Common Defense - End of Year Newsletter (2024)

INDEX

DECEMBER 2024 NEWSLETTER Page 2: AI Primer for In-House Counsel, Claims Professionals, and Law Firms Page 3: 2024 Fall Kickoff Reception Recap Page 4: Legal Writing Tips Page 7: AADC’s 2024 ALS Barry Fish Benefit Page 8: Don’t #*?! It Up: An Advice Column for Associates on the Rise Page 11: Tales From South of the Gila

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COMMON DEFENSE | December 2024 | azadc.org

AI Primer for In-House Counsel, Claims Professionals, and Law Firms

The fundamental transformation began in the 2010s with machine learning and deep learning. AI-powered tools started to emerge, offering more advanced capabilities.

One of the significant breakthroughs was in e-discovery.

AI algorithms could now analyze vast amounts of electronic documents, identifying relevant information much faster than human reviewers. This development not only saved time but also reduced costs and improved accuracy.

BY: FRANK RAMOS

Contract analysis is another area where AI has made substantial inroads. Tools use machine learning to review and analyze contracts, identifying key clauses and potential risks. These tools assist lawyers in performing due diligence, ensuring compliance, and negotiating better terms. read entire article Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not just a buzzword; it's a transformative force revolutionizing the legal field. Inhouse counsel, claims departments and law firms are at the forefront of this change, with a unique opportunity to harness AI's power and leverage its full potential.

History of AI in Legal AI's entry into the legal field has been gradual but impactful. The legal industry, traditionally slow to adopt new technologies, began exploring AI in the late 20th century. Early AI applications in law focused on automating basic tasks, such as legal research and document review.

In the 1980s, the first legal expert systems emerged.

These systems used rule-based logic to simulate the decision-making process of human experts. They were designed to assist lawyers in areas such as tax law and estate planning by providing recommendations based on predefined rules.

The 1990s and early 2000s saw the introduction of more sophisticated AI tools. Legal research platforms like Westlaw and LexisNexis began incorporating AI to enhance search capabilities. These platforms used natural language processing (NLP) to understand legal queries and provide relevant case law and statutes.

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COMMON DEFENSE | December 2024 | azadc.org

2024 Fall Kickoff Reception

The AADC’s 2024 Past Presidents Fall Kickoff Reception was held on September 26th at the Phoenix Country Club, marking the AADC’s first time returning to the country club since before COVID. Shanks Leonhardt, current AADC President, welcomed everyone to the reception which was well attended by AADC members, judiciary and guests. Shanks noted the AADC will soon be celebrating 60 years as Arizona’s state-wide association for civil defense lawyers.

The AADC’s Past Presidents were individually recognized from the podium and each received a special lapel pin commemorating their service to the AADC. Past Presidents Alison Christian and Don Myles shared their thoughts about the importance of membership in professional organizations like the AADC.

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COMMON DEFENSE | December 2024 | azadc.org

Many thanks to the AADC’s sponsors for helping make the 2024 Past Presidents Fall Kickoff a success including: YA Engineering Services (Premiere Event Host), Integrated Medical Evaluations and Rimkus Forensic Analysis Professionals (Bar Hosts) as well as DigiStream and Advanced Medical Group.

Mark your calendar for the AADC’s 2025 Annual Meeting on May 1, 2025. More details will be announced soon.

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COMMON DEFENSE | December 2024 | azadc.org

How would you like it transmitted to you?

Are there other attorneys who have written for you or this client before that I could talk to before I start?

Should I be aware of any “watch outs” so that I avoid common, past issues on this topic or type of written product?

Do you have a particular writing style I should try to emulate, or any pet peeves I should avoid? (You may be able to answer this on your own by finding models on your system.)

What is your intended use for what I submit? (e.g., a client memo, a larger brief) What can I do next?

Sometimes, the senior attorney will provide answers to these questions preemptively, but if not, it’s typically your job to find the answers out.

Amanda Haverstick is a 20-year veteran Big Law litigator who founded and runs Writing Law Tutors LLC, a legal-writing coaching company that helps litigators and law students become better writers. Amanda also publishes a monthly newsletter, “3 Bullets” (available for sign-up at Dear1L.com), and she has authored the forthcoming book, Dear 1L: Notes to Nurture a New Legal Writer.

Dear Legal Writer, When you start as a new litigation associate at a law firm, you will start being asked to complete various legal writing projects. You will want to demonstrate that you are willing and able to take ownership of your work and that you can be counted on to strive for the best written product possible.

The best ways to accomplish these goals is by being proactive. You want to gather all relevant background information BEFORE you start work on the project. In an ideal world, you should try to get answers to these types of questions: How long should it be?

Are there applicable court or other rules on formatting?

Can you recommend a model?

How much time should I spend, and by when do you need it?

I used to find it a bit of a delicate dance getting the information without annoying the senior attorney assigning it to me, and you may need to be resourceful about how you obtain the information. In addition to any names you get from asking question 6, check with the attorney’s assistant and the firm’s paralegals. All can be excellent sources of help.

Wishing you best of luck on your early writing projects!

💌 Amanda

SIDEBAR By: James D. Smith, Esq. Osborn Maledon I’m writing this column about a week before election day. The only thing we know today is that voters are about evenly split in their choices for president, so about half of voters will be disappointed in the results. Even if we don’t practice election law, lawyers have helpful perspectives for our family and friends, regardless of our political preferences.

First, lawyers usually are knowledgeable about government.

People sometimes are disappointed or angry about politicians, politics, and elections. Regardless of your practice area, your family and friends may ask you why certain things occurred or didn’t occur. We should take the time to explain how our systems function, the separation of powers, and the ability to participate in elections. Maybe those explanations may defuse initial angry reactions.

Second, lawyers—especially litigators—are good at testing whether facts underlie theories. If family or friends ask us about a theory or rumor about politicians or elections that they saw on the internet or heard on a podcast, then use the same tools to help them evaluate the theories or rumors. Is someone speaking from personal knowledge? What exactly did a witness say? What evidence exists to support or refute someone’s theory? Can we gather that evidence to test the theory? Hopefully, we use those tools in our practice so we don’t get ourselves into an echochamber with clients about the clients’ theories of their case. We wouldn’t accept internet “hot takes” in our trial. Help people in our circle appreciate why that approach is good for evaluating information.

Third, we spend our careers in adversarial relationships. Ideally, we don’t view our opponents as our enemies. We can distinguish between opposing counsel doing her job from thinking opposing counsel is trying to harm our clients or us. Consider preparing for and conducting trial. We must work with our opposing counsel despite having entirely different goals in trial. We know that working cooperatively is the necessary if we want our process—the trial—to work properly. That concept is (or will be) second nature to lawyers, but it is tough to think of similar settings beyond our practice. Unfortunately, political rhetoric can get overheated. People may view folks with differing views as their enemies, not just Americans with different opinions. As lawyers, perhaps we can help fellow citizens realize that perspective isn’t accurate.

We’re fortunate to have a unique role in one of the branches of government. Not everyone may step into a courtroom, administrative hearing room, dispute with the IRS, and the like to represent another person or an entity. And we’re integral parts of that branch’s operation. Be thankful for that role and be mindful that we should give back.

AADC’s 2024 ALS Barry Fish Benefit The AADC’s 2024 ALS Barry Fish Benefit was held October 17th at the TopGolf in Scottsdale marking the 29th anniversary of the charity benefit honoring AADC Past President and Lewis Roca partner, Barry Fish who passed from ALS at the age of 49.

Sadly, in 2020, Lewis Roca and Arizona’s civil defense community lost another member of its family, Brian Pollock, to ALS. In the summer of this year, Arizona lost yet another member of our legal community to ALS, Tom Bakker.

Often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, there is currently no cure for ALS. Each year, AADC teams up with ALS Arizona to host a benefit and help raise both awareness and much needed funds to fight this disease. Over the years, the benefit has evolved from a full day golf tournament to a TopGolf “tournament” making it easier for people at any level to participate. This year, teams from Broening, Oberg, Woods and Wilson; Christian Dichter & Sluga; Jaburg Wilk; Jones, Skelton & Hochuli; Lewis Roca; Sanders & Parks and Thomas, Rubin & Kelley competed in the tournament.

Lewis Roca, the premiere event sponsor since the benefit’s inception, donated $6000 to ALS Arizona to support therapies, treatments, and fund research to find a cure. Many thanks to all sponsors including Lewis Roca; DigiStream Investigations; Vocational Diagnostics; Ward Cornett & Associates; and Woner, Hoffmaster, Peshek & Gintert for supporting ALS Arizona and helping make this a successful charitable event.

Don’t miss the 2026 AADC ALS Barry Fish Tournament!

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COMMON DEFENSE | December 2024 | azadc.org

Dear Associates, The AADC is proud to introduce our newest feature: Don’t #*?! It Up: An Advice Column for Associates on the Rise. Each month, our associate development expert, Lorna, will answer your questions about how to succeed in law firm life. All printed questions will be anonymized and any identifying information about you or your firm removed.

Email Lorna at Advice4Associates@gmail.com with your questions about associate success.

Dear Lorna, I just got admitted to the bar and started at a firm. I feel like I’m in over my head learning how to do everything. Is there anything I can do to demonstrate to the partners that I’m not an idiot while I get this figured out?

--Drinking From a Fire Hose in Phoenix Dear Drinking From a Fire Hose, I promise, even the named partners of your firm were in your shoes once. Nobody graduates from law school knowing how to do it all. It sounds like you’re committed to working on the hard skills, so here are some things that will communicate to leadership that you are someone worth investing in.

1. Focus on good billing and good billing technique. Write time entries that tell partners and clients that you understand that your job is to provide services that someone should pay an attorney to do. “Read letter from Bobby

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COMMON DEFENSE | December 2024 | azadc.org

1. Barrister” is not a good time entry. You’re not paid to read the mail. A legal assistant could do that. Make that “Analyze correspondence from plaintiffs’ counsel outlining requested topics for corporate representative deposition to prepare recommendation to client re response” My legal assistant couldn’t do this, could yours? Partners always want to work with people who correctly bill their time.

2. Get to know people and be nice to have around. Find an excuse to talk to partners, other associates, and staff in person if you can or on the phone if you must. People like working with people they like; this is just as true with the senior partner as the file clerk.

You’ll have an easier time getting feedback and assignments from partners who feel comfortable chatting with you. Support staff will prioritize helping you learn, not just doing their jobs, when they feel that you’re going to be a good person to work with going forward. And your fellow associates will be happy to share their insider knowledge—i.e., that partner’s pet peeves, who to call when the coffee machine is acting up, and what most people spend on their assistant’s birthday gift. Also, my dude, find out your assistant’s birthday and put it on your calendar!

3. Master Your Calendar. It’s not enough to have items on your calendar. Give yourself deadlines to meet the deadline. Does your calendar say “last day to take depositions?” That is an entirely useless calendar entry to discover the day before it occurs. Calendar when you should check with the partner that you’ve identified all necessary deponents. Calendar when you should have confirmed dates with other attorneys. Calendar the last day for deposition notices to go out. If you don’t know how early you need to start working on something, that is a great way to have one of those in-person conversations with a partner or other associate. You’ll get answers and demonstrate that you are taking initiative to learn how to do this.

Dear Lorna, I work with several partners at my firm and most of them are great. But there is one whose work stresses me out and makes me miserable. But I don’t want to burn bridges by telling him I don’t want to work on his cases anymore. What can I do?

--I’m Just a Third Year Who Can’t Say No Dear Third Year Who Can’t Say No, First, nice Oklahoma reference. I saw what you did there.

Second, I had a mentor once tell me “Do good work and you’ll get to choose who you work for.” It sounds like you have plenty of pipelines for work and are in demand. That makes this an easy problem to solve.

Take more work from the partners whose work you like. When you’re finishing up a project that you like, think of a next step.

Did the partner ask you to write a memo on a point of law?

Call and ask whether she might like you to prepare a draft of the motion too. Did you write a summary of an expert’s opinions? Maybe the partner would like you to prepare a deposition outline as well. You’ve just increased your workload with work you want to do—and probably impressed the assigning partner with your initiative.

Now, when the partner whose work you’d like to phase out calls with a project, you can handle it honestly and diplomatically. Don’t say, “I don’t have time.” Say, “I have promised Partner 1 X project by this date, Partner 2 Y project by this date, and Partner 3 Z project by this date. The soonest I can start on this would be [date] is that going to be ok?”

Maybe the answer is going to be yes. But most of the time, they will move on down the hall to someone more immediately available.

Keep reading

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COMMON DEFENSE | December 2024 | azadc.org

Tales From South of the Gila BY: PETER COLLINS

This edition will focus on two issues near and dear to my heart, but not necessarily specific to Tucson. There just isn’t much happening in these hot summer months on which to report.

However, there is some very good news out of the United States District Court on the issue of “reasonable medical expense”. As you know, AADC and many of us have followed this issue carefully, and Nate Meyer has done excellent work battling Plaintiff counsel over their proposed rule changes at one of the State Bar’s Rules Committees. Judge Susan Brnovich ruled last month that Plaintiff could not present the medical bills themselves without supporting testimony that they were reasonable. In Romes v Garrison Property and Casualty Insurance Company, 2024 WL 3183132, June 25, 2024, she held: In other words, without additional evidence supporting reasonableness, medical bills cannot even be presented to the jury, and therefore the jury cannot consider them when calculating damages.

Thus, the Judge accepted the defense position interpreting Larsen v. Decker, 995 P.2d 281 (App. 2000), exactly as we have argued it in multiple courts.

This decision is certainly not binding on Arizona Superior or Appellate courts, but it is excellent persuasive support for our positions in many cases.

It also suggests that courts may be more open to permit the defense to introduce evidence from qualified experts as to the reasonableness of claimed medical expenses. Several Tucson judges have already indicated a willingness to allow such defense experts (admittedly during Settlement Conferences).

Second item is the Arizona State Bar College of Trial Advocacy. This year the College has a full faculty of highly qualified trial lawyers, judges and two Arizona Supreme Court Justices, and a full roster of students. The College initially ran for two weeks in Tucson, and was organized and managed by Ted Schmidt and Bill Jones, among others. It was outstanding, but the Bar’s financial circumstances forced a suspension of the College.

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COMMON DEFENSE | December 2024 | azadc.org

In 2005, a committee organized by State Bar President Chas Wirken and the Trial Practice Section re-started the College.

Its format is essentially the same as the original, except that it has an accelerated schedule, compressing two weeks of challenges and learning into one week, all in Phoenix. The College culminates with a jury trial with live public jurors. It is managed by Judge Rebecca Albrecht (ret.) with Co-Chairs Susan Corey and Jorge Franco, and a working Board of trial lawyers from both sides of the aisle.

The College features a superb faculty and interactive training sessions with real world scenarios, real expert witnesses (from Exponent), and in-depth individual training sessions for students. Enrollment is closed for this year but will be available for next year. Stay tuned!

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COMMON DEFENSE | December 2024 | azadc.org

Eadie Rudder Carpenter Hazlewood

Dan Coumides Gust Rosenfeld

Parker Bunch Cavanagh Law

Adam Reich Lewis Roca

Doreen Myles AADC Executive Director

The Arizona Association of Defense Counsel 6711 E. Camelback Road, Suite 64, Scottsdale, AZ 85251 602-743-3700 | admin@azadc.org