I've been a trial lawyer my entire career, beginning as a prosecutor in a DA's office 30 years ago. Today, I still play the part of a prosecutor. I think it's important to bring righteous indignation, even outrage, to the court. But you need to do it with a smile. No juror wants to sit in a box while some angry guy in a suit yells for three hours.

We've been on our own just over two years, and the work keeps coming. It's really just Slade and myself - and a small team of associates. We are very hands-on. We don't delegate. I think that's why we are two of the hardest working lawyers in the field.

A trial lawyer needs to understand the dynamics of the courtroom. We understand the visceral things that motivate juries. For instance, a medical malpractice case becomes instantly more jury-friendly if you can show that a doctor altered the medical record. That's why I've always made a point of personally inspecting records for such irregularities. And I have managed to find altered records at a rate that suggests the practice is more common than many lawyers realize.

Jim Beasley told me that a trial lawyer can try any kind of case. And I have handled every kind of case: medical malpractice, products liability, employment discrimination, Civil Rights, Intellectual Property, breach of contract, and personal injury. When I represented the Facenda estate, I found myself in a foreign field of law, against some of the best Intellectual Property lawyers in the country. It sounds corny, but we prevailed because I knew how to take a deposition, I knew how to read the case-law, and I knew how to write an appellate brief.

Our firm is growing and we maintain a pace that I never envisioned for myself in my fifties. Slade and I do most of our depositions in tandem. I can't explain it, but when we work together, one plus one ends up equaling three." We complement one another in a pretty unique way. I call Slade the Field Marshall because he's a big picture guy who can amass the experts and organize the myriad sources of information. I tend to be the detail-oriented technocrat who pores over the documents. We both bring something unique to the practice. It's been a pretty powerful combination - I know it's worked for our clients.

You have to have a strong constitution to do this kind of work. They call it "civil" litigation, but there's always a lawyer on the other side of very case whose sole job is to derail you and your client. You've got to have the fortitude and determination to face up to that. It's why my hair is grey. We've ventured into some pretty tough legal terrain, against some pretty formidable opponents, and we have been tough to beat. I am proud of our results - and especially proud of the people we work for and represent. They depend on us - and that's a responsibility that Slade and I have been proud to undertake.