| 00:10 | - Hey Adam, thanks for offering to help me out with this.
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| 00:13 | I have a really interesting new case that you can help me with.
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| 00:16 | You're gonna get some really good experience.
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| 00:19 | It's gonna help your career path.
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| 00:21 | So we represent Charles Cooke, and his company, Cooke Enterprises.
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| 00:25 | He's a great guy, and you're gonna love him.
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| 00:28 | He's been my client for years.
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| 00:29 | He's super smart, he's actually a lawyer too, but he doesn't really actively practice except to, you know, work on his own business.
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| 00:39 | - What does he do?
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| 00:40 | - So he developed a high-end timekeeping and billing program called Time Pro and it's for attorneys.
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| 00:46 | It's really revolutionary, it's high-end.
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| 00:49 | It's a great program, but that's the problem.
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| 00:53 | It's too good, and that's how this litigation all started.
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| 00:57 | - What litigation?
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| 00:58 | - So Charles used to work for a company called Prism, and now they're claiming that Charles stole the technology for Time Pro from them.
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| 01:08 | And so, they've brought this claim for misappropriation of trade secrets against him.
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| 01:12 | So Prism's represented by Bill Dye and Bill's really aggressive, but the good thing is I've dealt with him before.
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| 01:18 | And I just know that we just definitely have to be on our toes, but that's okay.
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| 01:23 | I mean, there's no merit to Prism's claims from what we've seen so far.
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| 01:29 | Also, Charles has a strong claim that Prism breached his contract when it terminated him.
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| 01:35 | I'll get you a copy of his contract, and a draft of the claim that I prepared.
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| 01:39 | But the contract requires a 10-day written notice to Prism's CEO, before we can sue.
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| 01:44 | We haven't decided yet whether we're gonna include it in the counterclaim, or if we're going to file a new suit.
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| 01:51 | But I'll make that call.
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| 01:53 | For now, can you just draft the pre-suit notice for me to review, put it on my letterhead to Prism's CEO.
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| 01:59 | And once that, you know, 10-day notice period's satisfied, then we will file it.
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| 02:05 | And we may also need to add a whistleblower claim, actually.
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| 02:10 | It was really brazen what Prism did.
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| 02:12 | I mean, they fired Charles right after he exposed some illegal business practices so...
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| 02:17 | All right so, you want me to write a letter?
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| 02:19 | Do you want me to CC anyone in particular on the letter?
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| 02:23 | - No, I'll handle the appropriate CCs.
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| 02:25 | Just get me a draft notice, and I'll take it from there.
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| 02:28 | But, you know, there are a lot of other things that I need you to focus on.
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| 02:31 | - Okay so, what else can I do?
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| 02:33 | - Well, here's a list of some current, and former employees of Cooke Enterprises.
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| 02:38 | We think maybe witnesses, we have a manager, a few technicians, and a former technician.
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| 02:44 | I'd like you to call all of them and let them know that Bill Dye may be trying to contact them.
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| 02:49 | And that they shouldn't say a thing about this case to anyone.
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| 02:53 | I'm especially worried about this former employee.
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| 02:55 | He's disgruntled, and he may have an ax to grind.
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| 02:58 | So the sooner the better.
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| 03:00 | Please, put together some brief talking points, and I'll review them with you before you call them.
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| 03:05 | And also, as soon as we tighten up any leaks that we may have on our end, we need to focus on gathering evidence.
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| 03:12 | Charles gave me a list of people that he used to work with at Prism.
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| 03:16 | So he's given us some names.
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| 03:19 | It looks like he flagged the CFO, the director of IT, a former vice president, and I think an engineer, and some low-level employees, who probably didn't have anything to do with this.
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| 03:31 | But they may have seen a thing or two.
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| 03:34 | So they may have some interesting things to say.
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| 03:36 | But I wanna get to those people before Bill Dye does.
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| 03:41 | He'll get his claws into them, and we need to get to them first.
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| 03:44 | So, trust me, if we wait for depositions, we'll get nothing but evasive answers, obstructionist tactics, and I'm sure we can get a lot of really great information on the trade secret claim.
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| 03:56 | So if we confirm that Charles was right about the Prism illegal conduct then we may even be able to get them to drop the lawsuit on the bogus trade secret claims and just, you know, they can avoid all the consequences of their illegal criminal conduct.
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| 04:12 | - All right, are you sure all this is okay?
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| 04:14 | It just doesn't sit quite right with me.
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| 04:17 | - I don't see a problem with any of this.
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| 04:19 | This is how high stakes litigation works, especially with someone like Bill Dye on the other side.
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| 04:25 | My biggest concern is whether any of the people that Charles knew at Prism will even talk to you.
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| 04:30 | Try to not sound like an attorney.
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| 04:32 | Charles said, you know, they like to go out for drinks at the bar across the street.
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| 04:36 | So maybe you can go over there on a Friday, and just set up there, and see if you'll bump into anyone and, you know, just try to talk to them.
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| 04:44 | And worse comes to worse, if we have to, we can try to use our paralegal to make contact instead.
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| 04:49 | I mean, just coach her up and, if all else fails, then we can ask Charles to reach out to them directly.
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| 04:55 | You know, if we don't have to get involved in that sense then, great.
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| 04:58 | You know, I think he's still on good terms with a few of them, and I think that they would talk to him.
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| 05:04 | - You know, I don't know, would you mind if I took sort of a refresher on the bar rules first?
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| 05:10 | - I don't know why you'd have to do that.
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| 05:11 | I've been practicing since you were a toddler, and I just told you it's fine, but sure, go ahead.
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| 05:16 | Maybe I overlooked something.
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| 05:18 | Let me know what you find, but make it quick.
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| 05:21 | - All right, sounds good.
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| 05:23 | - Oh, hey Adam, before I forget, I have a separate question, I could also use your help on.
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| 05:28 | I was just approached by a potential new client, who's being sued by a vendor over a dispute in payment terms.
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| 05:34 | They hired a different law firm to handle the litigation, but they're new to litigation, and they're not sure how it's being handled.
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| 05:40 | They asked if we could take another look at the pleadings, and give them a second opinion as to how the other firm is doing, and whether they've raised the appropriate affirmative defenses.
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| 05:49 | So I'll e-mail you the case number, will you please pull the pleadings, and let me know your thoughts?
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| 05:55 | So, yeah, I mean, we'll talk on Friday again, and let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.
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