Monday Mentors with Dallas Litigator Josh Hedrick
Josh Hedrick, high-stakes litigator and founding partner Hedrick Kring in Dallas, is our guest on today's show. Josh talks about adapting to Zoom, not faking it until you make it, and asking great questions in a job interview.
His firm/practice
- Just opened an office in Houston
- Business litigation firm focused on trials and trial practice, so it is a broad spectrum
- Business divorces
- Breach of contract
- departing employee / non-compete
- securities
- class action
COVID Update (as of 1/28/21)
- Impacted everyone in the legal industry
- Wife is an ER physician so he had a bit of a heads up, and got out ahead of things
- Some clients have been impacted terribly; others not as much
- Forced us to learn new tools/technology; had never heard of Zoom a year ago
- Advocacy is different in person v. telephone v. video
- Can't just do what you would normally do; have to figure out how to present it via Zoom in an effective way
- Have to make sure everything is lined up and ready to go
- Ensure the right environment around where the hearing is taking place (signs on the doors/windows to keep everyone quiet)
- Upgrade audio/visual/background
- Some changes are here to stay
- Depositions (non-central) by Zoom
- Some hearings as well
Advice to lawyers in practice
- Anything worth doing is worth doing right
- Learn why you are doing it, how it fits into the case, how to do it well, and over time how to master it
- Have a sense for law as a business
- Being a lawyer is a profession and a calling, but
- You need to understand how legal advice fits into business decisions and how the business side works
- Usually something you learn over time; how each element of the practice is cost-effective for the client
- On business development:
- Before a lawyer can effectively develop business, you have to master the competencies of being a lawyer
- Once you've done that, then you can start thinking about marketing/promoting/selling your services
- While developing as a lawyer, maintain your network and surround yourself with people that you like and enjoy visiting with.
- This will not only help you eventually when developing business, but also just helpful as a growing lawyer in general
- Doing these things will put you in a good place to develop business.
- Some elements are unique to practice areas.
- On ways to stand out:
- Skill
- Strong writer
- Advocate
- Will
- Easiest to evaluate
- Work ethic, curiosity, motivation, desire, diligence, coachable, desire to learn
- Don't have to be a brilliant legal scholar to ask questions
- Skill
- Biggest mistakes associates make
- Not asking questions
- Fake it 'til you make it is BAD advice
- Associates are sometimes afraid to ask questions; don't be!
Advice to lawyers who are job seeking
- Always hard to look at just the paper
- As trial lawyers, big fans of mock trial and moot court
- If not long out of law school, grades are still important
- The longer a candidate is out of law school, the more their experience matters and the academics don't as much.
- Looking for those who are at competitor/peer firms since that is the most translatable experience
- Likes to see people who enjoy competition and succeeding
- athletes, etc.
- By the time a candidate reaches the interview stage, on paper they look like a good fit
- What kind of questions does the candidate ask?
- If they don't ask questions, it's a bad sign
- Do more than surface-level research
Rapid Fire Questions
- Name the one trait/characteristic you most want to see in an associate: diligence
- What habit has been key to your success: persistence
- Favorite app/productivity tool: Slack
- Favorite social distancing activity: Spending time with kids
- Favorite legal movie: 12 Angry Men
Thanks again to Josh Hedrick for joining us on today's show!