Meet the Commercial Litigators Attorney in New York, New York
Meet David Berg
Meet David Berg
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00:04
my mentor
00:05
in the law it was a man who at one time
00:08
was the most famous lawyer in america
00:11
i’m afraid the memory of his great
00:13
victories and
00:15
his talents is fading from public view
00:18
but his name was richard haynes he was
00:20
known as racehorse haines
00:22
and he was a great criminal lawyer i
00:24
learned
00:25
several things from richard but let me
00:28
share a
00:29
an experience i had with him that tells
00:31
you what the most important lesson i
00:33
learned from him
00:34
we tried a case together down in
00:36
beaumont texas in federal court
00:38
where the government had the audacity to
00:40
accuse
00:42
our clients of committing federal uh
00:44
federal crimes
00:45
they were ship builders and they had
00:48
these
00:48
massive very large uh uh
00:52
midstream fuelers they go out in the
00:54
middle of the
00:55
gulf coast they refuel a very large
00:58
cargo carrier
00:59
vlcc it’s called and the government had
01:02
the temerity to say that we had designed
01:04
it
01:04
so that we could drain back 15 of the
01:08
of the diesel fuel that we had just
01:10
pumped out
01:12
well i took great offense at that so did
01:14
racehorse he had one brother
01:16
i had the other i had the brother-in-law
01:18
who was the ship designer
01:20
and they put on an expert the expert was
01:24
another ship builder who talked about
01:26
the coast guard regulations that
01:29
he felt we he was their expert that that
01:32
our guys had violated
01:34
and i cross-examined him and i did okay
01:37
and then racehorse cross-examined him
01:40
and the questions
01:41
and the and the answers took on a
01:43
resonance that you would
01:45
you’d associate with great music great
01:48
symphonies
01:49
so that night i went to racehorse’s room
01:51
i knocked on the door and
01:53
there he was as usual every night he
01:56
would
01:56
he would uh he would read the classics
01:59
mostly cicero who was the first
02:01
defense lawyer and i said racehorse you
02:03
got to tell me
02:05
i want to get better i want to be as
02:06
good as you now he was about
02:09
15 years older than i was and
02:12
he said well you did fine he was always
02:14
gracious sucking on a pipe
02:16
and i said no i’m not kidding today
02:18
showed me something what did i do wrong
02:21
and he said well i don’t think you were
02:23
listening to the answers during
02:24
cross-examination
02:26
and this is a lesson that every young
02:27
lawyer should learn
02:29
learn from when if you’re watching this
02:31
video
02:33
he said you got an admission from
02:36
from the witness that he himself had
02:38
violated coast guard
02:40
regulations and you didn’t hear it
02:43
well he said i didn’t hear the answer i
02:46
heard him say
02:47
it’s not too late for you to get into
02:49
pipe fitting
02:50
so racehorse taught me
02:54
listen more carefully to those answers
02:56
and from that point on
02:58
every answer that i got became a
03:00
springboard to another question
03:02
it enhanced my skill as a cross-examiner
03:05
which is at the heart of being a trial
03:07
lawyer
03:08
a thousand-fold
03:15
what experience do i have that made me a
03:17
trial lawyer
03:18
very little to do with law school it was
03:21
high school debate
03:23
and selling carpet with my brother in
03:25
high school debate i learned
03:28
to become skeptical about everything and
03:30
to look at the source of
03:31
everything you rely on and be able to
03:33
tie whatever
03:35
bald statement you’re going to make to
03:37
evidence to back it up
03:38
and in fact we were on the i was at
03:41
bellar high school in houston we won the
03:43
national sweepstakes
03:44
in 1960 my brother
03:47
and i would go out he and my he and my
03:50
father were in the carpet business
03:52
and we’d go into people’s homes and i
03:55
listened
03:55
to how alan sold he’d never walk away
03:58
almost
03:59
never walked away without a sail as
04:01
opposed to dad who was sort of a high
04:03
pressure salesman
04:05
alan would take his time whatever time
04:07
it took
04:08
and he’d hear the objections uh to the
04:11
to whatever the sa
04:12
whatever the the potential customer had
04:14
uh the carpet is too high it costs too
04:17
much
04:17
well let’s talk about that mr johnson
04:19
why don’t we i mean you’re smoking if
04:21
you gave up cigarettes wouldn’t you you
04:23
know
04:24
that would save you a certain amount of
04:25
money and you’d be able to apply it
04:26
toward the cost of the carpet
04:28
and what i learned was pull the teeth
04:32
on the worst arguments you face the
04:35
harshest arguments you face
04:37
don’t hide them under a rug the heart of
04:39
persuasion which you know i’ve written
04:40
about a great deal
04:42
i’ve written a book with a second
04:44
edition on
04:45
on trial skills and what i learned was
04:49
admit what your weakness is because that
04:51
shows you have a strong case
04:53
and a belief in your case and that’s
04:55
where i learned from my brother allen
04:57
and from
04:58
miss molly who was the tyrant debate coach
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Houston, TX commercial litigation attorney David Berg talks about his mentor in the practice of law as well as his background & experience.
