I'M A TRIAL LAWYER. Period.
It may surprise you that most lawyers have never been involved in a trial. It may also surprise you that most lawyers rarely, if ever, go to court at all.
I'm not one of those lawyers.
I'm a trial lawyer. I thrive in the courtroom. So the philosophy with which I approach all of cases is simple:
I treat every case as though it’s headed to trial.
Why? Because I believe we can achieve a better result with that frame of mind. For two reasons. First, because we’re not resigned to settling—in which case, we’d probably just be settling for less. That’s why I’m never disappointed when settlement negotiations fall through—I’m energized. Because I know how to take cases to trial, and win.
Second, because I believe that, fundamentally, trial experience makes one a better lawyer because it teaches you how to “litigate backwards.” If a lawyer has never been involved in a trial, how does he know which pieces of information are most critical to gather during the early stages of the case? Or which witnesses to interview? Taking cases all the way to the end gives you extraordinary perspective on how you should be handling them from the beginning. I have that perspective, and I bring it to bear with all of my cases.
WE DISCOVER YOUR STORY. Your Real Story.
It may also surprise you that, while a lot of lawyers say that they are out to “help victims,” the reality is that a lot them are just out to help themselves. They don’t really care about you or your family’s pain—they just care about their own payday.
I Always Do the Right Thing—Period.
I’m built different. I was raised differently—both personally and professionally. At my core, I’m helpful, I’m driven by an abiding sense of right and wrong, and I enjoy working in service of the greater good.
Professionally, I didn’t start my career doing the bidding of big private clients at a big law firm. I started out serving the American people as a federal prosecutor and government litigator with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. So, as a lawyer, I was brought up differently than most. It isn’t the Department of "Winning"—it’s the Department of Justice. And that’s how was I trained to handle cases from the moment I was sworn in: to be fair, to be just, and to always do what’s right—even if that meant admitting that the government was wrong.
That’s the value system with which I continue practice law. I don’t just take cases because there might be a payday at the end of them. I take cases because I care about what happened to you. Because I’m offended by it. And because I want to help make it right.
I Don't Just Want to Know the Chronology—I Want to Know You.
I’m also different because I’m trained to employ unique methods to discover your story. Not just the rote chronology of events—but the true story of the trauma you’ve experienced. I’m a graduate of the renowned Trial Lawyers College, which was established over 25 years ago on the Wyoming ranch of Gerry Spence, who is widely considered to be the one of the greatest trial lawyers of all time.
I have since been invited to sit on the faculty of the Gerry Spence Method to teach other trial lawyers from all across the country the skills and techniques I learned at the Ranch. Those pyschodramatic techniques—scene-setting reenactments, role reversal, doubling, soliloquy—enable me to truly understand the impact of the trauma in your life and to bring that emotional truth to life before a jury.
The “what” that happened to you is the easy part. But I’m trained to discover the “why”— why that particular thing has had such a profound impact on you and your family. Let me do that for you.
