About the Commercial Litigation Firms Attorney in Long Beach, California

About Keesal, Young & Logan

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I worked with a very fine firm downtown and then a trial specialty firm for a year just trying jury cases left and right. Something happened at that firm, which I didn’t think was right and so, I resigned. I went down to a graduate at Long Beach and I used to play volleyball down here and with no real expectation of ever getting any significant business or being able to have the good fortune that we’ve fortunately had I thought I’ll rent a place down here and if things aren’t going well, I’ll go down and play volleyball. I’m happy to say I didn’t have to play volleyball but that was how I ended up down here.

I can tell you what we do that we consider absolutely necessary for a good practice, one that is respected by others and the courts and the clients. And that is you start out by always being straightforward. This can’t ever be about the lawyer, this can’t ever be about the fee, this can’t ever be about ego or embarrassment or getting a star on your paper. This has got to be about what is the right thing to do for a client?

The second thing is we always look at everything from the other person’s point of view. And for those who say well, how can you ever do that? The answer is it’s very simple if you start out doing it that way. You say what would I do if I was the plaintiff? How does the client feel about this? How should the client feel about it? And approach everything with the other person’s interest in mind. The third thing is analyzing the case but my view of this, our view of this is if you look at a file or you have conversation with the client you have a pretty good idea of how the situation out to turn out. And if you speak to that issue with the client and you’re 100 percent straightforward and not only straightforward but forthcoming, you almost always get it right.

If you start thinking about as I was saying earlier, how much we’re going to make off of this or what does the client want to hear or maybe we can get away without having to produce something or acknowledge something or something like that, once you get into that, you’re in no man’s land. You’re just another lawyer, you’re just another person who’s trying to make a buck, and the clients they don’t deserve that and they don’t want that. Our clients, I mean you know the list, I mean it’s almost like you made it up. We’ve represented some of these people 30, 40, even 45 years. And there’s a consistency and it’s not because of any brilliance it’s because they always get it straight, they always know that not just one lawyer in this office but every single one of them will say immediately exactly what they’re saying.

And they will answer the question, which if the client or the court or the jury knew to ask that question they would ask. And I think the clients want to know exactly where they stand, what your honest view is, factoring in hopefully, some experience and some common sense, and then, they want you to go to bat for them. Probably the key to this whole thing, setting aside the straightforward approach, common sense approach, is to be gracious. I don’t think anybody in this firm raises their voice, does anything other than continue to be ladies and gentlemen. As they say at the Ritz-Carlton, ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.

I can absolutely guarantee if you’re representing one of the major banks, oil companies, brokerage firms, major construction companies, which are some of our clients they want lawyers who project an image on their behalf of a gracious client and a gracious lawyer. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t look somebody in the eye and I always point down and I say this just isn’t right. Now that, at least has been something that has been, I thought, a good way of being as tough as you needed to be to win the case that you’re legitimately entitled to win.

This video features commercial litigation attorney Skip Keesal as he talks about his philosophy and his beliefs of practicing as a lawyer.

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