Monday Mentors with Dallas Litigator Joey Sampson

Joey Sampson, partner and litigator with McCathern in Dallas, joins us on today's show! Joey talks about COVID's impact on public venues, expediting your learning curve, taking advantage of resources like podcasts, and resiliency as a key character trait for lawyers.

His firm/practice

• Four offices (Dallas/Frisco/Los Angeles/Houston)
• Grown from a 9 lawyer firm in 2007 to over 40 today
• Broad civil litigation practice plus now family law
• He is more focused on insurance coverage and construction defect litigation
• Frisco office is at The Star (Dallas Cowboys HQ who is also a client)

COVID 19 update (as of November 19th, 2020)

• Still in the office in Dallas
• Clients are settling into the new normal, but dealing with COVID-related issues such as employee matters
• Some litigation around construction defect peaked in July/August
• He is part of a group, IVAM, that meets regularly on public venue issues
  • Expects to see litigation in the coming months/years from people who claim to have gotten COVID from attending an event in a public venue
  • But most of the cases are being brought against companies by employees or passengers against cruise lines
  • But how do you prove causation and where you actually contracted the virus?
  • Venues are definitely focused on this and trying to keep people safe
• Have to adapt to using the technology (Zoom depos/hearings); he had never heard of Zoom before COVID
  • encourages your preparation because you have to have your documents ready to go for the shared screen, etc. ahead of time
  • Texas will need to extend rules to enable further use of the technology
• After COVID
  • Likely that hearings/depos will continue to take place on Zoom (saves the drive time, money, etc.)
  • Document-heavy depos/hearings, and those with certain witnesses, will still likely be in person
  • The costs of litigation will push this
  • Judges have adapted for the most part and some really like it

Advice to lawyers in practice

• Don't use youth as an excuse; expedite your learning curve
• Always strive to get better
• Step up
• If you work at it, you can become a seven year lawyer by year five
• Ex. get better at depos by studying great interviewers (podcasts are great for this: listen to Charlie Rose or Howard Stern conduct an interview and learn different approaches)
  • Also listen to great trial lawyers like Mark Lanier
• Do a Zoom CLE and take advantage of those resources
• Pick up tips from anywhere!
• Also become a better writer by reading great writing
  • Key for a young associate to stand out
• Watch trials and hearings of local courts on YouTube
• Be a leader; be the first to volunteer for projects
• Don't send drafts to partners; send it to them ready to file

Advice to lawyers in the job search

• Traditional model of reviewing resumes and interviews are a poor way to hire; it's hard to identify the best people from that
  • How do you tell if someone is resilient and empathetic/compassionate, which research shows is the best indicator of someone who will succeed
  • Traditional methods are often a coin flip
  • Angela Duckworth book "Grit" and corresponding Ted Talk

Final thought

Pay attention to your mental health. He is in recovery now; addiction is widespread in the legal profession, and we need to talk about it more. (Resources - LCL; TLAP)

Rapid fire questions

• Name one trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: resiliency/grit
• What habit is key to your success: always learning
• Favorite app/productivity tool: 1 Password
• Favorite social distancing activity: golf
• Favorite legal movie: To Kill A Mockingbird / My Cousin Vinny

Thanks again to Joey Sampson for joining us on today's show!