well i’ve been fortunate there there are

many uh that i could talk about but i

i’m picking one this one was tried uh to

a jury

in a major federal court

um not in new york uh in michigan

uh 10 years ago i won’t identify the

case by name because of some of the

things that i’m going to be relating in

the context of this

this my answer to your question

it was a manufacturing case

heavy manufacturing our client was

a

manufacturer and supplier of customized

parts in the particular industry in

question and if i identified the

industry would be easy enough to

identify the parties and i don’t want to

do that the defendant

was the purchaser it was a giant company

it was the largest company in the world

in its industry and it had a long-term

requirements contract with our client

the supplier

requirements contract in simple terms

just means that every part

of the subject parts that are described

and called for in the contract

are parts that

the defendant buyer was obligated to

purchase from our client the problem was

that

the defendant buyer

treated it not like a requirements

contract more like an option contract

when they wanted to buy parts from my

client and we’re talking about hundreds

of thousands of parts

over years

they bought from

my client

when

the defendant wanted to buy elsewhere

because they found a better price or for

whatever reason they wanted to do that

they

either concealed the fact that they were

making these purchasers purchases or

they contrived excuses which were

nothing more than lies

there were

many many many millions of dollars that

we sought in

contract damages

we were trying the case in one of the

more conservative communities

politically and socially in the united

states

i had been told by lawyers who i knew in

that community

that there was no chance of getting more

than a low seven figure verdict

which was not nearly

uh an adequate amount of damages you

would have no chance uh with a local

jury of doing any better than that

i told that to the client we did the

best we could what were the keys

to what wound up being

the largest

commercial verdict that

had ever been obtained in that court

ever

the most important thing was

the work that my team did

because

it is

trial work is very much a team effort

and the team consisted of the client

the client’s

personnel and a raft of lawyers in my

law firm who supported me and put me in

a position

to

frankly demolish

the executives from the defendant

corporation

one by one

i showed the jury that they lied

that they cheated

that they prevaricated they did

everything they could but tell the truth

and they tried to do that with the jury

and and i caught them in lie after lie

after lie to the point where even though

this could have been a boring case

because it involved hundreds and

actually thousands of purchase orders

and

and other kinds of business records that

that would put an insomniac to sleep

i was able to get the jury

they you could see them i would only

look at a jury out of the corner of my

eye you never want to stare at the jury

but i could see that they would as i

rose to cross-examine after they saw the

first part of the first

cross-examination they would go right to

the edge of their seats

like like they were watching an exciting

movie

except it was happening in real time and

in real life in this courtroom

so they were fully engaged which is very

very important they tried to understand

they took notes some judges don’t allow

juries to take notes this judge did

so all of

the cross-examination of their

key witnesses were essential to the case

and i will say

we had a hostile judge this is really

the only time this has ever happened to

me

there were times when he called me to

the bench and said counsel

i don’t like your cross-examination

you’re cross-examining these witnesses

too hard i said and it was true i said

your honor i’ve tried cases all over the

united states including many in michigan

because that’s where i’m from

and i’ve never

done it differently than i’m doing it

now and i’ve never had a judge

tell me that i was cross-examining a

witness too hard and i just stood up to

him

and kept going and he didn’t like it but

there wasn’t really anything he could do

about it and lastly

the client himself

is

ferociously smart

very successful

and

to put it nicely

an extraordinarily self-confident

entrepreneur

he did think he was the smartest person

in the room and i said

you can’t

you can’t

present yourself to a jury that way

you’ve got to

get down to earth

you’ve got to find some humility you’ve

got to not engage in chess pounding and

i worked with him along with my team

on and off for weeks before the trial

getting him to the point where

where he didn’t do things that were

highly likely

to turn off the jury

and i would say those were the keys to

the case and as i say when when the jury

came back

talk about chest pounding i could hear

my heart pounding and they they gave us

almost every penny that we asked for it

was a

it was an unforgettable case it went on

for about a month i remember um being

driven home the next day i was so

exhausted but

is a fabulous experience as i say there

have been many others that’s one