Monday Mentors with Houston Trial Lawyer Derek Hollingsworth

Derek Hollingsworth, partner and trial lawyer with the Houston firm Drumheller, Hollingsworth, & Monty joins us on today's show. Derek talks about COVID's impact on criminal defendants, taking chances with your career, and taking ownership in the case.

His firm/practice

• Started the firm two years ago
• Broke off from Rusty Hardin & Associates after 15 years
• Mix of civil litigation and criminal defense. Everything is a trial related practice.
• Got into criminal law by 1) doing the lawyer on loan program with the DA's office, and then 2) leaving his large firm job to go to the DA's office in order to get trial experience. (That is his advice for anyone wanting to do criminal defense).
• Rusty Hardin had a nice mix of criminal and civil litigation.

COVID UPDATE (As of 12/17/20)

• COVID hit the breaks on most of their work
• Cases are driven by pressure points that have to do with trial dates. If there is no pending trial date, there isn't motivation to do things.
• If cases slow down, your cash flow can slow down too. They were about to expand before COVID hit, and they likely will once things pick back up
• Compassionate release motions are an option to get clients out of jail due to COVID
• Speedy Trial Act being tested in federal court where there are strict rules; state court not as much right now
• Zoom/video has been
• His law partner just handled an entire arbitration over Zoom:
  • Everything was confidential and only one person per room, with an exception for those who were identified and approved
  • Major challenge was keeping an eye on all the boxes of participants, and he caught a witness covering his mouth talking to someone off camera in the room who hadn't been approved/identified
  • Stopped the proceedings and called it out

Advice to lawyers in practice

• Don't be afraid to take chances
  • Talking about leaving the large firm for the DA's office
  • Be nimble
  • Even he stayed for several years at Rusty Hardin before starting his own firm even thought he knew it was what he wanted to do. That's a testament to the great/quality firm Rusty created.
• Own the entire issue/case
  • Don't build a little fence around what your are comfortable with
  • Don't just do only what was asked...once completed, ask the question "what's next" and take initiative
  • Be intellectually curious and enthusiastic, and ask questions
  • Pitch ideas of what you might need to do next to help move the case along

Advice to lawyers who are job seeking

• For small firms, they often need someone with enough experience that you're not starting from scratch, BUT also not so much experience or set in their ways that they can't adapt to how this firm does things
• Communicate and get along well with others
• Hard to figure out these things on a resume or even in an interview
• Are they legitimately interested in the firm (i.e. ask good questions!)
• At Rusty Hardin, they liked people who weren't "handed everything"

Final Thought:

Don't be afraid to take chances; nobody is born to be a lawyer or knows exactly what they want to do. Be willing to pivot.

Rapid Fire Questions

• One trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: initiative
• What habit has been key to your success: planning/confidence
• Favorite app/productivity tool: Clio
• Favorite social distancing activity: time with family
• Favorite legal movie: A Time To Kill and My Cousin Vinny

Thanks again to Derek Hollingsworth for joining us on the show!