parachute Council means jumping into a

case

that’s a problem that’s either set for

trial mediation or arbitration usually

imminently

imminent can be a trial date either a

week or even days away from my initial

assignment

I’ve been trying cases for 30 years my

initial trial experience came as an

assistant district attorney in San

Francisco I could literally be walking

out of the building to go to lunch and

I’d be handed a file and told I’d be

picking a jury that afternoon that’s a

skill either you have and improve upon

or you don’t have it and you find

another line of work now I’ve developed

that ability and brought it to civil

litigation if I know a client I know

their products and their activities I

can jump into a case with a moment’s

notice

most of the cases that I handle as

parachute Council don’t go to verdict I

take a fresh look at the case as it sits

right now with no ownership history with

regard to how it has worked up and find

the best outcome for my client usually

they resolve

I’ve been called to jump into cases as

parachute Council in Philadelphia

Pennsylvania New York City Madison

County Illinois Honolulu Hawaii Alameda

County in Los Angeles California they

sound like they’re diverse but there is

a common theme among all of them they’re

known as judicial hellholes from the

defense point of view

when I jump into a case’s parachute

Council I have no ownership over how the

case was prepared I look at it

objectively as it is when I entered the

case in some cases I have to make a

drastic change in the underlying defense

strategy for example in one case it was

worked up as defense lawyers normally do

they deny liability and they try to

dispute the damages but the client’s

conduct was so bad that there was no way

to really defend its conduct it was

better to admit liability by admitting

liability it excluded evidence of

conduct and the conduct would have been

a multiplier in terms of Damages in

another case defense Counsel had

retained the normal experts again to

dispute liability but the experts didn’t

fit the case we were actually better

using the plaintiffs experts against

them rather than and using the retained

defense experts the retained defense

experts would have given up portions of

the defense so we excused those experts

doing that led to resolution of the case