 • “Executive Divorce” Article – Orange County Lawyer, January 2009 Volume 51, Number 1 • “Winning at Divorce” (Currently in pre-publication)

» ADMITTED • 1976, Supreme Court, State of California • 1976, United States District Court, Central District of California • 1976, United States Tax Court • 1994, Supreme Court of the United States of America Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015 21

© christopher TODD Studios

Nacho, who she loves to ride. She also happens to be an incredibly talented painter, who relishes the time spent at her easel.

“Oil is my medium although I have done some watercolors,” she says. Currently her portrait of Lincoln is hanging in the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, while The Spirit of Democracy was displayed in the California State Senate Chambers and still others have been donated to raise money for various charities. “I am an artist, whether it be at my craft or at my easel. Long after an artist is gone, if they are any good at what they do, they leave a legacy.”

Hughes is most certainly going to leave a legacy, as she’s already been given the proclamation of Woman of the Year from the California State Senate, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners. Incidentally, those are just a few of dozens of awards she’s received, and while she’s humbled to have received them, they are frankly just a byproduct of doing what she loves to do. And what she loves to do is help others, whether through sharing her own life story, or lending an ear along with her expertise to those struggling in their own lives.

“As a family law firm, we are constantly facing emotional and sometimes dangerous situations.

A successful outcome is often determined by empowering a client and helping them to make appropriate choices. I encourage people to see past the present circumstances to find their best future. I assure them that it is all about positive attitude, utilizing your best skills, calling on your faith and maintaining a sense of humor. Every day gives us the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life. At Hughes & Hughes, we have the best job in the world.” n

2015 Fragomen Attorney Journal - REVISED.pdf 1 6/17/2015 8:56:14 PM

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T

he first half of the year 2015 is drawing to a close and by now “overwhelm” has yet to set in for many lawyers.

It is typically this time of year I find my clients eagerly embrace a few practical steps that they may take to yield high impact results in growing and strengthening their client base.

The appropriate execution when combined with consistency and persistency can make the difference between a thriving practice and hanging on by a thread. No one-shot wonders here.

EFFECTIVE To the extent lawyers consider the logic, there is no single action which wins the day for building a healthy practice. In relational businesses such as legal services, helping firms to reach “top-ofmind” status among its key audiences (existing clients, referral sources, and prospects) proves to be one of the greatest ‘high impact’ business development initiatives in which to engage. That is what I’m focusing on in this article:

REACH OUT REGULARLY

Three Critical Steps to Building a Prosperous Practice

by Kimberly Alford Rice Kimberly Alford Rice is Principal of KLA Marketing Associates (www.klamarketing.net), a business development advisory firm focusing on legal services.

As a law marketing authority, Kimberly helps law firms and lawyers develop practical business development and marketing strategies which lead directly to new clients and increased revenue.

Additionally, Kimberly founded Women in the Law Rainmaker Forum to provide women lawyers guidance in professional and career management issues. She may be reached at 609.458.0415 or via email at kimberly@klamarketing.net

With the countless number of ways to connect (email, social media, texting, snail mail, Skype, video conferencing, webcasting, etc.), it has never been easier to get and stay in touch with others.

Some individuals still pick up a landline telephone and place an actual phone call. Find out how your clients and key influencers prefer to be communicated with and leverage the available technology to develop a regular means of staying in touch. This could take the form of a monthly e-blast to a different segment of your clients on an issue of particular relevance to them. Or, it could be a program notice for an in-house “lunch n’ learn” on a timely topic which may adversely affect your clients’ business, if left unaddressed. Whatever the means, schedule it into your calendar to make sure it happens consistently. Enlist the support of your administrative team.

There are plenty of expert local resources available (just ask us) to assist you in developing a system for staying in touch with a growing number of clients and contacts. Developing and executing a system will make all the difference in the world for supporting your goals and rendering tangible results in growing a practice. Don’t leave your communication with targeted audiences to chance or continue a scattershot approach. As so many have seen, it simply does not work to make a lasting impression or to develop a “top-of-mind” awareness in front of those with whom you wish to connect.

FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTION It’s tough, if not downright impossible, to build and grow a prosperous practice without proactively meeting and cultivating relationships with individuals who are in a position to retain your services. There are a plethora of passive marketing tactics (such as advertising, article publishing, strategic web development) which can be very effective when combined with active marketing tactics (speaking engagements, networking events, organizational involvement), recognizing again that there is no one activity which is the magic bullet.

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015 23

As the number of networking opportunities has increased, we advise clients to remain very strategic and selective in committing to which events they will attend and in which professional organizations they will become involved. The absolute best events to attend are those at which your “profile” clients will be present. In short, you want to “go where the clients are.”

For example, if your area of practice is in management side labor and employment law, the folks who typically make legal hiring decisions may be a VP of Human Resources, Human Resources Director, CFO, or even a business owner, depending on the size of an organization.

Therefore, it makes perfect sense to attend and become involved in the same organizations in which those folks are involved. One such organization is the Society for Human Resource Managers (SHRM). It is there that you will find individuals struggling with a myriad of employment law issues with which you may lend your expertise.

There are times when experience really matters.

LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY

©2015 Executive Law Group, Inc.

It bears repeating that it has never been easier to get and stay in front of key audiences than it is today given all the technological tools (read: economical) available.

Assuming your firm has a website (and if you don’t, that is a whole different conversation), I encourage clients to upload fresh content frequently. This may take the form of a short article (no more than 750–1000 words), blog posts (no more than 300 words), or even a link to an article you published in a print or digital publication.

Study after study shows us that there is tremendous room for growth with online marketing initiatives. It is commonplace that upon meeting a prospect, a possible professional services advisor, etc., we all check out their online bio, whether that is on their website, an attorney directory (like Martindale or AVVO) or even LinkedIn. If you frequently upload new content to your website, you will boost your online credibility, which can increase your retention rate.

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888.920.EXEC (3932) 24 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

THE SECRET TO MARKETING SUCCESS IS THE CONSISTENT AND PERSISTENT MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF ACTION OVER A PROLONGED PERIOD OF TIME.” As the legal services landscape continues to shift and change and clients become even more selective in their legal services retentions, I challenge you to initiate at least 3 new high impact and commit to business development activities to get and stay connected with most prized clients and referral sources to make this year a success for you and your practice. n

Identifying and Grooming High-Potential Employees

by Jeff Wolf

H

ow do you identify high-potential new leaders? Leaders must be proficient in both hard and soft skills. For years, organizations looked at only hard skills or technical knowledge, such as expertise in strategy or finance. They viewed these hard skills as the most important characteristics of highpotential leaders. However, the soft skills (people or interpersonal skills) are key for the next generation of leaders.

Look for these soft skills: effective communication, coaching ability, listening skills, team building capability, facility for building relationships with their staffs and teams and with crossfunctional areas to achieve goals and get work done; a sense of inquisitiveness, a willingness to improve, a tendency to ask a lot of questions, and an understanding of how their actions affect themselves and others.

Leadership is difficult and demanding because leaders must help drive results, inspire, guide people and teams, and make tough decisions. Clearly, not everyone has the desire to lead, so the first question appears to be: Does the person want to be a leader? What are his or her goals and aspirations? Does he or she see the big picture versus having a silo mentality? Is the candidate a problem-solver? Does the candidate have the ability to strategically navigate complicated issues? What types of real life experiences does he or she have? Is the candidate honest and ethical?

Leaders need to be positive and have a great attitude because they can either impart or sap energy. A leader’s upbeat attitude becomes contagious, lifting the morale of those around him or her. You can always teach skills, but you cannot always teach people how to be positive; they either have a great attitude or they don’t.

Observe first-hand how potential leaders work with others and how other people view them. When they stand up to speak

in front of a group, do they exude confidence, present articulate, clear messages, and carry themselves well? They should also have good judgment skills in three discrete areas: 1. People. Can they make sound judgments about people, such as anticipating the need for key personnel changes and aligning people to make the right call?

2. Strategy. Are they flexible and adaptable? Can they make changes when a current strategy isn’t working?

3. Grace under pressure. When they’re in crisis situations, do they remain calm, focused on their goals, think clearly, and develop new alternative strategies? When they make a mistake, do they admit it, let others know about it, and move forward, or do they try to hide it? By admitting mistakes, they serve as role models, communicating that it’s okay to fail and make a mistake. n Jeff Wolf is founder and president of Wolf Management Consultants, LLC, a premier global consulting firm that specializes in helping people, teams and organizations achieve maximum effectiveness. Considered one of the most comprehensive consulting, coaching and training firms in the world, we provide services to organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to international conglomerates. WMC partners with clients to deliver customized solutions that resolve their most significant issues and create a lasting competitive advantage. Jeff’s first book, Roadmap to Success, with management gurus Ken Blanchard and Stephen Covey, is now in its second printing. His latest book, Seven Disciplines of a Leader, captures the distilled insights of Jeff’s 14 years of coaching and training hundreds of leaders at all levels in dozens of industries.

Excerpted with permission of the publisher, Wiley, from Seven Disciplines of A Leader by Jeff Wolf. Copyright © 2015 by Jeff Wolf.

All rights reserved. This book is available at all bookstores and online booksellers.

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015 25

Are You Losing Business Because of Bad Photography?

by Rachel Harmon

I

t’s a common sentiment, you think you’ve done everything possible to build your law business…

You have worked hard on building a business that represents your ideals. You have built relationships in your industry. You have a great office space that you have spent time decorating to make your clients feel comfortable. You have hired an all-star staff. You have advertisements in relevant marketing channels.

You have created a beautiful website that clearly depicts your firm’s purpose, but you still aren’t signing the cases that you want.

This is a frustrating reality for many legal professionals, who have spent an unmeasurable amount of time and energy making their business the best it can be, but are not seeing the expected results.

A simple area many professionals tend to ignore is the quality of the images they are posting on their site. In a society so hyper-focused on image and a marketing landscape where consumers have to digest thousands of images per day, your photos have to be top-notch, or you are wasting your time.

Marcel Just, director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University, explains how important images are to digital marketing in an interview for Nieman Reports, saying: “Processing print isn’t something the human brain was built for. The printed word is a human artifact. It’s very convenient

and it’s worked very well for us for 5,000 years, but it’s an invention of human beings. By contrast Mother Nature has built into our brain our ability to see the visual world and interpret it.”

–Marcel Just, Director of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Carnegie Mellon University

PROFESSIONAL LAW FIRM PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS • Be Personal Stock images always seem like a great idea at the time. They are cost effective, professional, and a stock image exists for almost any situation you can think of. However, stock images are impersonal, and many fall into the fake or cheesy categories.

Stock images don’t give a genuine representation of the people behind your firm, making you seem untrustworthy, which is the last thing any law firm wants. Images of actual people sitting in your law firm will always win out.

• Be Interesting Your clients are inundated with images through media outlets that flood our inboxes, mailboxes, and social feeds.

If your image does not spark any emotion in the viewer, it is worthless. I’m not necessarily talking about an intense emotional connection, but some type of spark that will

TYPES OF IMAGES TO INCLUDE ON YOUR LAW FIRM WEBSITE:

SMILING HEADSHOTS OF STAFF

BEHIND-THE-SCENES SHOTS

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GROUP SHOTS OF STAFF INSIDE OR NEAR BUILDING

keep your visitor interested. If your firm is involved in the community, give visitors a glimpse of your staff working hard to help locals. If you have a big case going on or an interview, snap a behind-the-scenes image so clients feel like they get the inside scoop on your work.

• Be Specific I have a background in retail marketing; nothing drives me crazier than an image with no subject and distracting background clutter. Make sure that your consumer knows exactly how your image relates to the topic they are reading about. To achieve this, you can blur out the background slightly or take images with a crisp clean background.

• Be Current Keeping out-of-date photos on your site signals to visitors that you don’t pay attention to detail and don’t care about being current. These red flags signal to your consumer that you may treat their case the same way. One of the easiest ways to tell if your photos are outdated is by examining the fashion and style choices made in the photos. A good rule of thumb is to update attorney profile images every year or two, and update images when you hire or lose staff members. In addition to the standard photos, continually post images from current events happening at your firm.

Hear Mike’s Story

“Now, knowing what I know now, I am so blessed that I was represented by the Law Firm of Harley & Duarte. Their vast experience in handling cases like mine truly paid off for me.”

-Mike Denney, Santa Ana, CA

IMAGES/VIDEOS FOR CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

• Be High Quality The final and most important aspect of any photo is the quality. No matter how personal, interesting, specific, or current your images are, if they are of sub-par quality, you might as well not even have them on your site. A low-quality image on a website demonstrates that the creators are apathetic to quality overall and will likely be apathetic to the quality of a client’s case. The best way to solve this problem is to hire a professional photographer to come to your business and take photos of your staff and your space. n Rachel Harmon is an Analyst for Consultwebs and supports Marketing Consultants by auditing client’s websites and looking for gaps in their online marketing campaigns. She specializes in ensuring clients’ site redesigns, launches, content revisions/ additions and other aspects of their online marketing are executed smoothly and in harmony with the firm’s brand.

PHOTOS OF STAFF COLLABORATING WITH EACH OTHER

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015 27

CALIFORNIA COURTS OF APPEAL ARBITRATION Pinela v. Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _, 2015 WL 3955254: The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order denying a motion to compel arbitration. The trial court originally granted most of the motion to compel arbitration. The trial court later reconsidered its ruling and denied the motion to compel arbitration. The Court of Appeal found the trial court had jurisdiction to reconsider its earlier order. The Court of Appeal ruled that the delegation clause, and the agreement as a whole, were procedurally and substantively unconscionable. (C.A. 1st, June 29, 2015.)

ATTORNEYS

McIntyre’s Civil Alert Organized Succinct Summaries

by Monty A. McIntyre, Esq. Monty A. McIntyre has over 30 years of experience as a mediator and arbitrator. More than 35 years of experience as a civil trial lawyer representing both plaintiffs and defendants in business and commercial, bad faith, brain injury, construction, land use/CEQA, medical malpractice, personal injury, real property and wrongful death cases. To schedule a meeting with Monty A. McIntyre contact Kelsey Hannah at ADR Services, Inc. at (619) 233-1323 or kelsey@adrservices.org

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Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

Castaneda v. Superior Court (Perrin Bernard Supowitz, Inc.) (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3892154: The Court of Appeal granted a writ petition challenging the trial court’s order denying a motion to disqualify a law firm. When an attorney serves as a settlement officer in a mandatory settlement conference conducted by a judge and two volunteer attorneys, if the attorney receives confidential information from one of the parties to the action that attorney’s law firm may not subsequently agree to represent an opposing party in the same action, regardless of the efficacy of the screening procedures established by the law firm. (C.A. 2nd, June 24, 2015.)

CIVIL PROCEDURE (998, ANTI-SLAPP, DEMURRER, PREEMPTION) Eckler v. Neutrogena Corporation (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3989142: The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order in one action sustaining a demurrer without leave to amend, and its order in another action granting judgment on the pleadings. Plaintiffs filed separate actions against respondent Neutrogena Corporation alleging that their sunscreen products were misleadingly labeled and marketed in violation of California consumer protection statutes. The trial court properly concluded that the claims were preempted by the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act ( 21 U.S.C. § 379r) and implementing FDA regulations. (C.A. 2nd, filed June 9, 2015, published July 1, 2015.)

Finton Construction, Inc. v. Bidna and Keys, APLC (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3947116: The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order granting an anti-SLAPP motion against plaintiff for its complaint filed against attorneys based on their refusal to relinquish to the opposing parties’ evidence delivered to the attorneys by their clients in a trade secrets case.

The Court of Appeal ruled the attorneys’ conduct was protected,

and plaintiff was unable to demonstrate a probability of prevailing on its claim. The Court of Appeal decided to publish the case, after it was notified the case had settled, as “an example to the legal community of the kind of behavior the bench and the bar together must continually strive to eradicate.” (C.A. 4th, June 29, 2015.)

Litt v. Eisenhower Medical Center (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3799523. The Court of Appeal reversed that part of the trial court’s order denying costs and expert witness fees to Eisenhower Medical Center (EMC) after it beat its 998 offer, because the costs and expert fees were paid by another defendant Compass Group USA, Inc. (Compass) under an indemnity agreement between EMC and Compass. Code of Civil Procedure sections 998 and 1033.5 authorize the recovery of costs and expert fees that were incurred by the prevailing party, even if that party did not pay the costs. (C.A. 4th, June 19, 2015.)

Munoz v. City of Tracy (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3958324: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s order granting a motion to dismiss for failure to bring the case to trial within five years. The parties signed a written stipulation that continued the trial to a specific date outside of the five-year period. The Court of Appeal found the stipulation properly extended the five-year period, and there was no need for the City to “expressly waive” the benefit of Code of Civil Procedure section 583.310. (C.A. 3rd, June 30, 2015.)

Parrish v. Latham & Watkins (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3933988 : The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s order granting an anti-SLAPP motion by defendants, but for a different reason. Latham & Watkins had filed an anti-SLAPP motion to a malicious prosecution complaint, arguing that the action was untimely under the one-year statute of limitations in Code of Civil Procedure section 340.6, and alternatively arguing that the interim judgment rule precluded a finding of the lack of probable cause. The trial court granted the anti-SLAPP solely on the statute of limitations issue. During the appeal, however, the Court of Appeal ruled in Roger Cleveland Golf Co., Inc. v. Krane & Smith, APC (2014) 225 Cal.App.4th 660 that the statute of limitations for malicious prosecution was two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. On appeal defendant conceded the complaint was timely under section 335.1.

Plaintiffs argued the interim adverse judgment rule did not preclude the malicious prosecution action because the trial court had made a finding of bad faith after a bench trial in the underlying action, and this negated the trial court’s prior ruling denying summary judgment. The Court of Appeal concluded that this hindsight approach was inconsistent with a core principle of the interim adverse judgment rule—that an interim ruling on the merits establishes probable cause in the

underlying action, even though that ruling is later reversed by the trial court, a jury, or an appellate court. (C.A. 2nd, filed June 1, 2015, published June 26, 2015.)

CLASS ACTIONS Falk v. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3895464. The Court of Appeal reversed, in part, the trial court’s order granting summary judgment to defendant on wage and hour claims after it rejected plaintiff’s argument that the filing of a prior class action tolled the limitations periods under American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah (1974) 414 U.S. 538 (American Pipe). On May 1, 2007, Thomas Palazzolo filed a class action against his former employer Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (Children’s). On April 7, 2009, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Children’s without addressing either class claims or class certification.

Class certification was not raised or addressed on appeal. The court of appeal affirmed the trial court judgment and remittitur issued on February 3, 2011. Denise Mays filed a class action complaint against employer Children’s on January 27, 2012.

Falk’s class action was filed on December 3, 2012. Under American Pipe, if class certification in an initial class action is denied, the statute of limitations is tolled from the time of commencement of that suit to the time of denial of certification for all purported members of the class who either make timely motions to intervene in the surviving individual action or who thereafter timely file their own individual actions. The Court of Appeal found that claims asserted in the earlier Palazzolo class action, although stated with less precision than Falk’s claims, gave Children’s notice of Falk’s claims. Falk’s claims were therefore tolled from May 1, 2007, until February 3, 2011, the date that remittitur issued in the Palazzolo case. Because 249 days had already run on Falk’s claims by the time the Palazzolo case was filed, she only had 116 days left to file her complaint to preserve any cause of action subject to a one-year limitations period. Even assuming that the Mays case started a new tolling period, 116 days from February 3, 2011, expired before Mays filed her class action on January 27, 2012. Falk’s wage statement claim, which was subject to a one-year limitations period, was therefore time-barred. But her remaining claims, which were subject to a three-year or four-year limitations period, were timely. (C.A. 2nd, filed June 3, 2015, published June 24, 2015.)

Munoz v. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3958999: The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal. The Court of Appeal concluded that the trial court’s order denying plaintiffs’ class certification motion and granting defendant’s motion to deny class certification was a nonappealable order because PAGA claims remained in the trial court. The “death knell” doctrine did not apply under these circumstances. (C.A. 2nd, June 30, 2015.)

Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

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EMPLOYMENT Cifuentes v. Costco Wholesale Corporation (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3932948: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court ruling that under Lisec v. United Airlines, Inc. (1992) 10 Cal.App.4th 1500, 1507 (Lisec), Costco had improperly withheld federal and state payroll taxes when it paid plaintiff’s judgment for wages against his former employer. The Court of Appeal observed that in the 23 years since Lisec, the Internal Revenue Service and the vast majority of federal appellate courts had broadly interpreted the applicable Internal Revenue Code provisions as requiring an employer to withhold payroll taxes for all “wages” arising from the employer-employee relationship, even after that relationship has terminated. Persuaded by these authorities, the Court of Appeal concluded that Costco properly withheld the payroll taxes. (C.A. 2nd, June 26, 2015.)

REAL PROPERTY Schafer v. City of Los Angeles (Triangle Center, LLC) (2015) _ Cal. App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3824134: The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s peremptory writ of mandate directing the City to set aside a decision by the City’s planning commission that upheld a building permit allowing the restriping of a parking lot owned by Triangle Center, and to reinstate a decision by the City’s zoning administrator that denied the permit. Triangle Center and the City argued the evidence supported the planning commission’s decision that the City was equitably estopped from disallowing use of the property as a parking lot. The Court of Appeal concluded that the circumstances of this case did not justify an equitable estoppel against the City. This was not one of the rare and exceptional cases in which denying equitable estoppel would result in grave injustice. Allowing Triangle Center to establish land use rights contrary to the zoning restrictions and despite its failure to comply with the normal land use approval process would adversely affect public policy and the public interest. That adverse impact outweighed any unfairness to Triangle Center resulting from the failure to apply equitable estoppel. (C.A. 2nd, filed May 20, 2015, published June 19, 2015.)

Wells Fargo Bank v. 6354 Figarden General Partnership (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3978700 : The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s calculation of the redemption price for real property sold by judicial foreclosure. The Court of Appeal construed Code of Civil Procedure section 729.060(c), which states: “Rents and profits from the property paid to the purchaser or the value of the use and occupation of the property to the purchaser may be offset against the amounts [included in the redemption price pursuant to] subdivision (b).” The trial court’s finding that the purchaser’s use and occupation of the unleased portion had no value was supported by substantial evidence so the trial court did not err in reducing the redemption price only by the rents paid. The Court of Appeal concluded that section 729.060(c) refers to net rents. Consequently, the redemptioner

30 Attorney Journal Orange County | Volume 113, 2015

suffered no prejudice when the trial court subtracted the management fees and operating expenses related to the business of the renting units of the property from the redemption price.

(C.A. 5th, July 1, 2015.)

Wong v. Stoler (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3862525: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s judgment denying plaintiffs rescission of a real estate purchase contract due to fraud.

The potential hardship that the sellers might suffer if the real estate contract was rescinded was not a proper basis for denying rescission due to the sellers’ fraud. (C.A. 1st, filed May 26, 2015, published June 23, 2015.)

SETTLEMENT Epic Communications, Inc. v. Richwave Technology, Inc. (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3862491: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s summary judgment for defendants who were strangers to the settlement agreement. Several provisions of the settlement agreement containing the release clause were not easily reconciled with its seemingly broad release language.

The subsequent conduct of the contracting parties also appeared to be inconsistent with an intent to extend the release to unaffiliated third parties. The Court of Appeal concluded that in view of these ambiguities, the trial court erred by granting summary judgment in favor of strangers to the contract who raised the release as a defense. (C.A. 6th, June 23, 2015.)

TORTS Bermudez v. Ciolek (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3826842 : The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court judgment of $3,751,969 for plaintiff, but reduced the judgment by $46,175.41 of damages that were not supported by substantial evidence. Two cars crashed in an intersection as the light transitioned from green to yellow to red. Ciolek was turning left. Heacox was going straight. Ciolek’s car pushed Heacox’s car into plaintiff who was waiting on his bike on the sidewalk. The jury found both defendants Ciolek and Heacox were negligent, but concluded only Ciolek was “a substantial factor in causing harm” to plaintiff. The jury was entitled to conclude that Heacox slightly exceeded a reasonable speed when he entered the intersection, but that his speed was not a substantial factor in causing plaintiff’s injuries. (C.A. 4th, June 22, 2015.)

Navarrete v. Meyer (2015) _ Cal.App.4th _ , 2015 WL 3826660: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s order granting summary judgment for defendant Meyer. Defendant Meyer’s act of telling the driver to drive faster raised triable issues for a jury as to whether to impose joint liability on Meyer for her conduct on the night in question on a theory of concert of action or conspiracy, and also as to whether she unreasonably interfered with the safe operation of a vehicle within the meaning of Vehicle Code section 21701. (C.A. 4th, June 22, 2015.) n

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