Hi, my name is Alex Granovsky. I’m the managing member of Granovsky & Sundaresh. We’re a labor and employment law firm headquartered in New York City.
In this video, I’m going to talk a little bit about my perspective on early phone calls with opposing counsel when I’m representing a plaintiff in a wrongful termination case.
My perspective can be summed up very simply: I’m trying to listen and learn. When I reach out to opposing counsel, I have only heard my client’s perspective of what’s happened, and they typically tell a fairly one-sided story. So, I’m trying to hear the other side of that story, and here’s why.
When we represent plaintiffs, it’s overwhelmingly on a contingency fee basis. We’re only getting paid if we recover for the client. And so, if my case stinks, the sooner I know about that, from a selfish perspective, the better. I don’t need to waste my time or resources or the client’s time or resources pursuing a case that has zero value. And so, I always say to opposing counsel, “Look, if you have evidence that you could share with me that shows that I don’t have a case, please, by all means, share it to me because we’ll go away.” And I’ll tell you, we do.
We had a case early on. A guy came in and he told us a great story of wrongful termination. We reached out to his former employer, and they shared with us his emails in which he very liberally shared very intimate self-portraits. That was this guy’s thing apparently. That’s why he was fired. There’s no wrongful termination action, and we confronted our client about it and withdrew from representation. There’s no need to pursue nonsense.
Now, a lot of opposing counsel engage in this process with us. We exchange some information, and to be honest, most of the time, we’re still butting heads a little bit. We’re lawyers, what the heck else are we supposed to do? But sometimes the lawyer on the other side absolutely refuses to share anything. I will tell you, that really sets off the BS meter because if you’ve got exculpatory evidence, don’t say it. Show it to me. And if you don’t, I’m going to think you’re lying. I mean, how could I not?
In any event, that’s where I’m coming from when I’m talking to opposing counsel in these scenarios.
I hope you find this video informative or helpful. In any case, if you want to reach out, if you have any questions about employment law, feel free. I love talking to lawyers and, obviously, to clients about this stuff.
Thanks for watching. Take care.