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1 Q. When you were hiring and bringing in all
2 these new attorneys, did everyone come in as a
3 partner?
4 A. No.
5 Q. How did you decide who came in as a partner
6 and who came in as an associate?
7 A. Depended upon their level of expertise,
8 practice, book of business. It was a decision Stuart
9 and I made together on a case-by-case basis.
10 Q. So you and Stu where the -- were in charge
11 of hiring?
12 A. Stuart and I tried to consult on every
13 hiring decision, yes.
14 Q. Did you guys also decide salaries?
15 A. I generally decided the salary and then let
16 Stu know what I was going to do. And he would say if
17 he thought it was okay or if he thought it was too
18 much or too little, but I generally had free reign in
19 that regard.
20 Q. Did someone's book of business directly
21 correlate to the salary that you would offer?
22 A. That is a very broad question because it
23 depends upon what other needs we had for that
24 individual.
25 Q. What do you mean by "what other needs"?
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1 A. Well, I'll give you a good example. My
2 lawyer, Mr. Nurik, his salary was directly related to
3 the fact that he was a great lawyer and had a solid
4 book of business.
5 Q. Yes.
6 A. David Boden, on the other hand, was, as I
7 previously testified, I don't know if you've had a
8 chance to read the testimony, but David Boden was not
9 only the general counsel to the law firm but he was
10 also -- acted as my consigliere in a significant
11 number of illegal operations and he was compensated
12 significantly for that, if that helps you understand
13 the difference.
14 Q. It does.
15 So, for example, when you were hiring former
16 judges, let's use that as an example, Pedro and Julio,
17 clearly they don't have a book of business coming in
18 because they haven't had clients, but they may carry
19 some sort of prestige or give some legitimacy, if you
20 will, to the firm. How would you decide the salary
21 for someone like that?
22 A. Stu and I would discuss it. It was more a
23 market issue than anything else, how much are judges
24 coming off the bench getting, how much business do we
25 think they can generate.
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1 Q. Would you need to look at someone's book of
2 business if they were coming in just solely to be a
3 rainmaker for the firm prior to hiring them?
4 A. I discussed it with them. There were not
5 many people that I recall that I actually looked at
6 their numbers. Once David Boden was working for me I
7 had him check people's numbers, but I rarely looked. I
8 took most people's words for what they were
9 generating.
10 Q. My recollection is, you were always looking
11 to bring in more people, to hire more people, some of
12 us were somehow able to resist you while others were
13 not. How would you decide who you were looking at to
14 bring into your firm?
15 A. We were trying to develop, on the legitimate
16 side of the law firm, we were trying to develop real
17 talent, real practice groups. I mean, Brad is a
18 perfect example, great lawyer, got a great reputation.
19 You know, it was our hope that, you know, he was going
20 to be one of the people to actually in some ways
21 rescue the firm because he had a practice group that
22 could generate substantial income. You know, on the
23 legitimate side that's what we were trying to do, we
24 were trying to find the best and the brightest.
25 Q. Okay. With respect to bringing people that
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1 you thought could bring a book of business, you just
2 said Brad, for example, that he had a legitimate
3 practice group with a good book of business. How did
4 you know that?
5 A. Everyone in the tort world that I had spoke
6 to spoke extremely highly of Brad not only people I
7 already had working for me but other people that knew
8 him. He was very -- came very highly recommended to
9 us.
10 Q. Like who, for example?
11 A. We wanted him in there. We were trying to
12 develop a significant tort group and we thought that
13 he'd be a great part of it.
14 Q. Who besides Russ told you that about Brad?
15 A. It would have been other people in the tort
16 group. I don't want to guess, Tonja, as to which
17 other people told me, but it was -- well more than
18 Russ.
19 Q. Was it people within --
20 A. Might have been people in politics that I
21 talked to that knew him because we had significant
22 input at the gubernatorial level with regard to tort
23 reform and the like, and there were people there who
24 knew who Brad was. It was more than one person that
25 told us that.
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