Welcome to ILN-terviews, a series of profiles of ILN member firm attorneys, designed to give a unique insight into the lawyers who make up our Network. For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Frank Cialone of our member firm, Shartsis Friese LLP in San Francisco!

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
I represent businesses and business owners in matters involving the company control, management, and restructuring (or "business divorce"). I also represent lawyers in disputes with clients and other proceedings, and fiduciaries and beneficiaries in trust and estate disputes.

Who would be your typical client?
A joint venture or a closely-owned business (a partnership, private corporation, limited liability company, law firm, etc.) — or one of the owners of such an entity — that has a dispute with some of the owners or managers about the management and control of the business.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
I get intensely and personally involved with my cases, and always look for ways to improve the outcome for my clients, whether it’s through litigation or a business resolution. I’m proud that many clients have said that I approach litigation like a businessperson, and many have thanked me for getting so personally committed to their cases.

What has been your most challenging case? Why?
I represented several investment partnerships in a series of cases that arose from pattern of fraud and misappropriation of assets by the manager of several of the partnerships. This was potentially devastating to my clients, not only because the misconduct and the disputes that arose from it threatened the survival of the businesses but because there were intense feelings of personal betrayal to manage. In the end, we reached a settlement with the manager that pushed him out of the partnerships entirely, and had good results in litigation against one of the investors (including a six-week trial and two appeals) that we could use to negotiate a business settlement that brought more value to my client than any litigation result could have provided.

What has been your proudest moment as a lawyer?
I represented a start-up company and its founders, who had successfully landed a huge project. They were immediately sued by the company for which the founders had previously worked, which had bid on the same project. The plaintiff company claimed unfair competition, theft of trade secrets, misuse of confidential information, and the like. There were several bad emails in the file about my clients’ plans to leave and start a competing business. They faced a serious risk that the costs and disruption of the litigation would ruin their company, because of that bad evidence and because the plaintiff company was much bigger and better-funded.

After interviewing all of the key witnesses, we figured out the "weak spot" of the case — a very efficient way to demonstrate, conclusively, that our clients did not use any trade secrets or confidential information to win the key project. We revealed that evidence in a very careful and strategic way, and the plaintiff company responded by voluntarily dismissing the entire lawsuit. It was incredibly satisfying to call my clients and say "it’s over – they surrendered and we won."

What do you do when you’re not practicing law?
I love to cook, I read a lot of fiction and some history, and I spend time with my wife and our three kids.

What would surprise people most about you?
I have black belts in two martial arts, Taekwondo and Jiu-jitsu, which I studied for about 20 years. (I am sadly out-of-shape now.)

What has been your most memorable ILN experience?
I’ve only been to two meetings so far, and I’ve most enjoyed the personal interactions I had with the many lawyers who have welcomed me as a new member. I particularly enjoyed the salsa-dancing outing after the Gala Dinner at last week’s meeting in Panama City!

What career would you have chosen if you weren’t a lawyer?
I would have gone to a graduate program in public affairs and pursued a career in government.

If a movie were made of your life, who would you want to play you?
Robert Duvall. His role in A Civil Action is a model for me of how a lawyer should behave (leaving aside that he was on the side of the bad guys in that movie). He’s smart and intensely focused on getting the best result for his client, and he has no patience for showiness and silly tactics.

How would you like to be remembered?
As someone who loved his life, was thankful for everything good that he had, and who tried to bring some joy and happiness to the people around him.

Despite being a long-time blogger and follower of Kevin O’Keefe on social media, I always learn something new when I attend one of his webinars.  Today, I was able to participate in "Blogging: Greater Returns with Less Effort," which was excellent and I’d like to share my recap with you. A full recording of the webinar will be available in the coming days on LexBlog’s YouTube channel.

Usual Starting Point

Kevin began at the beginning, so to speak, with the questions that he normally gets at the outset of a firm or attorney beginning their foray into blogging: 

  • How frequently should lawyers blog? 
  • Should we have a group blog to take the weight off of one person? 
  • Should we have an associate write the blog? 
  • Should we have a ghostwriter? 

Continue Reading Blogging: Greater Returns with Less Effort – A LexBlog Webinar

Welcome to ILN-terviews, a series of profiles of ILN member firm attorneys, designed to give a unique insight into the lawyers who make up our Network. For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Sam Mawn-Mahlau of our member firm, Davis, Malm & D’Agostine in Boston, who I will be visiting tomorrow morning for a presentation!

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
I serve as General Counsel to companies in the technology, healthcare, and finance industries.

Who would be your typical client?
No client is typical, but I do seem to represent many high-tech companies founded by serial entrepreneurs. The full range of my clients includes everything from public charities to family businesses involved in M&A transactions to large insurance companies insuring tax or IP representations.

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
I am eager to understand their business. I want to add value. Please, let’s not just talk about the legal issue that is right in front of you, but let’s look at how it fits in with your business strategy and goals.

What has been your most challenging case? Why?
The most challenging thing I do is not a single case or matter but the whole process of developing a company from formation through its many incarnations to exit. Everything must be put in context, and every journey is different.

What has been your proudest moment as a lawyer?
I once had a David & Goliath battle in which I represented David and success or failure depended on our ability to obtain a key regulatory approval for a spin-out from a public charity. The approval process usually takes months, but I quietly convinced a secretary at the agency involved to move my file to the top of the pile for her boss. He found my arguments compelling, saw no substantive issues with the transaction, and granted the approval in three days without a single decision maker being lobbied. The other side, represented by a former mentor of mine, was still preparing fancy arguments for a big fight focused on the top of the regulatory food chain, where his client had great friends. There was something very Zen about that victory.

What do you do when you’re not practicing law?
Well, there is reading. I read voraciously – when I travel, I try to read classics from the country I am visiting. I have a family with three busy children: they are involved in theatre, dance, glass working, the visual arts, you name it. I am on the board of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, or “BMOP,” which has become one of the leading voices for current classical music. We have our own label, BMOP Sound, with three grammy nominations, and have performed in places as far afield as Beijing and Monaco.

What would surprise people most about you?
As a teenager, I worked as a grave-digger.

What has been your most memorable ILN experience?
The demonstrations in front of the hotel in Spain were certainly an interesting welcome. They were all chanting about how happy they were to see us, right?

What career would you have chosen if you weren’t a lawyer?
I had a career in politics before becoming a lawyer, but, like many people, lost patience for the lack of rationality in the process. I probably would have become an academic, and immersed myself in dusty books and teaching.

If a movie were made of your life, who would you want to play you?
Alfred Hitchcock. The master of random cameos and unexpected appearances.

How would you like to be remembered?
As a person of honesty and integrity, a smart and creative lawyer, a great father and husband, and a little bit of a trouble-maker.

Last week, we had the first part of our recap from Tim Corcoran’s excellent webinar on Legal Project Management. Today, I bring you the second half, which covers: 

  • Legal Project Management (LPM): Concepts – should they be embraced or avoided? Is LPM a friend, an enemy or a frenemy?
  • Process improvement versus LPM: Two different disciplines, though they are related.
  • LPM 2.0: The advanced level of LPM. 

 

Continue Reading ILN Webinar Series – An Introduction to Legal Project Management Part II

This week, we kicked off our three-part webinar series with Tim Corcoran, of the Corcoran Consulting Group. Tim’s first webinar addressed an Introduction to Legal Project Management, which is a fascinating topic, which I’ll recap in two parts. 

Tim offered his best practices, based on years of experience, and condensed what is normally a half day session into an hour – so there’s a lot of information in this webinar!

The themes for the part of the session covered in today’s recap: 

  • What happened to our ecosystem? The wonderful world where clients paid handsomely for good legal work is gone – something changed, and now clients are pushing back more on rates, talking about whether they’ll pay by the hour or not, the kinds of attorneys that will service various matters, and alternative providers of services. There is also competition from other sized firms, including big firms that are becoming more savvy about pricing. 

 

Continue Reading ILN Webinar Series – An Introduction to Legal Project Management Part I

Our latest success story comes from Fisher Jeffries, a law firm affiliated with the ILN’s Australian member, Gadens Lawyers, who enjoyed a fruitful referral relationship with the ILN’s Clark Wilson LLP. 

***

In August 2012, Fisher Jeffries, a South Australian law firm affiliated with the major Australian national firm Gadens Lawyers, received urgent instructions from two major Australian banks in relation to the provision of additional financial accommodation under an existing club facility agreement to a listed Australian corporate borrower group (Borrower Group).

The purpose of the additional financial accommodation was to enable the acquisition of all of the share capital in an existing Canadian company (Canadian Target) by the Borrower Group and, following completion of that acquisition, the amalgamation of the Canadian Target with the Borrower Group’s Canadian subsidiary (Canadian Subsidiary). Both the Canadian Target and the Canadian Subsidiary were incorporated in the Province of British Columbia, Canada. The additional financial accommodation was also proposed to be provided by the lenders in Canadian dollars.

 

Continue Reading Through ILN Member Gadens Lawyers, Fisher Jeffries Works Successfully with Clark Wilson

Welcome to ILN-terviews, a series of profiles of ILN member firm attorneys, designed to give a unique insight into the lawyers who make up our Network. For our latest interview, we chose ILN member, Ken Kelly of our member firm, Epstein Becker & Green in New York. 

In one sentence, how would you describe your practice?
Litigation of business and employment-related disputes, particularly in the financial services and healthcare industries. 

Who would be your typical client?
Regulated – industry corporation which engages in sophisticated business transactions. 

What would you like clients and potential clients to know about you?
That I used to be a client of our firm and know what clients expect from their counsel; and that I have actual, hands-on trial experience and therefore can focus pretrial discovery on how to win at trial instead of merely requesting or gathering information. 

What has been your most challenging case?
The Dresdner-Commerzbank bonus cases, arising from the bank’s board’s decision not to pay bonuses out of a "guaranteed" bonus pool for 2008 as a result of massive losses arising from the global financial meltdown. Case is challenging because our four arbitrations in New York required coordination with bank counsel in similar litigation in the U.K., Germany, and elsewhere due to concurrent litigations, different applicable law, varied results in other countries, and (of course) unpredictable arbitrators. 

What has been your proudest moment as a lawyer?
(a) When a client says, "I’m glad you’re on my side." (b) When a junior lawyer whom I have been mentoring for a couple of years brings me a brief in a complex case and I don’t have to change anything — mission accomplished! 

What do you do when you’re not practicing law?
Golf, bicycle, bridge and root for the N.Y. Giants (American football). 

What would surprise people most about you?
That when I lived in Paris in college with a family of "French-style" Communists, I had shoulder-length hair. 

What has been your most memorable ILN experience?
Bad: breaking my foot at the Hotel du Louvre at the September 2005 meeting. Good: Strolling around the Acropolis in September 2009 with [my wife] Joan and our good friends, Susie and Andrew Kaufman. 

What career would you have chosen if you weren’t a lawyer?
Classical guitarist. 

If a movie were made of your life, who would you want to play you?
Cary Grant. 

How would you like to be remembered?
Someone who taught you how to be a lawyer. 

Last Wednesday, I attended ALM’s Cross-Border Litigation Forum. After the opening remarks, whose theme was that the complexity of cross-border litigation has (unsurprisingly) increased with globalization, we had a keynote address from Franco Ferrari, the Executive Director for the Center for Transnational Litigation and Commercial Law at New York University School of Law. His keynote focuses on Enforcing US Money Judgments Abroad: Debunking a Myth.

 

Enforcing US Money Judgments Abroad: Debunking a Myth

Ferrari wanted to correct the misconception of what happens to US judgments abroad, and he said that the idea that it’s difficult is "nonsense." Some people believe that you shouldn’t even try to enforce judgments because it’s costly, time-consuming, and foreign courts are corrupt, but Ferrari said that this was also nonsense. 

 

 

 
 

Continue Reading ALM’s Cross Border Litigation Forum

In what proved to be our most popular webinar yet, the Legal Marketing Association’s Social Media Special Interest Group held a session yesterday on using video to market legal services. We were fortunate to have three stellar presenters – Adam Stock of Allen Matkins, Adam Severson of Baker Donelson, and Mark Beese of Leadership for Lawyers. 

Their presentation was very interactive, and answered the questions I think we’ve all had on our minds about video, starting with the most important…

Continue Reading Using Video to Market Legal Services

One of the initiatives we undertake here at the ILN is marketing partnerships, where we arrange for an in-kind trade of services for various events in the legal industry. When the events are fairly local to me, I’ll go in person to "woman" the table with our materials, answer any questions that might arise, and also sit in on the sessions. 

Last week, I was fortunate enough to participate in two such events. The first of these was American Lawyer Media’s Cross Border M&A Forum – right up our alley, since much of the work that happens in the ILN is cross-border. 

I’ll re-cap a couple of the sessions, along with those from the following day’s conference, ALM’s Cross-Border Litigation Forum. 

 
 

Continue Reading ALM’s Cross Border M&A Forum