“From this day forward, when your mother tells you she loves you – get a second opinion.”

Friends:

  

Think you are the only one who has ever experienced this?  Well, you haven’t.  It has happened to all of us.  You are sitting with a client, you come up with the right strategy, the best course of action, and what does the client say?  “What does your boss/senior partner/manager think?”

  

Seriously, how debilitating is that??  You want to scream to the world, look at me, I am a professional and I know what is right!  Don’t you trust me?  I went to law school, I passed the CPA exam, I have my license!  I know the answer!!

  

Trust me, it has happened to all of us.  It will continue to happen until we are all replaced by robots, in which case the clients will ask the robot to check with their programmers… It’s gonna happen, there is nothing that any of us can do to prevent it.  Put your head down, work hard, gain that experience… because with that experience comes the privilege of becoming that senior partner whose opinion is so valuable.

  

And while we are on the path, accumulating that experience, keep this in mind.  One of the greatest creations in all of literature sat in the exact same shoes as we do.  Yep, I was doing some reading this week and something in the passage I read just resonated.

  

Now, I have done a lot of reading and I have felt a wide range of emotions during my fictional travels.  Excitement, sadness, nervousness, triumph and even pity.  But I cannot say that I have ever actually identified with a character as much as I did with Dr. John H. Watson in “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”  Sherlock Holmes isn’t just Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law.

  

I think that anyone who has ever read the Sherlock Holmes stories has tried to picture themselves as Holmes, the intelligent and glamorous consulting detective.  I think that even Dr. Watson even dreamed of being Holmes, solving the mystery and being the hero.  And in “The Hound of the Baskervilles” he finally gets his chance.

  

In case you have never read it the important thing to know is that Holmes is unavailable to investigate the mystery.  When the new client hires Holmes to investigate a murder and the hound from hell, he confesses that he has other matters to attend to and sends Dr. Watson in his place to investigate.  Finally, Dr. Watson’s chance to shine.  His opportunity to take all that he has learned by watching and working with the great Sherlock Holmes and solve a mystery of his own.  We have all been there, right?  A chance to shed our training wheels and actually do, instead of sit on the sidelines watching.

  

So how does it go?  Let’s just say that Dr. Watson’s credibility is questioned by those with whom he comes into contact.

  

Consider this exchange between Dr. Watson and a character named Mr. Stapleton:

  

Watson:  “You think, then, that some dog pursued Sir Charles, and that he died of fright in consequence?”

  

Stapleton:  “Have you any better explanation?”

  

Watson:  “I have not come to any conclusion.”

  

Stapleton:  “Has Mr. Sherlock Holmes?”

  

  

Really? This was my initial reaction–  “Who cares what Mr. Sherlock Holmes thinks?  He isn’t here, is he?  I am and if I tell you that I haven’t solved the mystery yet, then I haven’t solved the mystery yet!”

  

But of course, after thinking it through, it was so easy to identify with Dr. Watson and the way he must have felt, the sense of the winds coming out of his sails, the deflation of his spirits.  He thought he finally had his first case, a chance to make a name for himself separate and apart from being “The Great Sherlock Holmes'” sidekick… but alas, his lack of experience and the legend and shadow of Holmes was too much to rise above without having proved himself first. 

  

And after I felt that, I just had to laugh.  Even in 1901, the challenge of an underling to escape from the shadow of the legend… Seems like that sometimes, right?    

  

Rob  

  

www.ahslawyers.com
 

www.robcohen13.wordpress.com

Twitter:  robcohen13 

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“Drop the ‘The.’ Just ‘Facebook.’ It’s cleaner.”

Friends:

 

I had everything planned for this week’s discourse…  A heart-felt confessional of my fears and concerns with respect to my role as leader.  But, as typically happens, another issue came to my attention, one which I could not overlook.

  

I still consider this, the 9th week of the year 2011, to be the beginning of the year, a time in which the rest of the year’s course is still unsettled.  Will it be a year of success or a year of failure?  That is a trick question, my friends, because you cannot know whether it will be a successful year or a failure without one important piece of information– the goals for the year.  Seriously, how can you measure success or failure if you don’t have goals? 

  

So as the year is still in its infancy, I am working on and finalizing my goals for the year and the goals I have set for my firm.  Think goals are unimportant?  I used to…

  

I used to have goals– I was going to pass the Bar exam, become a partner in a law firm, get married and have kids.  I had completed my goals by the time I was 30 years old– what then?  Roll with the punches, bide my time, then retire.  Without goals, that makes for an unfulfilling career.  How will I know, at the end of my law practicing years, if I was a success if I never set any goals?

  

Have you seen “The Social Network” yet?  If you haven’t, hopefully you are at least familiar with the subject matter, the inception and litigation associated with Facebook.  What on earth does a social networking website have to do with goal setting?

  

If the legend (and movie) are to be believed, Facebook was started in a Harvard dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg, with the financial backing and support of his roommate, Eduardo Saverin.  The movie tracks the history of Facebook as told through the numerous depositions that were taken in the various litigated matters concerning the creation and ownership of Facebook.  One lawsuit, brought by other students of Harvard, was founded on the allegation that Zuckerberg stole the idea from Facebook.  The other lawsuit, and the one which affected me more strongly, was the lawsuit filed by Saverin. 

  

The facts of the lawsuit are inconsequential; however, suffice it to say that Zuckerberg’s actions served to destroy his relationship with his only friend and resulted in protracted litigation and a presumably large financial settlement.  What stood out to me, and what was so glaringly obvious given my recent internal struggles, was the fact that the downfall of the relationship could have been prevented had Zuckerberg and Saverin sat down and done one small thing:  set a goal.

  

Facebook took off and snowballed virtually overnight.  However there were scenes in the movie in which the future of the company was questioned and it was clear that Zuckerberg and Saverin were not on the same page.  In fact, there was no page at all.  Saverin, as the financial backer for the company, had the idea of turning Facebook into a profit center by selling advertising space.  Zuckerberg resisted, presumably because he was unwilling to give up any control over his creation; however he did not provide an alternative vision for the business. 

  

Which made him vulnerable.  Without a vision and without goals, he became impressionable, taken in by fast-talkers and smooth operators, and it quickly became clear that Zuckerberg and Saverin were going in opposite directions.  But when it became all too clear that Zuckerberg and Saverin were in different places in their estimation of the future of Facebook, Zuckerberg had already taken steps to eradicate Saverin.  Through corporate activity and abuse of Saverin’s trust, Zuckerberg literally stole the business from him.

  

As I watched the movie and witnessed the disintegration of the relationship, I couldn’t help but think that a goal-setting strategy session could have had a significant impact on the friendship.  With a common goal, both partners pulling in the same direction, the relationship could have remained intact and litigation avoided. 

  

In the grand scheme of things, this is perhaps not the best example in support of goal-setting.  At the end of the day, Zuckerberg is still a multi-billionaire; the perception of him as a villain or an ego-maniac likely doesn’t cause him to lose sleep at night.  But how many businesses are Facebook?

  

The vast majority of businesses will not reach Facebook-size status and it is only the select few who reach billionaire rank.  The rest of us may not be able to roll with the punches of losing a partner and cannot withstand the impact of internal strife leading to litigation.  So how do you ensure that this doesn’t happen, that everyone  gets on the same page and pulls in the same direction?

  

Set a goal for the business.  Get everybody to subscribe to the goal.  Then keep track of the goal and check to make sure that steps are being taken to accomplish that goal. 

  

At the end of the movie, one things is clear– Mark Zuckerberg is made to look like a loser.  He has a billion-dollar business, but he is alone.  When Facebook passes the threshold of one million users, he sits alone, no one to celebrate with.  What should have been a defining moment for Zuckerberg and Saverin, an amazing accomplishment, instead instilled a feeling of pity for the loneliness that such success brought.  Had a goal been set, the success would have been shared.

  

I’m setting a goal– and I can’t wait to share in the success.  What good is succeeding alone?    

  

Rob  

  

www.ahslawyers.com
 

www.robcohen13.wordpress.com

Twitter:  robcohen13 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Woodland-Hills-CA/Rob-Cohens-Blog/140192572669004

“The prosecution would like to separate the motive from the act. Well, that’s like trying to take the core from an apple without breaking the skin.”

Friends:

  

There is nothing quite like the eve of trial.  It isn’t like studying for any old exam…

  

The night before an exam you are trying to cram a semester’s worth of information into the last precious hours before you sit down, open your brain, and dump out everything you know.

  

But trial is different.  In some ways, it is better than an exam, because you know the questions because you are asking them.  However, no matter how well you prepare your witness, will they answer the questions the way they should?  Will they testify exactly the way you envision they should?

  

Every attorney, at some point in time, dreams of making the argument, persuading a jury to decide in favor of your client.  Yet when you dream of winning that case, you don’t think of how much pressure there will be, how many eyes will be on you, and how the lives and fortunes of your clients will be in your hands.

  

So let’s set the stage:

  

You have been living this case for a year/18 months/2 years/more.  Every day, for hours on end, you have studied, reviewed, investigated, and questioned.  You have sent out reams of paper in discovery, taken hours of depositions, and argued motions in court ranging from the mundane to the dispositive.  In some ways, you know the case better than the people who lived the events in question.

  

You begin to set your witnesses.  You outline the testimony, go over it with the witness, making sure that all of the points that need to be made are covered.  The elements of your case need to be hit in an orderly fashion.  If you are claiming there was a breach of the contract, was there a contract in the first place?  Did your client perform as he/she was supposed to?  For the witnesses who will not come to testify willingly, you have served your subpoenas, but will they appear?

  

You get your exhibits together.  What documents do you need to help you make your case?  Do you have them ready to go?  And more importantly, have you made enough copies for everyone?  Your copy, opposing counsel’s copy, witness’s copy, clerk’s copy, judge’s copy… Are they all marked, in their binders, exhibit tabbed?  Have you marked your copy so that you know what parts of each document to focus your questioning?

  

Ahh, the pre-trial motions.  Is there any evidence you want to keep the other side from using?  Maybe some evidence they didn’t produce during the normal course of discovery or testimony you know they will try to elicit solely to make your client look bad, with no other purpose?  Better be ready to argue those before the trial starts.  Of course, those motions were prepared and filed weeks ago, right?

  

And speaking of testimony or documents you don’t want to come into evidence.  Brushed up on your evidence objections recently?  Do you know your hearsay from your relevance from your best evidence from your leading/calls for speculation/asked and answered/outside the scope of direct?  Because when the time comes, you better be ready to pull out any one of those on a split second’s notice.

  

So all of this is going through your mind the night before trial… and more.  You know the mantra to never ask a question you don’t know the answer to, right?  But what if you ask a question you do know the answer to but the witness doesn’t answer it the right way?

  

You know this case better than anyone else, but you are handcuffed.  Seriously, it might be better if the courts just let the attorneys do the testifying because we know it all.  We know what the witness should say, we know how the witness should say it, and we know how the opposing counsel is going to try to tear it down.

  

But then it wouldn’t be a trial.

  

So on the eve of trial all of this is going through your mind, trying to anticipate what will happen, knowing that for as much as you think you can control portions of the trial, the vast majority of it is unpredictable and out of your hands.  What happens if you ask a question and the other side objects and the judge sustains the objection?  Do you have a back-up question, a re-phrasing, some way to get the evidence in that will not be swallowed up by an objection?  What if the judge had a bad night, didn’t get much sleep, and is sustaining every objection made by the opposing side and you can’t get any of your evidence in or, even worse, she overrules each of your objections and the other side gets everything in.

  

You have got to be on your A-game, thinking on your feet… Because you don’t have time to think these things through, to edit your response, to erase what you wrote and change your answer, or switch your (c) response to a (b).

  

Now, in the grand scheme of things, one little misstep isn’t going to mean the difference between winning and losing; but anything is possible.  Fail to object in time and the witness gives an answer which is fatal to your case and you may not be able to repair the damage fast enough or capably enough.  Or dismiss a witness one question too early and lose the right to re-call him or her and thus not get imperative evidence on the record.

  

All of this goes through your mind on the eve of trial.  In the grand scheme of things, taking a test sure would be simpler.   

 

  

Rob  

  

www.ahslawyers.com

www.robcohen13.wordpress.com

Twitter:  robcohen13 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Woodland-Hills-CA/Rob-Cohens-Blog/140192572669004

   

“One reason God created time was so that there would be a place to bury the failures of the past.”

Friends:

It is amazing how much things can change in a minute, in an hour, in a week.  What was once so predictable can become a raging inferno within a matter of moments and this was proven yet again these past few weeks with the events as they have transpired in Egypt.

  

Now I am not going to spend any time debating the politics of the region or defending one side’s position over another.  As we have discussed before, I am an historian, not a politician.  Foreign policy, international affairs, the national debt, these are things which are far above my pay grade.  Don’t hold it against me when you go to the polls on Election Day 2012, but I am at a sore disadvantage when it comes to those issues.  Actually, to be blunt– I am only qualified to be President in one respect.  I would do a hell of a job throwing out the first pitch.

  

But that is neither here nor there.  What I did want to discuss, however, is the unenviable position in which President Obama finds himself; the same position in which we all find ourselves at any given time.  While any one of us would love to yell at the top of our lungs that the problem was not of our creation, we still need to address it and remedy it.

  

The wheels of unrest in Egypt were set in motion years ago, long before President Obama had even given thought to running for public office.  Just like the U.S. support for Japan in the early 1900s and for Castro in the 1950s backfired mightily, so too does the U.S. support for Egypt in the 1980s suggest that the ramifications are far from defined.

  

So President Obama is left holding the bag.  I’ve been there, haven’t you?  Clients come to you with baggage; significant others come to you with baggage; partners come to you with baggage.  While we may want to do so, we just can’t run away.  But man are we playing at a huge disadvantage!

  

No matter how much we may investigate, we will never know all of the facts and that unsteady feeling in the gut is warranted.  Not only that, but the client with the baggage has animosity that was built up long before you got involved.  They came to you for a reason, whether it be dissatisfaction with their prior broker, “unacceptable” losses to their portfolio, or a bitter divorce.  Even though you weren’t there, had nothing to do with the previous disaster, you will be the focus of the ire.  And they don’t have time for you to try to figure it out; they want answers now.

  

Here is an example– a client came to me after he had already been represented by three other attorneys.  By the time I came on board, the litigation was in full swing and the snowball rolling downhill was unstoppable.  The client was going to lose and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

  

I wanted to scream that it wasn’t my fault; that I hadn’t caused the problem, I didn’t set the wheels in motion.  Of course I couldn’t do that.  So when it went bad, as I had predicted, I was left holding the bag, and I was the one who received the full onslaught of the anger. 

  

So what do we do about it?  Do we hide our head in the sand and keep or eyes closed and hope that the bad stuff just passes by without anyone noticing?  I wish I knew the answer because it happens a lot.  Only those rare relationships last for years on end.  Clients come and go, business partners come and go, romantic relationships come and go.  There is no such thing as loyalty anymore, our clients are constantly looking for the next big thing and will jump at all opportunities, especially if they think that their service provider is failing in some way.  I like to think that I am different, that the service and dedication that I provide to my clients will be enough to keep my clients loyal.  It is a pipe dream.  I know it; you know it.  Sometimes all it takes is a little adversity and the client is out the door. 

  

No one likes to point fingers.  What was the phrase?  When you point your finger, three more point right back at you?  Come on, no one wants to be a tattletale, to blame someone else.  But this is war, isn’t it?  Business is war, life is war.  We talked about trust last week.  Do you trust that others are looking out for you?  Do you honestly believe that when your client seeks professional service from someone else, that the someone else isn’t looking for things that you did wrong?  I am looking out for #1 and that is that.

  

We all have to grow up and this is my growing up party.  Sometimes playing fair and taking the high road does no good.  Claim what is yours and call it like you see it.  If someone else did a poor job before you got there, shout it out.

  

Of course, President Roosevelt couldn’t announce to the world that the attack by the Japanese at the start of World War II was the former President Roosevelt’s fault, but President Obama could certainly call into question the actions of his predecessors, couldn’t he? 

  

This subject I could go on for longer, but I won’t because I may get myself too worked up about it.  😉  But I am open to suggestions.  We can’t always avoid these situations, but who wants to be left holding the bag when the music stops?

  

Have a great week, and if you don’t have a great week, it is because of what that other guy did last week.  It isn’t my fault…

  

Rob  

  

www.ahslawyers.com
 

www.robcohen13.wordpress.com

Twitter:  robcohen13 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Woodland-Hills-CA/Rob-Cohens-Blog/140192572669004