Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm by Tobi Designs

The Evolution of a Trial Firm

The Evolution

of a Trial Firm

www.sedgwicklaw.com

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by Nora Isaacs

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by Nora Isaacs

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Dedication

his book is dedicated to our founders, Gordon S. Keith, Frank J. Creede, Wallace E. Sedgwick, Gunther R. Detert, Edward T. Moran, and Ernest “Bud” Arnold, whose wisdom, courage, foresight, mentoring, and legal skills created the solid foundation on which this law firm has grown and thrived for eighty years.

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Dedication

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Contents Acknowledgments .............................................................. 9 Published exclusively for Sedgwick LLP by Chronicle Books LLC Copyright © 2013 by Sedgwick LLP. Photographs courtesy of the Creede Family, Detert Family, Moran Family, Arnold Family, Leonard Family, numerous former and present Sedgwick partners, Bar Association of San Francisco, Library of Congress, NASA, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Nick Archer, and William Mitchell College of Law (formerly St. Paul College of Law). Photographs copyright © Corbis, pages 16, 20, 23, 63, 83, 102, 140, 155, 164, 167, 176, and 192; © Getty, pages 91, 147, 163, 169, and 190; © Golden Gate National Recreation Area Park Archives, page 48; © iStock, pages 105, 150, 153, 161, 162, 174, 179, 184, and 191; © Los Angeles Public Library, page 143; © Punch Stock, pages 143 and 185; © Red Letter Photography, page 186; © San Francisco Public Library, pages 2, 27, 33, 35, 50, 51, 80, 84, 86, 88, 112, 214 and back cover; and © Science Photo Library, pages 101 and 103. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission from the publisher. ISBN 978-1-4521-2140-6

Foreword by Michael A. Tanenbaum . ....................................... 11

Introduction by Gregory C. Read . ........................................... 13

Chapter 1: The Birth of a Law Firm

. ............................................ 17

(1932–1941)

Chapter 2: The Early Years

. ........................................................ 49

(1941–Midforties)

Chapter 3: Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold .......

Chapter 4: Defining the Future: The Next Generation .................

115

(Midforties to 1959)

(the Sixties and Seventies)

Manufactured in the United States of America

Chapter 5: Sedgwick Becomes a National Law Firm

Text by Nora Isaacs Design by Tobi Designs

. ................... 141

(the Eighties)

Chapter 6: E xpanding the Global Footprint

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Front cover: F rank Creede

Back cover: B ush Street

(right) walking down a San Francisco street in 1939 with his brother Percy, who was an associate at Keith & Creede.

circa 1944, the same block where Sedgwick’s current San Francisco office is located.

............................... 165

(the Nineties)

Chronicle Books LLC 680 Second Street San Francisco, CA 94107 www.chroniclebooks.com/custom

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Chapter 7: The New Millennium ....................................................

177

(2000–2013)

Page 2: T he Mills Tower in San Francisco, where the firm opened its first office in 1933.

Chapter 8: The Sedgwick Legacy

................................................. 193

The Evolution of Sedgwick .................................................... 214

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Foreword by Michael A. Tanenbaum . ....................................... 11

Introduction by Gregory C. Read . ........................................... 13

Chapter 1: The Birth of a Law Firm

. ............................................ 17

(1932–1941)

Chapter 2: The Early Years

. ........................................................ 49

(1941–Midforties)

Chapter 3: Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold .......

Chapter 4: Defining the Future: The Next Generation .................

115

(Midforties to 1959)

(the Sixties and Seventies)

Manufactured in the United States of America

Chapter 5: Sedgwick Becomes a National Law Firm

Text by Nora Isaacs Design by Tobi Designs

. ................... 141

(the Eighties)

Chapter 6: E xpanding the Global Footprint

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Front cover: F rank Creede

Back cover: B ush Street

(right) walking down a San Francisco street in 1939 with his brother Percy, who was an associate at Keith & Creede.

circa 1944, the same block where Sedgwick’s current San Francisco office is located.

............................... 165

(the Nineties)

Chronicle Books LLC 680 Second Street San Francisco, CA 94107 www.chroniclebooks.com/custom

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Chapter 7: The New Millennium ....................................................

177

(2000–2013)

Page 2: T he Mills Tower in San Francisco, where the firm opened its first office in 1933.

Chapter 8: The Sedgwick Legacy

................................................. 193

The Evolution of Sedgwick .................................................... 214

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Acknowledgments

ny book is a team effort. The firm would like to thank the many people who helped shepherd Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm from an abstract idea into reality. We were lucky to work with the Chronicle Books team— Catherine Huchting, Beth Weber, Pamela Geismar, Micaela Heekin, and Hae Yuon Kim—who contributed their publishing and design expertise every step of the way. Kathleen Flynn, Royal Simpkins, Mary Jo McHugh, and Randy Wilson from Sedgwick’s marketing department were an invaluable part of the book team, meeting with the author and publisher, gathering photographs and other images, scouring law and photo libraries, reviewing and critiquing book chapters, and giving input on the final design. Author Nora Isaacs took disparate interviews, ideas, clippings, and oral histories and wove them into a cohesive narrative that expertly tells our story.

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Acknowledgments

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Much gratitude to all the partners, past and present, who were interviewed for this book and shared their memories, stories, and insights. The assistance of Jim Gault and Roger Sleight deserves special mention. Finally, this book never would have come to fruition without Chair Michael Tanenbaum’s full support and encouragement.

A Special Thanks . . . Simply put, this book would not exist without Greg Read. As unofficial firm historian, editor, and archivist, Greg championed the project, tirelessly contributing dozens, if not hundreds, of hours to capture the spirit and history of Sedgwick. In between his normal workload of depositions, trials, client meetings, and, yes, a few golf games, Greg could be found cajoling partners into interviews, searching for information from back in the days of scant record keeping, poring through piles of photographs, or line editing yet another iteration of the manuscript. Greg’s passion for this project was contagious and continuous. He rejoiced at the discovery of a new piece of letterhead, compiled detailed binders brimming with historical news articles, and developed an encyclopedic memory of historical firm facts. Delving into the world of book publishing, he was always eager to learn, becoming well versed in lingo like “galley” and “drop cap.” His professional experience did come in handy: When a favorite photo or story was in danger of getting cut, he passionately argued its case. He usually won. Greg fretted over what to include and had many more stories to tell. In his fervor for this project, he stopped making additions only hours before the final deadline. Without Greg, the book you are holding might have remained a fleeting idea in Michael Tanenbaum’s head. And there were probably days when Greg, after spending his weekend searching for an obscure date, wished it remained only a thought. But we’re grateful for his fortitude and vision. His determination to capture Sedgwick’s history provides an enduring tribute to the past, a celebration of the present, and a road map for the future.

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Foreword

hen I joined Sedgwick more than a decade ago, its reputation as a trial firm was well known to me. It was this reputation and the qualities of its partners that drew me to the firm. Unfortunately for me, by the time I joined, its founding partners were no longer members. It took very little time, however, for me to understand how rich a legacy they had left, the extent to which that legacy had been woven into the firm’s fabric, and how the firm’s identity, character, and reputation was defined by their values. As we enter our eightieth year, this was a story that I decided needed to be told. As history has demonstrated, it takes a very special glue to hold a law firm together. The professionalism that once defined the relationships among lawyers has eroded over time. Complex transactions, massive litigation, and technology have altered the legal landscape and the manner in which members of the legal profession interact. Competition among lawyers, historically reserved for the courtroom, now infects our everyday lives and has led to previously

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Foreword

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unheard-of partner mobility and, in extreme cases, the collapse of venerable law firms. What follows is the story of a firm that has celebrated, since its founding eighty years ago, the core values that once defined our profession and that have defined Sedgwick lawyers since the beginning. Wally Sedgwick, Gunther Detert, Ed Moran, and Bud Arnold were consummate professionals, lawyer’s lawyers, and masters of the art of trial. Those of us who have followed in their footsteps have embraced the values they established, committed ourselves to delivering the outstanding client service for which they were revered, and carried on their legacy by mastering the art of trial and, as important, training new generations of lawyers in that art. We are honored to call them our partners and to tell their story.

Michael A. Tanenbaum

Introduction

hen Chair Mike Tanenbaum asked me to participate in a project to publish a book about the firm’s history, I jumped at the chance. Having joined the firm more than forty years ago as its twenty-ninth attorney and fifty-third employee, I had the good fortune of working with Wally Sedgwick, Gunther Detert, Ed Moran, and Bud Arnold. I’ve always had a keen interest in the history of the firm, and the people who created it, and I used to give PowerPoint presentations about the firm’s history at holiday lunch eons. When the firm shortened its name to Sedgwick LLP during a 2011 retreat, I couldn’t resist delivering an impromptu talk about each of the named partners of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold for the benefit of those who had never met them. For many of us, this firm has been our entire career, a place where we practiced side by side with great people, worked long hours, matured into successful attorneys, tried tough cases, and grew up knowing each other’s children and now grandchildren.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Michael A. Tanenbaum

Introduction

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Introduction

I have always been proud of this firm and am pleased to have the opportunity to preserve its history for generations to come. This book is about the first eighty years of Sedgwick LLP, a law firm that started as a two-man workers’ compensation office opened during the Great Depression in 1933; it has now grown into an international defense trial firm with fifteen offices and more than 370 attorneys. A nostalgic look back in history, this book is a story about the people who created the firm and made it grow and prosper, the collegiality that made it a great place to work, and the qualities that make our firm unique. Consistent with our heritage, it also highlights some of the trials that forged our reputation as “the trial firm companies trust.” The process of creating such a book was both fascinating and invigorating. We began our research in early 2011 by scouring about seventy dusty old file boxes, which Mike McGeehon had wisely saved from destruction, looking for historical letterhead, business cards, and firm announcements. It was exciting to find an original 1935 letter on Keith & Creede letterhead, the oldest known surviving letter of the firm. We looked at military records and draft cards. We found historical photographs in the San Francisco library. After many detours, Randy Wilson finally found a picture of Gordon Keith, the second attorney to join the firm, in an old San Francisco Bar book. We reviewed written histories of the Bronson and Hanna & Brophy law firms, performed online research, looked for data about deceased partners on Ancestry.com, went to library archives to find old articles and obituaries, reviewed oral histories, and conducted about two dozen interviews with partners past and present. Simultaneously, we expanded our reach, contacting relatives and asking for photographs and scrapbooks. Mark Creede, the grandson of founder Frank Creede, provided two boxes of invaluable information, including letters, announcement cards, photographs, and memorabilia from the 1930s. Gunther Detert’s daughters, Cappie Garrett and Sandy Cover, kindly allowed us to review his memoirs and make copies of a series of iconic photographs from leather-bound scrapbooks meticulously created by Gunther, complete with handwritten captions. His grandsons became interested

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in the project and supplied us with images from the Detert Family Vineyards website. Tom Moran, Ed Moran’s son and a former Sedgwick associate, met me in a coffee shop with some memorable photographs and even better stories. Dee Arnold invited me to her home to review photographs of Bud and other documents from long ago. Retired partner Bill Judge, following up on a conversation we had on the golf course, obtained photographs of another early partner, Ed Leonard, from Ed’s daughter-in-law. We were extremely fortunate to find author Nora Isaacs, a talented writer who took this mountain of miscellaneous information and skillfully wove it together into a compelling story about the first eighty years of the Sedgwick journey. Nora was completely committed to the project, never missed a deadline, and was a dream to work with. Chronicle Books is a first-class publisher with a talented team of professionals, all of whom helped us immensely to navigate our way through the complicated process of writing and publishing a book. Designer Hae Yuon Kim of Tobi Designs brought the manuscript, photographs, and images to life on these pages. We hope you will take the time to read this book and be proud of where we came from, who we are, and what we have accomplished together.

Gregory C. Read

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Introduction

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Gregory C. Read

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Chapter 1

The Birth of a Law Firm (1932–1941)

ld Man Young needed just $1 a day to get by. It was hard enough to make ends meet during the Great Depression, but he’d been injured on the job—making it even harder. He came to the newly opened San Francisco law office of Gordon S. Keith in the hope of receiving a cash settlement from the Insurance Commission, the arbiter of workers’ compensation in that era. The Depression had taken its toll on Young. He was only sixty years old, yet he seemed much older—hence the nickname. With Keith’s help, the commission awarded Young a little under $7 a week. This got him a pretty decent room on Mission Street that was run by a woman who changed the sheets every week. It wasn’t quite enough to enjoy life’s little pleasures, like the occasional steak or a movie. But he was better off than many others, who found themselves homeless and congregating in shantytowns during that devastating era.

Opposite: A ny job was a good job during the Great Depression, even if the pay was just a meal.

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Chapter 1

The Birth of a Law Firm (1932–1941)

Opposite: A ny job was a good job during the Great Depression, even if the pay was just a meal.

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Right: G ordon Keith announces the opening of his law office in September 1932.

Three years earlier, the stock market had crashed on Black Tuesday, losing $30 billion in a single week—a whopping sum ten times more than the annual federal budget and far more than the United States spent on World War I. A rash of suicides, hundreds of bank closures, billions in frozen deposits, and years of financial struggle followed. By the time Young arrived at Keith’s two-room office at 220 Bush Street, the Great Depression was in full swing.

Gordon Keith Opens Shop Gordon Keith was a warm Scotsman, a large man with an even larger personality. A native of Minnesota, Keith attended the St. Paul College of Law, where he was a member of the Ramsey Senate chapter of the Delta Theta Phi legal fraternity. After graduating in 1916, Keith began working as a self-employed lawyer in the tiny town of Edgeley, North Dakota. He registered for the draft at age twenty-three and enlisted in the army in August 1917. Wounded during the Aisne-Marne offensive in France during World War I, he later accepted a commission and was discharged in 1919 as a second lieutenant. Keith moved to California and was admitted to the California bar in 1923. After graduating, he became a referee of the Industrial

Gordon S. Keith Gordon S. Keith was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on April 22, 1894. His father was Arthur C. Keith and his mother was Lizette Boynton. He was first married to Claire Johnson, who had a child, Adel, from a previous marriage. After Claire’s untimely death from tuberculosis, Keith married Edna Stewart. Keith died in Paris in 1971, while traveling with his third wife, Alma Keith.

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Right: G ordon Keith announces the opening of his law office in September 1932.

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Accident Commission. Now called judges of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, referees in those days traveled around hearing various cases in different communities across the state. His salary? Two hundred dollars a month. After a few years, Keith left the commission in about 1927 to work for the San Francisco firm Bronson, Bronson & Slavin, doing the bulk of its workers’ compensation practice. “We apparently began to get some of that business in the beginning, and my father didn’t like it,” according to Ed Bronson Jr. in an oral history about the Bronson law firm. “Gordon Keith liked it.” When the firm decided they were better off without that part of the business, Bronson gave Keith his blessing, handed him the firm’s workers’ comp clients, and sent him on his way. With enough borrowed funds for one month, Keith and his secretary, Evelyn Robertson, moved into a two-room office on the fourth floor of the Mills Tower and opened shop on September 1, 1932. The Mills Tower was a sparkling new twenty-two-story building, completed a year shy of Keith’s grand opening, which holds the distinction of being San Francisco’s very first skyscraper. Sitting behind a secondhand desk with a glass top, he began his own practice specializing in workers’ compensation and insurance matters. As a former referee, he held the enviable position as one of the few attorneys of that time and place who truly understood the field. In the throes of the Great Depression, Keith’s legal expertise was in demand. Despite widespread unemployment, the number of

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Above: E velyn Robertson, Gordon Keith’s longtime secretary.

Opposite: B lack Tuesday on Wall Street in 1929, which ushered in the Great Depression.

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Above: E velyn Robertson, Gordon Keith’s longtime secretary.

Opposite: B lack Tuesday on Wall Street in 1929, which ushered in the Great Depression.

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Gordon Keith’s Wartime Marriage In 1927, Gordon Keith married Claire Johnson, a nurse he met in the service. An article in the San Francisco Bulletin, “Invalid Nurse Weds Hero in War Romance,” described love at first sight. The couple had planned to marry immediately after the war, but after Claire contracted tuberculosis, she refused his proposals. “She would not marry and become a burden to a husband and thus the years since the war have slopped by in waiting,” according to the article. Yet Keith wouldn’t take no for an answer. “At last the pleadings of Keith won. Miss Johnson con-

Invalid Nurse Weds Hero in War Romance

sented to start the New Year with all the hopefulness of a happy bride.” The article, however, ends on an ominous note about their future, stating that because of her health conditions, medical science “looked on with grave and doubtful mien.”

claims and hearings remained the same. People, down on their luck, called on him, hoping to get some relief from the daily hardships of life. The ugly fact was that incomes fell about 40 percent from 1929 to 1933. That meant that for some, the going rate of 14 for a bottle of milk was simply too much. In the late thirties, the maximum weekly disability payment was $25, and a full death benefit was $5,000. “Anyone who had any possible claim made it during those years,” said Evelyn Robertson, who often greeted these downtrodden visitors at the office. With unemployment around 25 percent, work seemed scarce. Those lucky ones who did have jobs flooded in from the east and south to San Francisco by ferryboat; the Golden Gate and San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridges were merely sketches on a mechanical engineer’s paper. The women wore gloves; the men wore hats.

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After work, some headed to the local speakeasy for a drink. Prohibition was on its last legs, but still a law. In 1932, the year Keith opened his doors as a sole practitioner, the Great Depression wasn’t the only thing on the collective minds of Americans. Twenty-month-old Charles Lindbergh Jr. was snatched from his crib, the Yankees won the World Series, and Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidency in a landslide over Herbert Hoover, promising the country a New Deal. Despite the hardships of that time, people still wanted to have a little fun. On their radios, they followed the baseball exploits of Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio and listened to Duke Ellington’s red-hot jazz. Back on Bush Street, the firm was riding the wave. At $125 a month, Robertson was well compensated for her secretarial work. Although no records of Keith’s income exist, a hard-working attorney in that era made about $10,000 a year. They both worked hard. In those days, Keith dictated everything to Robertson, who took it down in shorthand and then transcribed it. Soon after they opened, the office thankfully invested in a state-of-theart Dictaphone with a wax cylinder. Keith was a tough taskmaster and not one to show regret. In twenty-eight years, Robertson never remembered hearing him apologize to anyone. But he was a generous man. Once when he upset Robertson, Keith gave her a check for $100— a large sum in 1933. Another time, Mr. and Mrs. Keith gave her $1,000 after she had worked all year without a vacation. She took the money and went on an indulgent vacation for seven whole weeks, taking a Greyhound bus on a grand tour of the United States.

Below: T he wax cylinder Dictaphone was state-ofthe-art office technology in the early 1930s.

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Invalid Nurse Weds Hero in War Romance

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Below: T he wax cylinder Dictaphone was state-ofthe-art office technology in the early 1930s.

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A History of Workers’ Comp in California To understand the history of workers’ compensation in California, it’s necessary to rewind to 1911. In that year, the state’s first voluntary compensation law, the Roseberry Act, came into being. Two years later, this became a compulsory constitutional amendment known as the Boynton Act. Referees like Keith heard the cases and recommended decisions to three commissioners, appointed by the governor. Hearings were held throughout the state, usually at county seats. As the law became more complex and led to more claims, an increasing number of referees were needed. The California Workers’ Compensation Act was passed in 1921. This generated a large amount of litigation because it involved administrative hearLeft: S tate Compensation

ings, as opposed to a court trial.

Insurance Fund’s December 31, 1932, financial statement, with Frank J. Creede as manager.

along with a handful of private insurance companies. The fund

Below: F rank Creede’s business card as chief counsel of the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

The State Compensation Insurance Fund wrote most insurance policies, had a staff of attorneys in San Francisco and Los Angeles to defend injury claims filed with the Industrial Accident Commission. Most attorneys wouldn’t take employee claims because the fees allowed by the commission were so nominal. Only Keith, along with one other attorney in Oakland named H. C. Kelsey, both former referees, specialized in handling applicants’ cases.

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ings, as opposed to a court trial.

Insurance Fund’s December 31, 1932, financial statement, with Frank J. Creede as manager.

along with a handful of private insurance companies. The fund

Below: F rank Creede’s business card as chief counsel of the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

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While millions of people suffered during the Depression, Keith had his own personal hardship: His wife, Claire Johnson, died of tuberculosis in 1929. After her death, he supported her daughter from a previous marriage and put her through college. Later, he married Edna Stewart, a woman he met from the Industrial Accident Commission. Although the couple never had children of their own, Edna adored them. During the holidays, neighborhood kids flocked to the couple’s lavish annual Christmas parties in their San Francisco home. As a couple, they enjoyed frequent nights on the town, going to the theater and dining out. Keith kept busy handling applicants, plaintiffs, and defense work. As a trial lawyer, he had the knack of instantly knowing a person’s essence. “He could meet a person, and he’d say ‘good’ or ‘no good,’” said Robertson.

Below: G ordon Keith, and then Keith & Creede, opened offices in the Mills Tower, 220 Bush Street, one block away from the current Sedgwick San Francisco office. Below Left: A typical Mills Tower office, circa 1929.

Opposite: A 1916 senior year photograph of Gordon Keith from the St. Paul College of Law yearbook, The Judgment Roll.

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Opposite: A 1916 senior year photograph of Gordon Keith from the St. Paul College of Law yearbook, The Judgment Roll.

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Keith & Creede

Above: F ounding partner Frank Creede.

As the business grew, Keith realized he had more work than he could handle. Enter Frank J. Creede, a prominent attorney who had worked for the State Compensation Insurance Fund for eight years as assistant counsel and chief counsel before being appointed as manager in 1928. Five years later, Creede announced his resignation and joined Keith to form the firm of Keith & Creede. The office opened on March 31, 1933, the date our firm was founded. Once settled into his post, Creede handled most of the appellate work and set policy for insurance companies, while Keith stuck with the workers’ comp work. Creede was an affable, bighearted Irishman with a delightful wit. He graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1917 and was admitted to the California bar the same year. He was known to be involved in charities and to be generous with his time and money. The Creede work ethic extended to his family. One memorable story centered on Creede’s sister, Mary, who worked as the secretary to the California secretary of state. When the secretary of state’s term ended, Mary was out of a job. Legend has it that just before 5 p.m. on her last day of employment, Mary finished typing the last word of the last document, leaned over on the typewriter, and died of a heart attack. With a reputation as a business-getter, Creede knew most everyone in the insurance industry from his previous post at the State Compensation Insurance Fund. He was a man-about-town,

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a member of the Commonwealth and Olympic Clubs, a vice president of the State Bar Board of Governors, and the first president of the University of San Francisco Law Society. New beginnings happened beyond Bush Street. The very year Creede joined, construction began on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Prohibition ended. Germany appointed Hitler as chancellor. And Roosevelt addressed the country with his inaugural speech: “Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear . . . is fear itself.” The timing for another attorney couldn’t have been better. Five months after Creede started, Keith came down with the first reported case of “sleeping sickness” in San Francisco. It was a big deal; reports in the San Francisco papers described Keith as a well-known attorney who had contracted this mysterious disease. The source of the illness was surmised to be a client of Keith’s who had recently visited St. Louis, where there were 576 reported cases Above: F rank Creede’s business card as founding partner of Keith & Creede.

Left: A March 31, 1933, Keith & Creede announce ment card.

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Keith & Creede

Above: F ounding partner Frank Creede.

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Left: A March 31, 1933, Keith & Creede announce ment card.

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and 86 deaths from this illness. Shortly after the woman’s office visit, Keith developed a severe headache and temperature. According to one news article, Keith awoke in the hospital after five days of lethargic sleep to mumble one word: “Hungry . . .” His drugged eyes roved slowly around the hospital room at the group of doctors watching the development of this strange malady, and ever so slowly he ate a few mouthfuls of food before sinking into a deep sleep, breathing slowly, with no sign of pain. Keith didn’t come back to work for six months, leaving Creede to take the reins, handle his cases, and manage the office during his long recovery. The firm worked on all kinds of workers’ comp cases: Injury cases resulting from a 1933 earthquake in Long Beach, California. Claims by miners against the mining companies when gold mining stopped in the Gold Country or when they were diagnosed with silicosis or lung disease. Cases involving “valley fever,” or injuries resulting from the inhalation of agricultural dust. The partners were an odd couple politically, but they made it work. Keith was a Democrat and Creede a Republican, but they never talked politics, which was not gentlemanly. Together, they mixed socially, went to Christmas parties, and attended benefits. Right: S an Francisco newspaper headline from September 8, 1933. Opposite: T he oldest surviving letter on Keith & Creede letterhead.

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Above: F rank Creede’s ticket for the parades celebrating the opening of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in November 1936.

Opposite: C onstruction on the bridge commenced in 1933, the same year Keith & Creede was founded.

They valued hard work, collaboration, and mutual respect, which set the tone for the next eighty years. Not much is known about the firm in the years from 1933 to 1937. The oldest surviving letter on Keith & Creede letterhead, dated February 20, 1935, is directed to one Mr. Albert W. Buchignani regarding gold warrants; a few other letters from that period also survive. However, old scrapbooks and photo albums kept by Mr. Creede contain a treasure of information about what it was like to live and practice law in the Depression years: Pictures of Creede and another man walking down a San Francisco street. A series of Cal– Stanford “Big Game” tickets. His Olympic Club membership card. Personalized Christmas cards. A charming photograph of Creede and his wife in front of a vintage car. Numerous letters extending best wishes for the new firm. And a ticket for the ceremony to celebrate the opening of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge on November 13–14, 1936, an event that included former US president Herbert Hoover and California governor Frank Merriam. The firm must have been doing well despite the times, because a new associate, Edmund D. Leonard, joined in 1937. Leonard had graduated from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1928, and then he worked as a trial attorney in the San Francisco office of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, defending injury claims filed with the Industrial Accident Commission. He soon became the fund’s chief trial attorney, but he found himself looking for a job after a new governor took office. “Ed Leonard had no difficulty, in spite of the Depression, in finding employment in the private sector, with the prominent firm of Keith & Creede,” according to a written history of the Hanna & Brophy law firm, which Leonard helped found after leaving Keith & Creede. “Ed’s expertise soon became recognized by the private carriers and Northern California

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Above: F rank Creede’s ticket for the parades celebrating the opening of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in November 1936.

Opposite: C onstruction on the bridge commenced in 1933, the same year Keith & Creede was founded.

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self-insured employers, and he acquired many clients who wanted him to personally handle their cases.” According to this written history, Leonard was made a junior partner in 1938. The same year Leonard joined the firm, people from around the world gathered in the Bay Area for a weeklong opening ceremony for the Golden Gate Bridge, four and a half years in the making. On a foggy day in May, more than two hundred thousand pedestrians walked over “the bridge that couldn’t be built.” As one of the few firms specializing in insurance law, the firm worked on an interesting mix of cases. In 1935, they handled a case that went to the California Supreme Court; they represented a young man who was injured after a fall from the back of a truck from which he was distributing advertising flyers for Oakland’s Paramount Theatre. A 1937 case, which went to appellate court, involved a mine superintendent who was shot by a subordinate employee. In 1938, they got involved in the case of a shooting of a hotel manager and maid by the hotel’s clerk; the manager died, so the dispute was whether the surviving maid should recover under workers’ compensation. It’s certainly not a stretch to say that the firm’s reputation grew when, in 1938, Keith and Creede argued a case in the US Supreme Court. One can only imagine the thrill of these two young attorneys, still in their thirties, as they traveled, presumably by train, to

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Above: F rank Creede’s Cal– Stanford “Big Game” tickets from 1936 and 1937, and his 1936 ticket to the Santa Clara vs. St. Mary’s game.

Opposite: T he Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937 and became an iconic landmark for San Francisco.

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Above: F rank Creede’s Cal– Stanford “Big Game” tickets from 1936 and 1937, and his 1936 ticket to the Santa Clara vs. St. Mary’s game.

Opposite: T he Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937 and became an iconic landmark for San Francisco.

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Letters and telegrams congratulating Frank Creede on the opening of Keith & Creede.

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Letters and telegrams congratulating Frank Creede on the opening of Keith & Creede.

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Washington, DC, to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court justices, including Louis D. Brandeis and Harlan Fiske Stone. The case, Pacific Employers Insurance Company v. Industrial Accident Commission, revolved around the right of an employee to be compensated in the state in which he or she is injured, and the right of doctors who render services to such injured employees to be paid in that state. A chemical engineer’s employer, Dewey & Almy Chemical Company, sent the engineer from a plant in Massachusetts to one in Oakland, California, where the man received an injury to his hand. Each state was governed by a compensation act: The Massachusetts act stated that a person employed in that state is governed by that act for injuries no matter where they are sustained. The California act stated that it governed over injuries sustained in the state of California, regardless of where the contract of employment is formed.

Opposite: F rank Creede on a San Francisco street. Below left: F rank Creede at work in his office.

Below: A Keith & Creede brief for the case of Pacific Employers Insurance Com pany v. Industrial Accident Commission filed with the US Supreme Court in 1938.

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Opposite: F rank Creede on a San Francisco street. Below left: F rank Creede at work in his office.

Below: A Keith & Creede brief for the case of Pacific Employers Insurance Com pany v. Industrial Accident Commission filed with the US Supreme Court in 1938.

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Opposite: T he California Supreme Court. Below: K eith & Creede California Supreme Court briefs.

The Industrial Accident Commission held the Pacific Employers Insurance Company liable, and they appealed by writ of review to the California Supreme Court. Keith and Creede argued the matter on behalf of the engineer, and the California Supreme Court upheld the award in his favor. But it wasn’t over. The Pacific Employers Insurance Company appealed to the US Supreme Court. Both Keith and Creede wrote the brief, and Creede argued the case against a Mr. Everett A. Corent. The Supreme Court held that California law was applicable, entitling the employee to secure compensation in the state in which he or she is injured.

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Opposite: T he California Supreme Court. Below: K eith & Creede California Supreme Court briefs.

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Left: F rank Creede and his wife, Letitia, sitting on the fender of what is believed to be a 1921 Buick Touring Car, circa 1925.

Below and right: F rank Creede’s ticket book for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition.

Below: F rank Creede’s holiday greeting card.

Frank J. Creede Frank J. Creede was born in San Francisco on November 13, 1892. His mother was Agnes (Plunkett) Creede, and his father was Percy J. Creede, both of whom were born in Ireland. Frank married Letitia and had a son, Frank J. Creede Jr., who was a partner in the firm and a prisoner of war in World War II. Frank Sr. died on August 1, 1960.

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Left: F rank Creede and his wife, Letitia, sitting on the fender of what is believed to be a 1921 Buick Touring Car, circa 1925.

Below and right: F rank Creede’s ticket book for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition.

Below: F rank Creede’s holiday greeting card.

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Meanwhile, war was brewing overseas. Germany had steadily begun its march to expand its European empire. On a September morning in 1939, German forces invaded Poland with a surprise blitzkrieg attack. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany two days after the invasion, in what would become the most devastating and deadliest conflict of modern times. World War II had begun.

Keith, Creede & Leonard Amid the war, the firm continued its commitment to insurance law. Leonard became a full partner on January 1, 1941; later in that same year, two other associates joined the firm: Percy Creede (Frank Creede’s younger brother) and Gunther Detert. A letter from Percy Creede on Keith & Creede letterhead, dated August 14, 1941, documents Keith, Creede, and Leonard as partners and Percy as the sole associate. As a result of the booming business, the firm decided it needed a makeover. They renovated the Bush Street offices, adding a library and expanding their usable space. A few years later, Frank Creede recorded a coveted hole in one at the Olympic Club, an apparently newsworthy event that made the paper.

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Opposite: F rank Creede (right) and his brother Percy, circa 1939. Below: A member of the San Francisco Olympic Club, Creede shot a hole in one at the club in 1944.

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Opposite: F rank Creede (right) and his brother Percy, circa 1939. Below: A member of the San Francisco Olympic Club, Creede shot a hole in one at the club in 1944.

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Right: C ard announcing the firm’s name change to Keith, Creede & Leonard, dated August 15, 1942. Opposite: Letter from Gunther Detert on Keith, Creede & Leonard letterhead, dated April 15, 1943. Below: E d Leonard, the third partner of the firm, went on to start Leonard, Hanna & Brophy.

The firm changed its name to Keith, Creede & Leonard in 1942. Although Leonard now had his name on the door, he left a year or two later to form a one-man firm. The reasons he left are murky. “Apparently one of our clients was not very happy with us,” Robertson remembered. “And they told him if he would open his own office, they would give him their business, which he did.” But according to Hanna & Brophy’s written history: “By 1943, he saw no prospect of becoming a full partner and in February gave the firm notice that he was withdrawing.” He opened a one-man office in 1943, on the eleventh floor of the Merchants Exchange Building on California Street, and in 1944 he joined Warren Hanna and Donald Brophy to form Leonard, Hanna & Brophy, which went on to become one of the biggest workers’ compensation firms in the state. Around that same time, a dynamic new trial attorney entered the picture: Wallace “Wally” Sedgwick. And the rest, as they say, is history.

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Chapter 2

The Early Years (1941–Midforties)

n the morning of December 7, 1941, a fleet of Japanese bombers, fighters, and torpedo planes appeared in the sky above Oahu, Hawaii, attacking the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. The surprise military attack, which killed thousands of people and sunk four battleships, shocked the world. The next day, the United States declared war on Japan. America had officially entered World War II. The Bay Area hunkered down. Forts were armed, bases filled with people. The recently completed Golden Gate and Bay Bridges allowed the Bay Area to mobilize at a rapid clip. Men and women went to work building ships, preparing tanks, and manufacturing weapons. For the troops, the San Francisco Bay was often the last part of the states they saw before combat and the first thing they saw when they returned—if they returned. The San Francisco streets changed seemingly overnight. Instead of buses and cable cars filled with gloved ladies and gentlemen with

Opposite: T roops in vehicles lining Crissy Field, 1941.

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The Early Years (1941–Midforties)

Opposite: T roops in vehicles lining Crissy Field, 1941.

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Opposite: B ush Street circa 1944, the same block where Sedgwick’s current San Francisco office is located. Below: W omen workers from the WWII era.

hats, they teemed with servicemen and defense workers. Most of the world became consumed with war, on edge, watching, waiting, ears glued to the radio for news from abroad. Back on Bush Street, another major change was brewing. The war years between 1941 and 1946 heralded the arrival of the four men whose names would grace the doors of the firm for decades to come: Wallace Sedgwick, Gunther Detert, Edward Moran, and Ernest Arnold.

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Opposite: B ush Street circa 1944, the same block where Sedgwick’s current San Francisco office is located. Below: W omen workers from the WWII era.

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Gunther Detert

Gunther R. Detert Born on November 11, 1912, in Jersey City, New Jersey, Gunther attended Stanford University and the University of California Boalt Hall School of Law. He was married for 53 years to Marie-Louise, had

Gunther Detert walked into the offices of Keith & Creede looking for a job. The year was 1941. A graduate of Lowell High School, Stanford University, and UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, Detert had been working for a judge of the California Appellate Court earning $50 a month. The Great Depression was ending; World War II was starting. A dozen eggs, a pound of butter, and a loaf of broad each cost 15; a good bourbon or a leg of lamb set you back $1. In search of a higher salary, Detert pounded the pavement, traveling to seventy interviews in six months. When he got to the Mills Tower offices, Keith and Creede were impressed with his gentlemanly demeanor and academic credentials. They offered him $200 a month, plus one-fourth the fees of his own cases. He happily took the job and went back to his San Francisco rental, where he could hear the cable car rattle until midnight. A few remaining letters on firm letterhead in December 1941 show Detert as the second firm associate after Percy Creede. Detert was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, where his father owned a knit goods manufactory. The family moved to San Francisco in 1925, traveling from New York via the Panama Canal. After graduating from law school in 1936, Detert had tried to enlist in the war. He spoke German and wanted to pursue intelligence, but the army told him they didn’t need him. He married his sweetheart, Marie-Louise Whittel, in a beautiful ceremony in a large San Francisco home on Pacific Avenue in 1941. He was a courtly gentleman. “I think everybody loved Gunther Detert,” said Michael McGeehon,

Above: Gunther Detert joined the firm in 1941 and became one of its elder statesmen.

Left: G unther Detert and his wife, Marie-Louise, on their wedding day.

two daughters, and died on August 13, 1994, in Napa Valley.

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Gunther Detert

Above: Gunther Detert joined the firm in 1941 and became one of its elder statesmen.

Left: G unther Detert and his wife, Marie-Louise, on their wedding day.

two daughters, and died on August 13, 1994, in Napa Valley.

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Below: G unther Detert (right) speaking to Ed Moran at a holiday dinner.

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who joined the firm in the 1970s when Detert was an elder statesman. “He looked like the ambassador to the court of St. James.” Detert started out as a generalist, writing up deeds, wills, divorces, and bankruptcies. But within a few weeks, he got his first workers’ compensation case. By the end of the year, “comp” was all he did. “This was not a very glamorous field of law, but it then was increasing in volume by leaps and bounds,” he wrote in his memoirs, Sketches from My Life. “Since comp involved personal injury, I enjoyed a good grounding in medical knowledge. The refereestyle hearings sharpened my abilities for cross-examination of witnesses.” He continued: “We were dealing with all kinds of injuries and diseases and disabilities, so that the whole field was, for me, an excellent prelude to actually trying liability cases.” Detert established himself as a stalwart of the law during his long career, becoming the president of the Barristers Club and director of the Bar Association of San Francisco for three separate terms. He was a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel and the American Board of Trial Advocates. In his fifty-three years with the firm, Detert was known as a very open, down-to-earth, and gentle soul. “He always put human values above institutional values,” said Kevin Dunne, an attorney who joined two decades after Detert. “He was as engaging to the newest person in the firm as he was to the people who were with the firm for years.”

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Clockwise from above left: Gunther Detert fishing; hunting deer; duck hunting; with his wife, Marie-Louise, on the beach; at a restaurant in Germany; and posing with a horse.

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Below: G unther Detert (right) speaking to Ed Moran at a holiday dinner.

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Clockwise from above left: Gunther Detert fishing; hunting deer; duck hunting; with his wife, Marie-Louise, on the beach; at a restaurant in Germany; and posing with a horse.

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understanding of Napa Valley winemaking informed and entertained many, and during his lifetime he became a great promoter of California wines. He wrote: From the beginning and even after Prohibition ended, the distributors sold Napa and other California wines under labels with European geographical destinations, e.g. New Medoc, Napa Medoc, California Rheinwein, Napa Moselle, etc. The U.C. School of Enology strongly campaigned for the replacement of this pseudo-European label terminology with grape varietal names, e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, etc. This ultimately freed our wine from the European labels and made it independent and competitive. The California system of labeling by varietal grape names became so successful that many European producers have since seen fit to add the varietal grape names to their own labels. As part of the Napa Valley wine establishment, Detert was a director and president of the Napa Valley Wine Library Association, governor of the Wine & Food

Gunther Detert’s Passion for Viticulture Gunther Detert was also passionate about something other than the law—wine. Detert grew up steeped in winemaking culture; his grand-uncle owned property in wine country, which became the site of Guenoc winery. His serious interest in wine began in 1953, when his mother bought a home near Oakville in Napa Valley, surrounded by a forty-acre vineyard. The Oakville ranch house became home to Detert’s collection of wine books, comprising around five hundred volumes, and which later served as the site of many memorable firm summer parties. The Detert vineyard was one of the first to be planted exclusively with cabernet franc grapes, which were sold to the Robert Mondavi Winery for use in its acclaimed Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Today, that grape is found in virtually every bottle of cabernet sauvignon. In his memoirs, Detert recalled trips to Napa Valley as a child, taking the ferry to Sausalito (before the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were built); visiting the area during Prohibition, when the wineries were overgrown and rotting; and then getting more involved in Detert Family Vineyards as the decades went on. Detert

Society of San Francisco, and cofounder and president of the California Vintage Above left: A well-known figure in the Napa Valley, Gunther Detert was passionate about wine and viticulture and managed the family’s vineyard while maintain ing a successful law practice.

Wine Society. During his long time at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, Gunther and his Below: A 1970s Sedgwick party at Detert Family Vineyards.

wife, Marie-Louise, also took the reins managing the vineyard, often with their two daughters in tow. A photograph on the website of the winery started by Detert’s grandsons shows the highly distinguished attorney wearing a big straw hat and smiling happily among the vineyards.

Above right: T he Detert Family Vineyards winery was started by Gunther Detert’s grandsons, using the same vineyards started by the family in 1953.

became a well-known figure in the area. His encyclopedic knowledge and keen

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Wine Society. During his long time at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, Gunther and his Below: A 1970s Sedgwick party at Detert Family Vineyards.

Above right: T he Detert Family Vineyards winery was started by Gunther Detert’s grandsons, using the same vineyards started by the family in 1953.

became a well-known figure in the area. His encyclopedic knowledge and keen

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Wally Sedgwick

Wallace E. Sedgwick Wally was born in Mexico City on September 23, 1908. He graduated from the University of California–Berkeley and got his law degree at Southwestern University School of Law. At the time of his death, he was married to Lucine and had a son, three daughters, and six grandchildren. He died in on January 16, 1982.

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Wallace Sedgwick joined the firm in 1943. He was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and graduated from the University of California– Berkeley. He received his law degree from Southwestern University School of Law, paying his way through night school during the Great Depression. From 1930 to 1937, he served as district manager of the State Compensation Insurance Fund in Long Beach, California. He then went on to become inside counsel and manager for the General Insurance Company of America in San Francisco, where he honed his keen knowledge of insurance law and litigation. By all accounts, he was a remarkable trial lawyer with an uncanny ability to take advantage of the moment. “Wally Sedgwick, in my book, was the greatest trial lawyer I’ve ever known,” said Detert. “And certainly he was the greatest trial lawyer in public liability cases. He was almost a magician.” Scott Conley, who joined the firm in 1948, described Sedgwick as “probably the best rainmaker I ever saw.” Many words have been used to describe the legendary Wally Sedgwick: genteel, generous, handsome, bright, and kind. By all accounts, he had an extraordinary gift with people. Scott Conley remembered riding up the elevator with his colleague: “By the time we got to our floor, the elevator operator would feel like she owned the building. He just had a way of concentrating on people. He was very sincere about it, and he would have thrilled them with the fact that he recognized and knew them and

Below: W ally Sedgwick was an avid outdoorsman.

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Wally Sedgwick

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Below: W ally Sedgwick was an avid outdoorsman.

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Clockwise from left: W ally Sedgwick riding horses with Bud Arnold (left) and Gunther Detert (right); at a holiday dinner; duck hunting with Detert (left); and on horseback.

Left: W ally Sedgwick is presented a gavel as president of the International Association of Defense Counsel, one of many professional distinctions that also included being named a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Sedgwick Fellows in the American College of Trial Lawyers Becoming a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers is almost universally regarded as the highest recognition for a trial attorney in the United States. Trial attorneys are invited to become fellows only when they are performing at the top of the profession. They must be, according to the organization, “eminently qualified, in addition to being regarded as the best in their state or province.” Wally Sedgwick, Ed Moran, and Jack Howell each became fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and others following in their footsteps from Sedgwick include Beach Kuhl, Kevin Dunne, Steve Jones, Greg Read, Elliott Olson, and Jim Keale.

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Clockwise from left: W ally Sedgwick riding horses with Bud Arnold (left) and Gunther Detert (right); at a holiday dinner; duck hunting with Detert (left); and on horseback.

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TRIAL BRIEF

Sedgwick Defends a Racetrack

remembered so much about them. He had a very special talent that way.” Andy Collins, who joined the firm in 1955, He had the same magical effect on described another example of Wallace Sedgwick’s the janitor, the window washer, and trial skills. In a suit against both Bay Meadows and claims representatives. Tanforan racetracks, a well-known San Francisco “He could do things in such a plaintiff’s attorney, Ingemar Hoberg, represented beautiful, beautiful manner,” said Ted a severely brain-damaged jockey who had been Niedermuller, who arrived at the firm injured during a workout session. Sedgwick reprein 1945. “He would never raise his sented Tanforan, and Hoberg expected a big vervoice, but he could do things. He was dict against both defendants. After a month-long a diplomat’s diplomat.” According to trial, Hoberg got a large verdict against Bay one tale, when his wife, Lucine, was Meadows—but Sedgwick remarkably got a in the hospital giving birth, Sedgwick defense verdict for Tanforan. Hoberg later told was the only eager father-to-be in the Sedgwick: “There is not another defense attorney in this city, or anywhere else that I know of, who waiting room wearing a three-piece could have gotten that result.” suit, white shirt, tie, and engraved gold cuff links. Sedgwick ultimately ended up fathering four children, a son and three daughters. Stories about his grace, charm, and generosity are prolific. Sedgwick and Lucine were well known for their kindness. He purchased lavish trips to Europe for his partners and bought their wives fur coats. He hosted his clients’ wedding receptions at his home, and he invited his longtime secretary, Lorraine Meakins, to celebrate every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter holiday with the family for the twenty-eight years they worked together. On Meakins’s twenty-fifth anniversary at the firm, Sedgwick personally arranged a European trip for her, presenting Lorraine with a written invitation during a fancy dinner with her family. When her mother was in the hospital, Wally or his wife called her every Wednesday evening to offer support, and he volunteered to fly to Chicago to help her return to San Francisco with her wheelchair-bound mother. When Meakins broke a bone in her foot, the couple prepared twenty individual freezer-ready dinners to help out, delivering them and packing them into the freezer.

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Everybody loved Wally Sedgwick, who looked distinguished even with his ruddy face and thinning hair. When trying a case in Nevada, he went to a bar before a show and ordered a drink. A female voice behind him said, “Won’t you buy me one, too?” Recalled Niedermuller, “It was Rita Hayworth. He was such a good-looking, handsome man, she fell for him.” Sedgwick’s legal instincts and willingness to take risks also became legendary. James Gault recalled second-chairing a libel case with him involving farmworkers. “I remember as we were getting ready to start the trial, as he was about to make his opening statement, he said, ‘You know, I have no idea what I’m going to say.’ Then he got up and started.” Sedgwick calmly began reading something he felt helped his client’s case from the congressional record.

Below: H orse racing at Tanforan Racetrack.

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Below: H orse racing at Tanforan Racetrack.

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Below left: W ally Sedgwick with his wife, Lucine.

Below right: S edgwick with Lucine and their children.

The Early Years

“I suspect he couldn’t have gotten it in evidence if somebody had been thinking about it clearly,” said Gault. Bud Arnold told the story of trying a case with Wally Sedgwick in which he represented a widow whose husband was burned to death when a barrel of acid exploded. The trial ended in the biggest verdict for a death case in California, and it spurred new laws concerning the proper standard of care for labeling barrels of this kind. This verdict got a lot of publicity—and insurance companies became suddenly aware of an important new young lawyer in the defense business. During Sedgwick’s illustrious career, he was a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the 1965–66 president of the International Association of Defense Counsel, and a member of the Defense Research Institute and the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California as well as the American, California, San Francisco, and Guam bar associations. By 1947, due to some high-profile cases, he cemented his reputation as one of the best trial attorneys in California. Unquestionably, Sedgwick became the firm’s leader and guiding light.

Above: W ally Sedgwick (second from right) and Bud Arnold (far left) with couples at a black-tie dinner.

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Below left: W ally Sedgwick with his wife, Lucine.

Below right: S edgwick with Lucine and their children.

The Early Years

Above: W ally Sedgwick (second from right) and Bud Arnold (far left) with couples at a black-tie dinner.

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Ed Moran Sedgwick’s foil? Ed Moran. As Sedgwick was polite, soft-spoken, and diplomatic, Moran was aggressive, controversial, and tough. “Moran stands out because he was such a fantastic character,” remembered Scott Conley. “Certainly the best trial lawyer I think I have ever known. I would often say I was glad he was my partner Left: E d Moran and his wife, Lois, in their July 2, 1939, wedding-day photo.

Edward T. Moran Born on November 8, 1914, Ed received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of San Francisco. He was married to Lois and had a son and two granddaughters. His son, Tom, was an associate in the firm. Ed died on June 30, 1975.

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Opposite: 1 945 Keith & Creede letterhead, the year Ed Moran joined the firm. Below: E d Moran fishing in British Columbia in 1966.

The Early Years

because I would hate to try a case against the SOB. Very tough guy.” Conley continued: “He always had his own plan about a case, and he worked it out as best he could. Usually it had nothing to do with the facts, but with some weakness or some knowledge he dis covered, and he would try the other lawyer, the judge, whatever came to mind, rather than try the weaker aspects of the case.” Moran joined Keith & Creede in 1945 and appeared as the newest associate on the firm’s letterhead dated July 24, 1945. At that time, there were two partners (Keith and Creede) and six associates (including Sedgwick, Detert, and Moran). Moran came to the firm after working as a trial attorney in the office of Melvin Belli, a notorious plaintiffs’ attorney who went on to become known as “The King of Torts” and one of the most influential personal injury lawyers in the United States from the 1950s to the 1990s. The firm was getting more litigation business, and Moran was the perfect fit. Moran received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of San Francisco. During his time, he became a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the first president of the San Francisco chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates in 1964, and president of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California. Ed was married to a woman named Lois, and he had a son, Tom, who became a lawyer and later joined the firm as an associate. Nobody could cross-examine a witness like Moran. He was a colorful character with a passionate love of trial work and a distaste for hanging around the office. His colleagues remember him wandering around from attorney to attorney,

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Opposite: 1 945 Keith & Creede letterhead, the year Ed Moran joined the firm. Below: E d Moran fishing in British Columbia in 1966.

The Early Years

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Below: E d Moran shot this buck in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada circa 1955.

The Early Years

asking—practically pleading—for files to take to trial. He was great to work with because he knew so much about trying cases and because he treated associates with respect. “Once on a business trip to visit a client on the East Coast, Ed introduced me as the ‘brains of the outfit,’ which, of course, was patently untrue,” said Greg Read, who joined in 1971. “I was just his bag carrier. But I’ve never forgotten it. He was a great guy.” At about age seven, Moran lost part of his left leg when he was hit by a dump truck that lost its brakes and jumped the curb. He spent months in the hospital. During his tenure with the firm, Moran always used crutches, never a prosthetic leg. Despite the fact that he was missing part of his leg, Moran was an avid sportsman who loved deer and duck hunting, fishing, and horseback riding. He became a strong swimmer and swam the Golden Gate span of the San Francisco Bay in the 1930s before the bridge was built. Ed Moran wasn’t above using his handicap to his advantage. In fact, it was widely believed around the firm that insurance companies routinely retained Moran to try “leg-off” cases all over California. In one trial, he sat on the edge of the counsel’s table facing the jury box, with one crutch on the left side and the other crutch on the right side, swinging his stump. Of course, nobody could beat that kind of sympathy. After that stunt, the judge invited the attorneys into his chambers, where he gave Moran a warning: “If you ever so much as sit on that counsel table again, much less swing your leg, there’s going to be a mistrial.” Moran followed the judge’s instructions and stayed in his seat through the rest of the trial. Moran’s frugality became the subject of an urban legend: Allegedly, in order to save money, he would buy

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shoes with a man whose opposite leg had been amputated. And he was known for being dogged in his pursuits—and always with a sense of humor: Scott Conley recalled a time when Moran broke his arm wrestling with an office boy. “He just wouldn’t give up; the kid pushed so hard Ed had a fracture of the radius,” said Conley. “To most people the injury would be an annoyance, but to him it meant he couldn’t walk, as he used crutches. So it was kind of a serious thing. But he regarded it as a joke.”

Below: Ed Moran deer hunting with his son, Tom, in Wyoming circa 1960.

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Below: E d Moran shot this buck in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada circa 1955.

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Below: Ed Moran deer hunting with his son, Tom, in Wyoming circa 1960.

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Bud Arnold Bud Arnold arrived at the firm in 1946, after serving in the war, and was the last of the name partners. He was born and raised in Upland, Nebraska, a small town of about five hundred people, where his father was a banker. During the Depression, his father’s bank went broke and closed. At first, Arnold dreamed of becoming a musician. He played trumpet in the Upland town band and with the marching band as an undergraduate at the University of Nebraska, where he washed dishes to pay for meals. He graduated from the University of Nebraska law school in 1937, and he was immediately admitted to the bar because, at that time, no bar exams existed. After school, he found a job with the Nebraska State Railway Commission, earning $75 a month as an examiner. But he imagined something better, especially when the drought hit and caused the farming economy to collapse. “Nobody had any money,” he said. “We had people come back from California and tell us about the

Below: Bud Arnold in India during World War II.

Ernest “Bud” Arnold Bud was born in Upland, Nebraska, on January 13, 1913. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Nebraska. He was married to Dee and died on January 14, 2004.

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Below: Bud Arnold in India during World War II.

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Above: B ud Arnold as a young man.

The Early Years

wonderful climate, the sea full of fish, the mountains, the diversified agriculture, the grain, fruit, cattle, and oil. There was always something prospering in California. In Nebraska, if the corn crop failed, we were in deep trouble. So I had enough of that.” Arnold met Sedgwick years before he started working at the firm. In 1940, Arnold drove his new, $1,250 Chevrolet two-door to the West Coast, with a passenger to help defray expenses. A former law school classmate suggested he contact Wally Sedgwick in San Francisco, who was then in charge of the claims department for the General Insurance Company of America. Arnold called Sedgwick to tell him he’d be arriving. After traveling through Portland and Seattle, Arnold arrived in San Francisco, parked his Chevy out front, and went to see Sedgwick, who greeted him like a long-lost brother. Sedgwick took Arnold back to his office, piled high with files and general chaos, and made small talk, until Arnold finally realized that Sedgwick had no idea who he was. “It was typical Wally Sedgwick,” said Arnold. “He wasn’t going to acknowledge that he didn’t know why the hell I was there.” Finally, Arnold introduced himself. “He never acknowledged he didn’t know who I was, but I know damn well he hadn’t the slightest idea whether I was a claimant or who I was. In any event, he was a wonderful man, and he would go to any lengths to avoid offending anyone.” They hit it off, and that day Sedgwick offered Arnold a job on the spot. Arnold told him he was making $125 a month in Nebraska, and

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Clockwise from left: B ud Arnold as attorney; as hunter; and his 1941 certificate of admission to the State Bar of California.

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Above: B ud Arnold as a young man.

The Early Years

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Clockwise from left: B ud Arnold as attorney; as hunter; and his 1941 certificate of admission to the State Bar of California.

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Right: B ud Arnold in Egypt during World War II. Below: A rnold on a hunting trip.

The Early Years

Sedgwick said he could match it. After resigning from the Railway Commission, Arnold accepted the job with General Insurance and began learning the job of being an insurance claims adjuster. Arnold took the California bar exam in the fall of 1941 and was admitted in early 1942. But the war loomed, and Arnold knew he was going to be drafted. Taking Sedgwick’s advice, Arnold was accepted as an agent for naval intelligence in San Francisco (where the navy was expecting a lot of sabotage and espionage by Japan, Germany, and even our ally Russia). He was eventually commissioned and, after months of training in Washington and New York, assigned a job as a courier in the interior of China, behind Japanese lines. He was given seven top-secret airmail bags and received orders to fly to China, via Europe, to deliver the bags to his new unit, the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO), also known as the “Rice Paddy Navy.” After spending a few action-packed days in Paris and Naples, he flew to Cairo, where he saw the pyramids, Calcutta, and then “over the hump” into Chungking, China, where he delivered his top-secret cargo. Overall, Arnold spent about a year and a half in China, before returning to San Francisco in 1946.

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After his return, Arnold got in touch with Wally Sedgwick and learned that he had joined the law firm of Keith & Creede, along with Detert and Moran. Arnold got an interview with Keith & Creede and eventually was hired as an associate in 1946. A master trial attorney, Sedgwick began teaching Arnold how to try cases, and Arnold began accompanying him to depositions and trials. Very rapidly Arnold was in court. Soon enough, he began preparing cases for himself and became a sharp examiner who could eviscerate witnesses on the stand. Throughout his career, Arnold was a careful writer and a stickler for details, and he often took a long time to review draft letters prepared by associates. Days or sometimes weeks later, Arnold would call the associate into his office, where he would, line by line, question most of the document. “He would often go to page three of your letter, middle paragraph, and ask you what you meant by it,” recalled Bruce Wold, who joined the firm in 1974. “But by that time, you had no idea.” Wold remembered that Arnold had a particular pet peeve with the use of “indicated”: “So if you had a sentence which said, ‘The police officer indicated that so and so,’ he would ask you, ‘Indicated? What does that mean? Did he say something?’ You had to be absolutely clear.” Arnold went on to become a beloved mentor for dozens of the young attorneys who came after him, and he serves even today as the spirit behind the firm’s highly successful mentoring program.

Below: Bud Arnold mentored many younger attorneys in the art of legal writing.

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Right: B ud Arnold in Egypt during World War II. Below: A rnold on a hunting trip.

The Early Years

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Below: Bud Arnold mentored many younger attorneys in the art of legal writing.

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The Early Years

Ted Niedermuller

Below: T ed Niedermuller joined the firm in 1945 and shortly thereafter was put on a bus to try fifteen cases in Modesto.

Ted Niedermuller joined the firm in 1945. Born in Santa Barbara, he graduated from Santa Barbara State College with a teaching degree in 1932, during the depths of the Depression. Unable to find a job, he went to San Francisco to pursue law school instead. “I got on a train, first time I had been on a train, on a Pullman, to come to San Francisco, with $250,” he remembered. “Had a suitcase and one suit.” To pay the rent, Niedermuller got a job at the law library at city hall. It paid $60 a month and gave him access to a huge room of books and many lawyers. “In those days the attorneys would borrow a nickel from you for a cup of coffee,” he said. “They were taking divorce cases for $20. Those were tough, tough times, and they remained that way until after the war started.” In 1937, Niedermuller graduated from the University of San Francisco law school, where he worked such jobs as washing dishes and mopping floors. Of the forty-five members of his class, five graduated and four passed the bar. Niedermuller got a job with Indemnity Insurance Company of North America, and he worked his way up to claims superintendent for the Pacific Coast. He met Gordon Keith, who offered him a job. But duty called. He was drafted and served about two years during World War II before being discharged because of preexisting shoulder problems and poor eyesight. When Keith called again in 1945, he decided to take the job. For his first assignment, Niedermuller was loaded on a bus with fifteen case files to be

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tried in Modesto. “I did a darn good job on all of them,” he said. “I’m bragging when I say it, but I just felt I did.” It was an auspicious beginning: He got involved in many workers’ compensation cases involving silicosis and tuberculosis, called “miner’s consumption” in those days. This was partly because his great uncle was the state mineralogist and owned the Sierra Yuba Gold Quartz Mining Company in Sierraville. “We traveled the state from Bakersfield to Yreka, Montague, which is way up by the Oregon line, and from Crescent City down to San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara. Every little town in between.” He stayed at the firm until he retired on December 31, 1979, and moved back to Santa Barbara. Others who appeared on the Keith & Creede letterhead during this period include Percy J. Creede (Frank Creede’s brother), Edward L. Beggs, John J. Guhleen, and Richard J. Carew.

Below: A firm party (left to right): Jack Howell, Gunther Detert, Ted Niedermuller, and Bud Arnold.

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Ted Niedermuller

Below: T ed Niedermuller joined the firm in 1945 and shortly thereafter was put on a bus to try fifteen cases in Modesto.

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Below: A firm party (left to right): Jack Howell, Gunther Detert, Ted Niedermuller, and Bud Arnold.

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The Early Years

The War Hits Home Of course, all this happened against the backdrop of World War II. Even though they were far from the front, the war was always on the partners’ minds. And it touched very close to home. Frank Creede’s son, nineteen-year-old Frank Jr., was an army PFC (private first class) and was assigned to a heavy machine gun squad, H Company, Second Battalion, 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Division, which landed in Le Havre, France, on December 3, 1944. Creede’s division was moved to the mountains of the Ardennes and assigned to guard a heavily wooded, hilly forest on the western slope of the Schnee Eifel during the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans burst through the lines heading for the Meuse River—objective Antwerp. On December 17, 1944, the Germans, with orders to remain at their existing positions, surrounded the 422nd and 423rd regiments. On December 19, the two regiments surrendered seven thousand men to the Germans. After spending the first night in a churchyard in Prüm, the prisoners were marched to Gerolstein and Right: S an Francisco school children prepare a victory garden during World War II.

Telegrams and a US Senate letter regarding the case of World War II POW Colonel James M. Sullivan.

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Telegrams and a US Senate letter regarding the case of World War II POW Colonel James M. Sullivan.

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The Early Years

spent four miserable days in boxcars, arriving at Stalag IX-B, Bad Orb, on December 25, 1944. Stalag IX-B has been regarded as the worst of the German camps that held American POWs because of the overcrowding, despicable conditions, and starvation diets, but Frank Jr. was lucky. He survived the experience and was liberated April 2, 1945; he arrived back in New York on April 28 and was home in San Francisco on VE Day. He would receive a Purple Heart and later join the law firm. The firm handled many war-related claims, like that of Lieutenant Colonel James M. Sullivan. A San Francisco doctor, Sullivan was an Army Reserve officer who went to serve in 1941. In Manila, he became a POW, eventually enduring the notorious “death cruise” to Japan from Manila, in which only four hundred out of sixteen hundred soldiers survived because of the horrible conditions. Sullivan died of pneumonia twenty-four hours after the ship docked, leaving behind a widow and five children. Because of a problem with his insurance premiums, his family contacted Keith & Creede. Ultimately, Keith & Creede secured the monthly allotment of $20.20 to cover the payment of premiums on Colonel Sullivan’s insurance policies.

Trying Cases in the Day The firm of devoted trial attorneys worked around the clock. There wasn’t a lot of discovery or many settlements in those times. This meant their days—and often nights—were filled with either preparing for or attending trials. “You were playing poker until you got into trying the case, and even then you were playing poker,” remembered Detert. This lent the profession an air of excitement, drama, and intrigue: “In those days we didn’t take depositions. We would catch the plaintiff or applicant unawares,” remembered Niedermuller. It wasn’t uncommon for an attorney to arrive on a Monday morning to find they were “double set,” which meant they had not one but two trials to attend. Sometimes this meant one in the morning in San Francisco and one in Oakland in the afternoon. The men

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The Early Years

relished the challenge, shifting at the last minute to figure out who was going to handle the case. They were known for hurriedly picking up a case they knew absolutely nothing about and trying it by the seat of their pants. The excitement of trailblazing new territory created a magical alchemy among the men, who came together to create an environment of trust, camaraderie, and possibility. “A handshake was good in those days,” Niedermuller remembered. “You trusted everybody, and everybody trusted you.” The firm found a perfect balance: Niedermuller and Beggs were in workers’ compensation, headed by Keith. Creede did most of the appellate work. Sedgwick, Detert, Moran, and Arnold were all trial attorneys. The combination of these men, from different backgrounds and with different skills and specialties, created something bigger than each individual. ollegiality meant more to these men than mere friendliness. It meant helping and learning from each other. It meant that more- experienced attorneys mentored younger ones. Together, they created a strong foundation and supportive culture on which a new firm would be built. By 1946, Gordon Keith’s one-man shop was no more. The players had arrived and the stage was set for the firm that would later become Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold.

Opposite: I n the late 1940s, the firm would expand and move into the art deco Shell Building.

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The Early Years

Opposite: I n the late 1940s, the firm would expand and move into the art deco Shell Building.

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Chapter 3

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold (Midforties to 1959)

an Francisco’s Market Street erupted in a spontaneous celebration on Tuesday, May 8, 1945—VE Day. The invasion of Normandy was over; Germany had unconditionally surrendered. The national mood was cautiously optimistic. Along with the world, the Bay Area cheered the Allied forces and the end of Nazi Germany and the war in Europe. Truman had become president after Roosevelt’s sudden death barely a month before. Flags flew at half-mast. But the sentiment was bittersweet: The war was over, but so were so many young lives.

Keith, Creede & Sedgwick Wally Sedgwick’s early success as a trial lawyer and his abilities as a business producer were clearly recognized by Keith and Creede. They made him their first partner and changed the firm name to include Sedgwick. While we don’t know the exact date the firm Opposite: P eople crowd Market Street in San Francisco to celebrate VE Day.

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Chapter 3

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold (Midforties to 1959)

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

name changed, in late 1945 a series of letters exists with signature lines on behalf of “Keith, Creede & Sedgwick.” (The earliest surviving letterhead with the firm name Keith, Creede & Sedgwick is dated March 26, 1947.)

A New Direction As the world celebrated victory in Europe, and three months later victory in Japan, another change happened on Bush Street. Before 1945, the firm focused mainly on workers’ comp. This was the heart and soul of the firm. But according to Gunther Detert’s oral history, around 1945, the California legislature made a significant change that permitted workmen’s compensation insurance companies to also write liability insurance. Keith, Creede & Sedgwick was in the perfect position to leverage this transition. Because the firm’s lawyers had followed

Above and right: S oldiers were welcomed back to San Francisco after the war.

Opposite: E arliest surviving Keith, Creede & Sedgwick letterhead with shorthand notes by Gunther Detert’s secretary.

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Above and right: S oldiers were welcomed back to San Francisco after the war.

Opposite: E arliest surviving Keith, Creede & Sedgwick letterhead with shorthand notes by Gunther Detert’s secretary.

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TRIAL BRIEF

Titan Missile Silo Cases

the Insurance Commission’s roving referees around, trying cases before them in various cities, they knew almost all the significant attorneys throughout Northern California. These same lawyers were acquainted with scores of doctors, too, because they had used or cross-examined them as witnesses. “We represented 150 workmen’s compensation insurance carriers, and these carriers knew us and our character of work, and we were easily able to handle liability jury trials from Eureka to Bakersfield for them,” wrote Gunther Detert. “So it was natural that the workman’s compensation insurance carriers favored us and wanted us to handle their liability practices. That’s where Wally came in.” Wally Sedgwick instinctively knew this change could be huge for the firm. He pounced, bringing in an ever-increasing amount of litigation business. This was second nature to the charismatic Sedgwick, who made friends wherever he went and used his natural gifts and charming personality to win over strangers. Simply put, he was the rainmaker. Led by Sedgwick, the firm charted a course as a lucrative insurance defense practice that would forever change its direction. At the same time, Sedgwick solidified his reputation as the top jury defense lawyer of

The firm represented Martin Marietta in a series of cases brought by plaintiffs injured or killed in Titan Missile silos. “There were dozens and dozens of those cases,” Jim Gault said. “Everything seemed to be going wrong with this intricate construction of the missile silos. There were minor explosions, air pollution, and fires down in the silos. And people were getting injured and killed.” Gault and Moran tried these cases mostly in Oroville, the county seat of Butte County, California. They would get there a few days early to get settled in. Moran would immediately make his presence known, going to the local bars and restaurants, figuring out who might be on the jury. “He kind of seized control of the environment in advance of the trial,” Gault remembered. “He was a charismatic person. He was very strong physically and in his personality. And so he would walk into a room and everyone would sit up and pay attention. It was fun and educational to be in his presence.” The series of verdicts were remarkable. In each case, the jury found that Martin Marietta was negligent, but that the plaintiffs were not entitled to any recovery. “So it was a plaintiffs’ verdict with a zero damages result, which was quite spectacular, I thought,” said Gault.

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Northern California. “He was so good at his trial work and his handling of people. He could sell ice to an Eskimo,” said Detert. That’s not to say there wasn’t the occasional small amount of probate, corporate, and general practice work. But the increasing amount of defense liability work began to overshadow it all. “We’d get in a new attorney to do general practice, and it wasn’t long before we needed him for liability trial work, and then he’d be yanked upstairs into that. The real heart of our practice was finally liability trial work,” said Detert. By 1947, the firm had ten attorneys: three partners (Keith, Creede, and Sedgwick) and seven associates (Percy Creede, Detert, Edward Beggs, Moran, Niedermuller, Arnold, and Richard Carew).

Below: T ime-lapse images of a Titan missile.

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TRIAL BRIEF

Titan Missile Silo Cases

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Below: T ime-lapse images of a Titan missile.

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

They had outgrown their space, first moving to the thirteenth floor of the Mills Tower, and then later into the art deco Shell Building, where they were one of the first tenants after it was completed. The firm was forging a leading role in the history of the San Francisco legal community.

New Faces, New Talents Keith, Creede & Sedgwick’s reputation was growing by leaps and bounds. As it did, talented new attorneys began arriving to round out the already impressive team. Many of the attorneys who joined the firm during this period became partners and remained with the firm for the rest of their legal careers. Right: A n early partnership meeting: (clockwise from left) Ted Niedermuller (in profile), Scott Conley, Jack Howell, Ed Beggs, and Ed Moran (back to camera).

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Scott Conley Scott Conley grew up in Westchester County, New York, just north of New York City. His father had been with a New York advertising agency for many years. After graduating from Yale University in 1944, he entered the navy for three years before graduating from Yale Law School. He came to California and worked briefly at another office before joining the firm in February 1950. At first, Conley worked primarily with Frank Creede on workers’ compensation cases. He traveled all over the state handling hearings with referees who “rode the circuit” to different communities. Eventually he became a liability attorney, trying between 150 and 250 jury trials, and another hundred court cases and appeals, during his career. When Conley started, there still weren’t many depositions, and defense lawyers were only allowed to obtain the plaintiff’s medical records in a liability case. Many cases went to trial because neither side knew much about the other side’s evidence or theories. Conley recalls one case in which Gordon Keith had lost so many evidentiary objections during a trial that he threw his briefcase on the table and offered it into evidence. Conley worked on a series of high-profile cases, including the Cutter Laboratories cases with Wally Sedgwick and Christofferson v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. Throughout his career, Conley was known for his brilliant legal analyses and strategies and for his elegant use of the written word.

Below: S cott Conley joined the firm in 1950 and later served as a judge pro tempore in San Francisco Superior Court.

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Below: S cott Conley joined the firm in 1950 and later served as a judge pro tempore in San Francisco Superior Court.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

John “Jack” Howell Jack Howell grew up on a huge ranch near Merced, California. He attended Stanford University and Stanford Law School. He always knew his calling: Howell remembers that he had wanted to be a lawyer ever since reading Clarence Darrow’s book The Story of My Life as a child. After getting his law degree in 1941, Howell entered the navy and served as a coding specialist during World War II. After being stationed in Washington, DC, for a year, he was transferred to Algiers and participated in the landing at Gela, Sicily, on the USS Monrovia, with General George Patton on board. Howell also landed at Salerno with John Steinbeck, then a war correspondent, with whom he shared some whisky on several occasions “contrary to naval regulations.” After doing coding for the Yalta Conference, he returned home in 1945 to meet his first son. “He was two years old at the time, and I had never seen him before,” he said. “I met him at the airport out here in San Francisco.” Howell worked for a couple of years as a trial lawyer in the district attorney’s office under Edmund G. “Pat” Brown in San Francisco, before going into private practice, doing immigration, criminal law, divorce work, and personal injury. His office was on the twenty-first floor of the Mills Tower, the same building where Keith, Creede & Sedgwick was located, and he got to know Frank Creede very well. He started with piecework on an hourly basis for Frank Creede, doing research and writing briefs. Creede asked him to join the firm soon after. Howell recalled: “I said, ‘I’ve got a wife and three kids; you can’t pay me enough.’ So he asked me how much I was making in my private practice and I told him. I think it was $400 a month. And he said, ‘Oh hell, I’ll pay you that and tack $100 on.’ So I went to work with him, and believe me, I was never sorry.” Howell joined the firm about six months after Scott Conley. He went on to become a major force doing liability work and handling major clients like Monsanto.

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Above: A fter serving in World War II, Jack Howell was a sole practitioner in the Mills Tower before joining the firm in 1950.

Opposite: L etter from John Howell to the court.

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

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Above: A fter serving in World War II, Jack Howell was a sole practitioner in the Mills Tower before joining the firm in 1950.

Opposite: L etter from John Howell to the court.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Right: F rank Creede Jr. was the “resident associate” in Sedgwick’s first branch office in Fresno and later became a judge. Below left: T he law library at the Fresno County Court house was named for Frank Creede Jr.

Below right: F rank Creede Jr. with his family and then Vice President Nixon.

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Frank Creede Jr.

Edward Saunders

Frank Creede Jr., the son of founding partner Frank Creede, joined the firm around 1952. After his military service, Creede attended Stanford University and the University of San Francisco School of Law. In 1956, when the firm briefly opened a Fresno office, Creede became the “resident associate.” When Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold was formed in 1959, he became a partner while still manning the Fresno office. He left the firm about a year later, and Sedgwick’s Fresno office was closed shortly thereafter. Creede went on to become a superior court judge in Fresno, presiding over many high-profile cases. The Fresno County Public Law Library is named in his honor.

Another early partner was Ed Saunders, who came from a socially prominent family and graduated from the University of California and Stanford University law school. He joined Keith, Creede & Sedgwick in 1952 as an associate, becoming an insurance specialist in surety and fidelity law. A member of the firm for more than twenty years, he assisted Sedgwick in some of the Cutter Laboratories polio vaccine cases. In 1972, Saunders tragically died of leukemia, at the age of fifty-one, leaving behind a widow and three boys.

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Left: E d Saunders, who joined the firm in 1952, was one of the Sedgwick attorneys defending Cutter Laboratories in the highprofile polio vaccine cases.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Below right: F rank Creede Jr. with his family and then Vice President Nixon.

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Frank Creede Jr.

Edward Saunders

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Left: E d Saunders, who joined the firm in 1952, was one of the Sedgwick attorneys defending Cutter Laboratories in the highprofile polio vaccine cases.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Andrew Collins

Right: A ndy Collins joined the firm in 1955 and went on to become a managing partner.

Andy Collins joined the firm in 1955. Collins played basketball for Santa Clara University before leaving to serve two years in the army during the Korean War. He returned to Santa Clara after his service and continued to play basketball for three more years. Ultimately, he followed the advice of his coach and attended law school at the University of San Francisco. He and his wife, Marion, had eight children. When deciding where to land after law school, he typed up a list of law firms to visit. It turned out that another fellow he knew was working at Keith, Creede & Sedgwick. He called and got the job, where he stayed for the rest of his legal career. He cut his teeth doing research for the Cutter Laboratories polio vaccine trials, an invaluable way of learning the ropes in probably the biggest case the firm ever handled to that time. “Nowadays, it might be considered a drag to have to do nothing but research on a case for a full year, but I didn’t mind it,” Collins said. “I had complete faith in the fact that things would evolve in the proper way, so doing a lot of research at the beginning seemed very natural to me.” Collins began making trips to London with Wally Sedgwick around 1968 and ultimately spent many years managing a huge London client, which insured the California Hospital Association, after taking over that account from Sedgwick. This work involved monitoring and evaluating cases brought against the association’s member hospitals and reporting this information to the insurance

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market. Later, partners Bill Judge and Barry Marsh succeeded Collins on this business. Collins became managing partner shortly after Ed Saunders died. He ran the firm quietly and efficiently, and many of his handwritten memos and lists of partner percentages and income still survive. He was a master in behind-the-scenes politics and was primarily responsible for setting the stage for the transition of the management of the firm from the founding partners to the firm’s younger generation of up-and-coming partners.

James Gault Jim Gault joined in 1958, before he even passed the bar, becoming the fourteenth member of Keith, Creede & Sedgwick. He came from the army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he was stationed in the Pentagon’s Appellate Division. The aspiring attorney was hired to do legal research in connection with a breach of implied warranty appeal from the first Cutter Laboratories polio vaccine trial. A few months after starting, he passed the bar, but he continued to work on the appeal for another year. His immediate supervisor was Scott Conley. Gault said, “Virtually whatever I prepared by way of preliminary drafts of the briefs were greatly reworked by Scott. I learned so much from him, and I continued to learn from him throughout my whole career here.” Gault had the opportunity to second-chair many cases with Ed Moran, who grabbed cases to try all over Northern California in counties like Humboldt, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Butte. Gault was known as a perfectionist, and many an associate spent hours rewriting draft pleadings and letters that did not meet with his approval. After his retirement in 1990, he continued to come to the office regularly. “The firm was my whole life in private

Below: J im Gault joined the firm in 1958 and did legal research for the cases involving Cutter Laboratories before passing the bar.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Andrew Collins

Right: A ndy Collins joined the firm in 1955 and went on to become a managing partner.

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Below: J im Gault joined the firm in 1958 and did legal research for the cases involving Cutter Laboratories before passing the bar.

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

practice after the army. I loved everyone here, and I enjoy very much seeing them.” In 1971, Gault represented the plaintiff, who had been injured in a cable car accident, in a personal injury action against the City and County of San Francisco. The trial resulted in the biggest verdict the firm had ever had, considerably more than Sedgwick’s plaintiff’s verdict in the 1950s. Gault recalls that about a year later he lost a significant case, and then he also held the record for the highest verdict against the office. During the latter half of the 1950s, Keith, Creede & Sedgwick had some blockbuster cases that would distinguish the firm forever. Gunther Detert wrote in his memoirs: “At the end of the fifties, our firm was trying monster cases of the severalhundred-thousand-dollar verdict class. Following Roosevelt’s election, we defended the first polio cases in the Bay Area and product liability cases generally.”

Right: A polio immunization record card from the March of Dimes. Below: L ines formed outside an auditorium in San Antonio, Texas, that was being used as a polio immunization center in 1962.

The Cutter Incident

Below: A n Oakland Tribune headline from December 14, 1957.

If there was one case that put the firm on the map, it was Gottsdanker v. Cutter Laboratories (known as “The Cutter Incident”), which is considered one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in US history. It revolved around the government’s handling of the polio vaccine, which in 1955 caused severe damage to several thousand children after exposure to live polio virus. One of these kids was Anne Gottsdanker, who became permanently and severely paralyzed after she was vaccinated. Wally Sedgwick, along with Scott Conley, Ed Saunders, and Jim Gault, represented Cutter Laboratories. The Gottsdanker family hired the notorious Melvin Belli, a well-known plaintiff counsel. In his book The Cutter Incident, author Paul A. Offit

Cutter Trial Goes Into 4th Week Monday

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Right: A polio immunization record card from the March of Dimes. Below: L ines formed outside an auditorium in San Antonio, Texas, that was being used as a polio immunization center in 1962.

The Cutter Incident

Below: A n Oakland Tribune headline from December 14, 1957.

Cutter Trial Goes Into 4th Week Monday

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Right: T he firm’s reputation soared when it took on the lawsuits involving Cutter Laboratories, which featured testimony from Nobel Prize–winner Wendell Stanley (center).

Below: A n Oakland Tribune headline from December 4, 1957.

explains that Belli’s influence came in part from his insatiable need for media attention. Offit goes on to list Belli’s past clients, which included “Mickey Cohen, when he was accused of murdering Bugsy Siegel; Lenny Bruce, when he was accused of vulgarity in his nightclub act; Evel Knievel, when he wanted permission to jump the Grand Canyon on his motorcycle; Martha Mitchell, when she divorced her husband, Watergate co-conspirator John Mitchell; and Jack Ruby, when he was accused of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who shot John F. Kennedy.” To say that Belli loved the spotlight was an understatement. Yet Sedgwick stood his ground against Belli, successfully arguing that the company had done everything reasonably possible to produce a safe vaccine. In trial, they showed how Cutter went through all the safety precautions and explained why the company

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should not be penalized or held liable for something they couldn’t predict or guard against. Gault, who was just starting out his career, remembered watching and learning from the legal prowess of his superiors: “I was asked to participate in the meeting of expert witnesses. I watched Sedgwick and Saunders prepare those witnesses for trial, and then watched them testify during trial. The expert witnesses were unbelievably qualified scientists, including Wendell Stanley, who was a Nobel Prize winner. It was just thrilling to be a part of that trial preparation.” The jury found Cutter not negligent yet liable for breach of implied warranty, and monetary awards were made to the injured parties. This was a huge development in modern tort law that set the precedent for later lawsuits. Jim Gault remembered this landmark case:

Above: A March of Dimes poster.

An interesting feature of that trial was that the jury wrote a handwritten note to the judge attached to its verdict stating explicitly that they found no negligence whatsoever on the part of Cutter, but felt compelled by the judge’s instructions to find against Cutter on implied warranty. That was kind of an unheard-of thing the jury did. And the judge and the attorneys didn’t really know how to handle that. There was a great argument at trial as to whether that note should be made a part of the record. Sedgwick prevailed upon that argument, and the note was attached to the record so that the world could see that they found no negligence on Cutter’s part.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Right: T he firm’s reputation soared when it took on the lawsuits involving Cutter Laboratories, which featured testimony from Nobel Prize–winner Wendell Stanley (center).

Below: A n Oakland Tribune headline from December 4, 1957.

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Above: A March of Dimes poster.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

The Practice of Law The practice of law in the 1950s, and even into the 1960s, might be unrecognizable in today’s world of computers, email, Internet, cell phones, BlackBerries, iPhones, and iPads. Even copy machines and WiteOut didn’t exist. Secretaries typed letters on typewriters using carbon paper. Attorneys prepared drafts by hand or dictated letters directly to their secretaries or with Dictaphones. Drafts were corrected by hand and retyped, sometimes multiple times, before a final product was acceptable. Letters to the client were sent by mail, and legal research was done only in the library—with treatises and casebooks instead of mouse clicks. In those days, research wasn’t done by computer but by leafing through thick tomes like Above: B efore computers, the firm recorded information about each case on three-by-five cards.

Below: T ime records were typed on

Shepard’s Citations and the ALR series of books. Record-keeping was anything but automated. The firm maintained a record of each case on threeby-five cards, which recorded details such as the date the file was opened, the

sheets kept in each file.

Above and left: D etailed information about each case was typed by a secretary and kept in a small “open cases” black binder for each attorney. Below: A 1953 case card.

amount of any settlement or verdict, the total billings on the file, and when the case was closed. Each attorney’s secretary maintained a small black binder, which contained a record of each attorney’s open cases. When a case closed, the secretary transferred that page to a different binder of “closed cases.” Billing entries were typed by hand on a single sheet of thick paper kept in each file.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Below: T ime records were typed on

sheets kept in each file.

Above and left: D etailed information about each case was typed by a secretary and kept in a small “open cases” black binder for each attorney. Below: A 1953 case card.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Working Hard, Having Fun Amid the pressure and hard work, the men of the firm enjoyed a tremendous morale and loyalty. “There was a kind of spirit that when anybody was overworked or in trouble, you lent them a hand or a shoulder and you worked with them,” said Detert. “Wally was extraordinarily generous to all of his partners, probably to his own detriment.” Although they worked long hours, and hard, it wasn’t always work. Some partners went on hunting trips in lake country, waking up at 3:30 in the morning to shoot buck. And the Christmas parties. They started out with office parties in the library of the old Keith & Creede offices, champagne flowing. Sedgwick and his wife, Lucine, often stood at the receiving line to greet everyone. Moran was wellknown as the ringleader, the troublemaker. Partners from that time remember evening escapades that would end up late at night at Alfred’s Steakhouse near the Broadway Tunnel. Before there were paper shredders, there were file-destruction parties. Several times a year, a group headed to the basement, where

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Opposite: S edgwick holiday party in the 1950s. Below: F rank Creede (second from left) and his friends on a fishing trip, believed to be near Coloma, California.

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

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Opposite: S edgwick holiday party in the 1950s. Below: F rank Creede (second from left) and his friends on a fishing trip, believed to be near Coloma, California.

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Above: A 1953 partner dinner at Italian Village in North Beach.

Opposite: A 1952 partner dinner at Bimbo’s 365 Club, also in North Beach.

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Above: A 1953 partner dinner at Italian Village in North Beach.

Opposite: A 1952 partner dinner at Bimbo’s 365 Club, also in North Beach.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

the files were stored. The attorneys rolled up their sleeves, took off their coats and ties, and physically tore up the old files and threw them into bins. Then the group headed to a restaurant in North Beach. “Those were delightful evenings, although we stayed up too late,” recalled Gault.

Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold By the end of the decade, Dwight Eisenhower was president and Sam the rhesus monkey zoomed into space. Wally Sedgwick had clearly emerged as the leader of the firm and guiding spirit of the

Opposite: T he 1959 Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold partnership agreement; the names were handwritten because their order was undecided until the very last minute.

Left: 1 959 Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold letterhead.

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

Opposite: T he 1959 Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold partnership agreement; the names were handwritten because their order was undecided until the very last minute.

Left: 1 959 Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold letterhead.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Opposite: B y 1959, the firm had ten partners and four associates, whose names were proudly displayed on the firm letterhead. Below: A postcard featuring the Shell Building, where the firm was located from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s.

Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

next generation. Not only was he an impeccable trial lawyer, but he also possessed a keen talent for identifying the next big opportunity, a knack for businesses development, and an unending enthusiasm for promoting the firm. With him at the helm, the firm became renowned for its prodigious and precedent-setting trial work. Frank Creede officially retired from the firm at the end of 1958, and Gordon Keith’s retirement as a partner took effect at the end of 1959. (He would be listed as “of counsel” for several years thereafter.) On January 1, 1959, a new partnership agreement was executed by ten partners—Wally Sedgwick, Gunther Detert, Ed Moran, Edward Beggs, Ted Niedermuller, Bud Arnold, Jack Howell, Scott Conley, Frank J. Creede Jr., and Edward Saunders—under the new firm name of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, which would remain the firm’s name for more than fifty years. The fourteenattorney firm (including associates Andy Collins, Ernest Sevier, Jim Gault, and Bruce Bailey) remained at Suite 715 of the Shell Building. An original copy of that partnership agreement still exists, with the name of the firm handwritten in because the order of the names was under discussion until the last minute.

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Introducing Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

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Chapter 4

Defining the Future: The Next Generation (the Sixties and Seventies)

he decade of the sixties started out with the death of founding partner Frank J. Creede in 1960 after a short battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was sixty-seven and had retired a year before. During his lifetime, Creede had been a pioneer in the field of workers’ compensation and a leader of the insurance bar in California. The San Francisco legal community would sorely miss him. The board of governors of the State Bar of California paused in its deliberations to eulogize their former member: Always insisting that the members of the profession maintain a high standard of conduct, he nevertheless had a notable capacity to exercise compassion toward those unfortunate few who experienced difficulty in observing that high standard. All those who served with Mr. Creede on the Board of Governors will always remember him for his wise and kindly counsel, for his conscientious attention to the work of the Board, and for his genial personality.

Opposite: I n 1969, a turbulent decade ended with the success of Apollo 11 and the historic lunar landing.

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Chapter 4

Defining the Future: The Next Generation (the Sixties and Seventies)

Opposite: I n 1969, a turbulent decade ended with the success of Apollo 11 and the historic lunar landing.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Defining the Future: The Next Generation

Creede’s Legacy Frank J. Creede had served as vice president and member of the board of governors of the California State Bar Association, the first president of the University of San Francisco Law Society, and special counsel for the California Legislature’s Joint Interim Committee on Insurance Regulation, where he helped draft legislation. He was also counsel for the California Inspection Rating Bureau, and a member of what is now known as the International Association of Defense Counsel.

Above: F rank Creede died in 1960 after a short battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Left: C ondolence letter from Governor Edmund J. Brown to Frank Creede’s sister, Lucille, after Frank’s death in 1960.

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Beyond the legal world, the 1960s were famously tumultuous. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, followed by the mysterious shooting of his killer, shocked the country. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of racial equality, and civil rights activists took to the streets. It was the time of birth control and free love. The escalation of the war in Vietnam meant American troops were dying in a faraway jungle. Closer to home, hippies flooded San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, giving rise to the counterculture. The country collectively looked inward, struggling with these startling changes—and the joys and sorrows that accompanied them. At 100 Bush Street, the firm was settling nicely into its new identity as Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. George Sayre arrived in 1961, and he went on to become an expert in insurance coverage who is remembered for creating large charts depicting complicated insurance company relationships and lengthy insurance coverage opinions. In 1960, Sayre and a friend had opened the Drinking Gourd, a bar on Union Street. After he joined the firm, Sayre could often be found playing his guitar at the Gourd on weekends. Donald Malouf also joined the firm in 1961. When Beach Kuhl arrived in 1963, seventeen attorneys worked out of offices on the seventh floor of the Shell Building. The firm occupied most of the floor, which it shared with the editorial department of Time magazine. In those days, office windows actually opened to let in fresh

Above: G eorge Sayre, who joined Sedgwick in 1961, is shown as vice commodore of the St. Francis Yacht Club in 1986, with Dianne Feinstein to his right.

Left: D onald Malouf arrived at Sedgwick in 1961.

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Defining the Future: The Next Generation

Above: F rank Creede died in 1960 after a short battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Left: C ondolence letter from Governor Edmund J. Brown to Frank Creede’s sister, Lucille, after Frank’s death in 1960.

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Above: G eorge Sayre, who joined Sedgwick in 1961, is shown as vice commodore of the St. Francis Yacht Club in 1986, with Dianne Feinstein to his right.

Left: D onald Malouf arrived at Sedgwick in 1961.

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Above: B each Kuhl, who joined Sedgwick in 1963, was a very active and wellrespected trial lawyer.

Opposite: A n early partner ship meeting: (clockwise from top left) Ed Saunders, Wally Sedgwick, Ed Moran, Bud Arnold, and Ted Nieder muller (back to camera).

Defining the Future: The Next Generation

air. The mouth-watering smells from the restaurant downstairs wafted in, luring the pack of hungry attorneys downstairs. Early on, Kuhl second-chaired a series of cases with Sedgwick and Moran. In one of these cases, a young girl had overdosed and been found comatose after checking in to the St. Francis Hotel. Her parents sued the hotel; Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold defended them. The girl’s family hired plaintiff attorney Melvin Belli, who did everything he could to create sympathy for his client. First, he tried to roll out the comatose girl in her wheelchair while selecting a jury. “I told the judge that’s not right, she has no part to play in this, since this part was only whether they were liable, not about damages,” recalled Kuhl. The judge agreed, so Belli rolled her back out of the courtroom. About three days later, Belli somehow got the San Francisco Examiner to run a full page of pictures of her and of her mother taking care of her. Kuhl knew the story was coming out, and he asked the judge to instruct the jury not to read it. “The judge said, ‘If I do that, the first thing they’re going to do is go look for the paper,’” remembered Kuhl. “And sure enough, the paper showed up on newsstands at city hall as they left the courtroom. We got the verdict in the case.” Wally Sedgwick remained the firm’s leader. The very week Kuhl started, Sedgwick went on vacation. In his absence, Kuhl used his office and misplaced the elder attorney’s desk pen. The younger attorney was nervous about this major gaffe. But Sedgwick was ever the gentleman. “He never said a word about it,” recalled Kuhl, who soon began trying cases with Sedgwick and became a key attorney for the firm in cases involving accidents, liability, health care, employment discrimination, and eminent domain. He stayed

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Above: B each Kuhl, who joined Sedgwick in 1963, was a very active and wellrespected trial lawyer.

Opposite: A n early partner ship meeting: (clockwise from top left) Ed Saunders, Wally Sedgwick, Ed Moran, Bud Arnold, and Ted Nieder muller (back to camera).

Defining the Future: The Next Generation

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Above: B ill Judge joined the firm in 1966 and took over the California Hospital Association account from Andy Collins.

Defining the Future: The Next Generation

for the next fifty years, with the distinction of trying more cases than anyone else in that era. “We were a small firm and everybody knew everybody,” recalled Roger Sleight, who arrived in 1964. “The named partners were well known in the community. And so we got a chance to see some of the top lawyers in the city at the time and learn from them.” Sleight, a brilliant litigator who specialized in insurance law, later became a managing partner, a quiet yet powerful force beloved by his colleagues. Sleight tried more than a hundred cases and, in a remarkable accomplishment, never lost one bad faith case. In one stunning case, an insurance company retained Sleight to defend it against claims of breach of contract and bad faith. At the trial in Fresno, Sleight presented compelling evidence that the plaintiff had in fact murdered his female partner and was committing insurance fraud by making the claim. The jury agreed and rendered a defense verdict. Mike Laughlin joined in 1965 and began working with Ted Niedermuller, Gordon Taylor, and Ed Beggs in the workers’ compensation group.

Bill Judge came on board in 1966 and went on to take over the California Hospital Association’s London account from Andy Collins. In 1965, when the firm moved into its new office on 111 Pine Street, it had twenty attorneys. Doug Moore joined in 1967 as a liability attorney while maintaining a simultaneous career in the Navy Reserve, eventually becoming a rear admiral with two stars. Meanwhile, 1967 was the “Summer of Love” and Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” played on radio stations all over the country. Kevin Dunne and Steve Jones both joined in 1968, a tumultuous year in American history. Richard Nixon was elected president, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, and widespread demonstrations against the Vietnam War erupted across American campuses.

Left: D oug Moore joined Sedgwick in 1967 and also served in the Navy Reserve, ultimately becoming a rear admiral with two stars. Below: K evin Dunne at his desk in One Embarcadero Center.

Right: M ichael Laughlin (left), a workers’ compensation specialist who joined in 1965, with Roger Sleight.

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Above: B ill Judge joined the firm in 1966 and took over the California Hospital Association account from Andy Collins.

Defining the Future: The Next Generation

Left: D oug Moore joined Sedgwick in 1967 and also served in the Navy Reserve, ultimately becoming a rear admiral with two stars. Below: K evin Dunne at his desk in One Embarcadero Center.

Right: M ichael Laughlin (left), a workers’ compensation specialist who joined in 1965, with Roger Sleight.

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Below: A partner dinner in the 1960s with (left to right) Ed Beggs, Gunther Detert, Scott Conley, Wally Sedgwick, Ed Saunders, Ed Moran, Jack Howell, and Ted Niedermuller.

Defining the Future: The Next Generation

When Kevin Dunne arrived, following his army service in Vietnam, he felt the thrill of working alongside the firm’s legal powerhouses: “I was a young man and I interviewed around town, and they were the most impressive people I’d met, by far. They were giants.” Dunne remained at Sedgwick for his entire career, becoming a nationally recognized trial attorney and firm leader representing corporations in a series of high-profile drug and medical device, product liability, and class-action cases. Dunne would become managing partner in the new millennium, instrumental in the continuation of the firm’s national and international expansion. Steve Jones was drawn to Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold because of its reputation as a trial firm. He stayed for the remainder

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of his career. He remembered the private branch exchange (PBX) switchboard from those days, when the switchboard operator put calls through. As a young attorney, he was impressed by the fact that Sedgwick always personally answered his line when the operator put him through. “It taught me a terrific lesson not to avoid telephone calls, and to deal with issues before they get bigger and bigger,” he said. Jones went on to become one of the most influential partners and a highly regarded trial attorney, trying cases all over California and representing major corporations and utilities in a series of major environmental and toxic tort lawsuits, some of which resulted in months-long trials with the highest stakes for his clients. In 1969, at the close of this tumultuous decade, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped off Apollo 11 and onto the moon. As Armstrong uttered his famous words, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” it seemed clear that the world would never be the same. Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold was also taking steps in a new direction, as large companies became self-insured and took more control of their litigation. “Sedgwick saw a change was coming,” recalled Kuhl. “He encouraged us to treat the insureds like they were clients, become acquainted with them, and make sure we kept them well informed. He wanted them to feel that we were their lawyers so that when they reached this self-insured stage, or even had another case, they’d ask the insurance company to have us defend them.” This fundamental change in insurance defense led to a windfall of business. At the same time, more multiplaintiff litigation began to emerge. Once again, the firm was way ahead of the curve.

Above: S teve Jones joined Sedgwick in 1968 and tried many high-profile environmental and toxic tort cases for big corporate clients.

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Below: A partner dinner in the 1960s with (left to right) Ed Beggs, Gunther Detert, Scott Conley, Wally Sedgwick, Ed Saunders, Ed Moran, Jack Howell, and Ted Niedermuller.

Defining the Future: The Next Generation

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Above: S teve Jones joined Sedgwick in 1968 and tried many high-profile environmental and toxic tort cases for big corporate clients.

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TRIAL BRIEF

Right: G reg Read tried more than three hundred criminal cases as a JAG officer in the US Navy.

Below: R ead joined Sedgwick in 1971 as its twenty-ninth attorney.

The Seventies Greg Read sat at the end of a large table, facing ten partners at his job interview in 1971. Other firms required that applicants spend days answering the same questions in one-on-one partner interviews. Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold did it differently. Partners gathered together in one room and together lobbed questions at the applicant. It was classic Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold: efficient, fast, and cost-effective. “If you were the kind of person who wanted to be a trial lawyer, the thought was that this won’t be a problem for you,” remembered Read. “If you were shy and introverted, then it was going to be a very nerve-wracking experience.” Luckily, Read was quick on his feet; he’d just moved from Virginia, where he’d served as a US Navy JAG (judge

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Scaffolding Accident

advocate general) officer trying more than three hundred military cases. Read was the twenty-ninth attorney to be hired. That very year, another major milestone arrived: the death of founder Gordon Keith, who died at age seventy-seven while traveling in France with his wife, Alma. He might have had an intuition, maybe he was feeling his mortality, or perhaps he was just a meticulous planner: A week before his vacation, he handed a sealed envelope to fellow partner Andy Collins, saying, “In the event I don’t come back, this envelope contains what I want done, and my wife has also signed it.” About a week later, Collins got a call from Keith’s wife saying that he had died unexpectedly in Paris. Collins never knew why Keith had entrusted that envelope to him. A report from the US Department of State listed his death at American Hospital, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. The document showed that Keith died of natural causes, and that his remains were shipped to America for internment on TWA flight 803 on May 25, 1971. While Keith was missed, the death of the final founding partner made room for an ambitious crop of young new lawyers who had a passion for trial work and seemingly

Once, in a wrongful death case, Kevin Dunne was in trial representing a scaffolding company accused of providing defective scaffolding. On direct examination, the plaintiff’s expert demonstrated certain alleged defects in the scaffolding, which he had just obtained the day before from his client, the scaffolding company. Dunne was floundering on cross-examination and kept the expert on the stand until the end of the day. After court, Dunne received a surprising call from his client saying that the plaintiff’s expert had come in saying he wanted to rent “bent and damaged” scaffolding. Dunne asked Ed Moran for advice on how to handle this potentially game- changing piece of information on continued cross- examination the next morning. Moran replied, “I’ll tell you, but you must do exactly as I say.” Following Moran’s advice to the letter, Dunne set up the expert witness on cross-examination by having him deny that he rented damaged scaffolding. Then, with a dramatic flourish, he threw open the courtroom door where the person who rented the worn scaffolding to the expert was standing, pointed to the expert, and exclaimed, “Is that the guy?!” The expert stammered and stuttered various weak excuses and said, “What do you want?” Dunne said, “I just want the truth,” and sat down. Needless to say, the jury rendered a defense verdict.

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Right: G reg Read tried more than three hundred criminal cases as a JAG officer in the US Navy.

Below: R ead joined Sedgwick in 1971 as its twenty-ninth attorney.

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Scaffolding Accident

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Above and right: F ounding partner Gordon Keith died unexpectedly while traveling in France in 1971 at age seventy-seven.

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endless energy and enthusiasm. This coincided with an explosion of litigation during the 1960s and 1970s, as an increasing number of individuals and companies turned to the courts to solve their disputes. These talented young attorneys had the best of both worlds: a lot of freedom, but also the chance to learn from lawyers like Sedgwick and Arnold. “The partners gave you a lot of control over your cases, but they were there for you, and they reviewed all your pleadings and letters to the clients—and some of them would sign,” remembered Kevin Dunne. He added: “I always wanted to sign my own.” The young attorneys thrived under their mentors’ tutelage. “A number of us hitched our stars to Sedgwick,” said David Bordon, who arrived on the same day as Read in 1971. Bordon ended up with a thriving insurance and fidelity practice and became a managing partner who reshaped the firm by overseeing its national expansion. Bruce Wold, who arrived in 1974, remembered what it was like in those days: “It was a combination of a real treat and a real challenge,” said Wold. “I worked with all of them, which was a great privilege. They were very different in their personalities, very different in their skill sets, but all terrific to work with.” With a practice in products liability and complex litigation, Wold went on to head the Los Angeles office, which opened in 1979, and become dean of the Sedgwick Trial Academy. Many of this group from the seventies spent their entire careers at the firm, such as Warren Krauss, who went on to become an expert in patent, copyright, and trademark law.

Below: David Bordon joined the firm in 1971.

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Above and right: F ounding partner Gordon Keith died unexpectedly while traveling in France in 1971 at age seventy-seven.

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Below: David Bordon joined the firm in 1971.

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Below: B ruce Wold flying his Beech Bonanza in close formation.

Greg Read recalls the thrill of being around so many people like himself, competitive attorneys for whom the courtroom was their office, the place they felt most comfortable and alive, extroverts with a gift of language and a reverence for the law. “You came into this atmosphere where you believe that if you wanted to be a trial lawyer, this was one of the few firms in San Francisco where you were going to get the most trial work and the most experience in the shortest amount of time. In those days, that turned out to be true,” said Read. As a dynamic litigator specializing in aviation, toxic torts, and complex litigation, Read went on to try many high-profile cases in the years to come. It was a supportive place with a personal touch. “The partners had an open-door policy,” remembered Read. “Associates who wanted to go talk to partners were almost always immediately invited in.”

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In those days, the firm made the Homeowner’s Insurance Policy highest-performing associates partDebate ners in five or six years, faster than In Pacific Employers v. Maryland Casualty, a trucker many other firms. This fast track to sent two drivers with a truck and trailer to a plant. partnership made the firm especially Using forklifts, the drivers moved case goods appealing to attorneys just starting stacked on pallets onto the trailer. One of the out. “Not only did you know that if drivers was severely injured and sued the forklift you came here, you could try cases company for personal injuries. Part of the case surif you wanted to, you knew that if rounded the question of whether or not the you developed professionally accordtrucker’s insurance covered automobiles; Jack ing to the experience you could get Howell argued that it did. “We won, and it caused here, you could become a partner in an uproar,” recalled Howell. “Some of our clients five years,” says Nicholas Heldt, who were pretty ticked off. They had written all those started in 1978. “No place else in San homeowner’s policies and then found out that Francisco could you do that.” they also insured their automobiles. That was a By the late seventies, Sedgvery well-known case for years.” wick, Detert, Moran & Arnold had ex panded its reputation as a well-known San Francisco defense trial firm. The name became synonymous with the area’s best trial attorneys—trailblazers who were repeatedly selected as lead counsel to represent high-profile regional and national interests in hundreds of cases focusing on insurance defense, pharmaceutical, aviation, and workers’ comp. Attorneys added in the sixties and seventies were ready to take over Left: O ne reason Nicholas Heldt joined Sedgwick in the reins from the founders as its lead trial attor1978 was the opportunity to neys and firm managers, and the firm was poised try cases. to expand its wings and become a national powerhouse.

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Below: B ruce Wold flying his Beech Bonanza in close formation.

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The First Female Attorney Arrives In 1975, the firm hired its first female attorney, Cynthia Plevin, a former dancer with the Boston Ballet Company who circuitously ended up in law school. Before coming to the firm, she had worked with an appellate judge who encouraged her to take the job offer. She made partner in just five years. “I don’t really think of myself as the first,” she said. “I just thought of myself as someone doing something that hadn’t been done before. The idea of first-ness wasn’t really a focus.” Although Plevin wanted to focus on her job, not her gender, society was still not so open-minded in the 1970s. Once, a judge who presided over a settlement conference invited a group of attendees out to lunch at a club. When they got to the front door, it became clear that it was a male-only club. Plevin left, while the others went in. Her first concern wasn’t her pride but her clients. “It was something that I had to figure out how to negotiate because

Above and below left: C indy Plevin was the firm’s first female attorney.

Below: C indy Plevin during practice with the Boston Ballet Company in 1966.

Defense Bar Leadership Above: W ally Sedgwick

The firm also had unprecedented leadership in the defense bar. In

and Kevin Dunne both served as president of the IADC.

1964, Ed Moran became the first president of the San Francisco chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. The following year, Wally Sedgwick became president of the International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC), one of the largest and most prestigious international associations of defense attorneys. In taking over this post, Sedgwick was recognized by his peers as a nationwide leader of the defense bar. Kevin Dunne followed in Sedgwick’s footsteps to become president of IADC in 1994; Greg Read took the same post in 2000. Scott Conley and later Wayne Mason, who joined Sedgwick in 2001, became presidents of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel (FDCC), an equally prestigious international association of defense counsel. Heading up these respected invitation-only organizations meant recognition, new business, and decades of national and international bar leadership for the firm.

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Above and below left: C indy Plevin was the firm’s first female attorney.

Below: C indy Plevin during practice with the Boston Ballet Company in 1966.

Defense Bar Leadership Above: W ally Sedgwick

The firm also had unprecedented leadership in the defense bar. In

and Kevin Dunne both served as president of the IADC.

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Side Effects of Prescription Drug Liability

my ability to represent my clients was potentially affected.” Plevin wasn’t afraid of a good challenge. In fact she thrived on it. And it helped that, within the firm, she was always treated with respect and admiration. “I think any young lawyer entering an environment where people are very successful, highly competitive, and very observant of one another’s skills is challenged. And if a young lawyer wants to succeed, you have to work very, very hard and be very, very focused. And that’s what I did.”

In Christofferson v. Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, a woman was blinded after taking a prescription drug. She sought damages, and Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold represented one of the defendants, Winthrop Laboratories, a division of Sterling Drug Inc. Scott Conley successfully tried the case in 1976, convincing the jury that the drug company was not responsible based on its knowledge of the drug’s side effects and its warnings. In the subsequent appeal, the appellate court agreed the case was inappropriate for the application of strict liability.

Running on Ambition James Gault remembers the wave of energy and talent that came during this period. “They were so outstanding that after a couple of years we as a partnership started to give them full rein, so to speak.” He continued, “They were real leaders and real dynamos and very capable attorneys. It was pretty clear they did not want to be constrained, and they wanted to run with the ball. And we let them run with the ball, thank goodness.” In the past, attorneys did it all. “The firm had a policy, unspoken or not, that everybody here was a generalist and able to theoretically pick up any kind of case and handle it,” said Gault. “That was the way I was trained, and I handled everything from airplane accidents to trains to autos to title insurance.” With these new attorneys came another new change: the start of specialization. This trend was happening at law firms nationally, driven by the increasing complexity of the law and a surge in litigation. Plus, clients were seeking attorneys with narrow specialties.

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“Our clients were expecting expertise that was broader and deeper. And I thought that specialization, at least to a certain extent, was critical for the future of the firm,” said Plevin, who later became the head of the Employment Practice Group. “I think that became an important part of the way the firm developed. Once I was able to focus more on employment, I was able to deliver a better service to the clients,” she said. The idea worked. Instead of coming on as generalists, new partners focused their attention on specialized areas such as insurance or employment. The big cases just kept on coming. In these decades, the firm became known for its impressive victories and top-notch attorneys. Some set legal precedent; others made the local and national news. Some cases were filled with high-stakes drama, as good as any television program on the air. During these years, the firm also started working with Lloyd’s of London on cases like the Roseville, California, explosion, in which twenty-three carloads of bombs in a Southern Pacific freight train exploded, triggering extensive litigation. This relationship would prove very valuable in the years to come, as the firm opened its first international office in London, with Lloyd’s as the major client. The clients kept getting bigger and bigger: The firm began representing major chemical companies, drug companies, automobile makers, airline carriers, aviation manufacturers, major equipment manufacturers, and other Fortune 100 companies.

Above: M ike McGeehon joined the firm in 1977 and, after a long career specializing in insurance and fidelity work, became the firm’s first general counsel.

Below: A n April 30, 1973, Lodi News-Sentinel headline.

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Side Effects of Prescription Drug Liability

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Above: M ike McGeehon joined the firm in 1977 and, after a long career specializing in insurance and fidelity work, became the firm’s first general counsel.

Below: A n April 30, 1973, Lodi News-Sentinel headline.

Danger remains in Roseville area

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Defining the Future: The Next Generation

The Culture

Ed Moran Dies “It is with deep regret we announce the untimely death of our partner Mr. Moran,” read a memo that went out to the firm on June 7, 1975. Ed Moran had died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of sixty. He left behind his wife, son, and two grand daughters. Since Moran was an avid outdoorsman, instead of flowers his family requested donations to Ducks Unlimited, an organization dedicated to wetlands and waterfowl conservation.

Above: E d Moran with his wife, attending a firm party at Detert Family Vineyards.

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Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold was never a fancy, white-shoe law firm. When hiring, the partners looked for common sense and enthusiasm, for street fighters who weren’t mesmerized by money or prestige but by the thrill of the game. It paid a bit less than other firms; a young attorney might be able to eke out another $2,000 a year somewhere else. But for litigators passionate about trial work, the opportunity to get in front of a jury meant way more than a few thousand dollars. If the case was small, a new associate would try it. “Before you even knew which side of the courtroom to sit on. Before you knew what an oral argument really was,” recalled Michael McGeehon, who started at the firm in 1977 at a salary of $15,000. “This was a trial firm, and you could not hold your head up until such time as you had tried a case to jury verdict,” McGeehon said. This competitive spirit hummed throughout the firm, which had a reputation for attracting people who thrived on competition. Outside the courtroom, the firm put this passion and energy to good use with its competitive softball and basketball teams, playing in attorney leagues at venues all over the city. The firm was known as a down-to-earth place with conservative views about business. “The partners hated debt. They hated ostentation. They hated seeing their names in the paper,” said McGeehon. By 1977, the firm had forty-five attorneys. Among these attorneys, a strong feeling of community endured, a feeling from the hard-working staff who felt they were in this thing together. Certain rituals arose. On Friday afternoons, work shut down around five. The bar opened. Attorneys and staff could be found in the conference room, downing beer and highballs, peanuts and crackers. It was a time when people came together, talked about their losses, struggles, and triumphs. “It was a healthy thing,” recalled Nicholas Heldt. “I think you learn what it is to be professional and maintain enough investment in your client’s causes but enough distance from them. You learn a lot by sharing those stories. I found those Friday soirees valuable professionally.”

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The Culture

Above: E d Moran with his wife, attending a firm party at Detert Family Vineyards.

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Below: S teve Jones hogging the mound, as usual.

Defining the Future: The Next Generation

Victories were acknowledged and lauded. “If someone won a big case, everyone knew about it and we’d have a big celebration,” said Paul Lahaderne, who arrived in 1978. “Everyone knew everyone.” Lahaderne came to the firm after a few years working at the Department of Transportation, leaving because he wanted the opportunity to work with legal powerhouses like Conley, Kuhl, Moore, Jones, Dunne, and Read. Lahaderne recalled the overriding sense of loyalty that prevailed at the firm. One time, he was handling a bodily injury case with Bud Arnold, and they took a particularly strong position. The attorney on the other side wrote Arnold a letter complaining about Lahaderne. Arnold called Lahaderne into his office, and Lahaderne watched as Arnold called the opposing counsel, telling him that he was a coward for going behind Lahaderne’s back to complain about him. “I would’ve walked through a wall for Bud Arnold,” said Lahaderne. He ended up staying at the firm for the rest of his career, specializing in construction litigation. In the 1970s, Gunther Detert often hosted summer parties for the associates at his Napa Valley property. Later on, his three great-grandsons would create Detert Family Vineyards, labeling wine under this name. But before it was officially a winery, Detert’s Napa home was the site of wonderful celebrations. Sometimes people would pile into Detert’s jeep and go visit the vintner Robert Mondavi. Other times they would entertain clients from England for several days. There were other benefits of having a vintner as a partner. “I remember that he would get the grower’s price for Mondavi wine, and they

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would deliver it to the firm, and the halls would just be lined with cases and cases of wine when the delivery came in,” recalled Kuhl. When Saturdays came, attorneys sometimes brought their kids to work. Ted Niedermuller never had children of his own, yet he adored them. He became the de facto babysitter as the younger attorneys toiled away. In the era of the five-and-half-day workweek, Niedermuller held his younger cohorts to this standard. Every Friday afternoon, he’d travel from office to office to see who wanted donuts on Saturday morning—a not-so-subtle indication that working on Saturday might be a good idea for an associate. Just because the new guys took up a lot of figurative space didn’t mean that the founders were nowhere to be seen. Detert and Arnold came to the office every day. Wally Sedgwick was still trying cases and was the firm’s standard-bearer, standing in the receiving lines at Christmas parties, greeting people with his wife as the firm’s ambassador of goodwill. Before his death in 1975, Moran served as a mentor to many of the younger lawyers, providing advice about

Below: S edgwick softball team from the 1970s.

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Below: S teve Jones hogging the mound, as usual.

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Below: S edgwick softball team from the 1970s.

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cross-examination, closing argument, and getting important documents into evidence even without the proper foundation. The firm was tight-knit. Colleagues often stopped by one another’s office for a smoke. People still knew about one another’s cases and sometimes exchanged them. “If somebody had two trials on a Monday, we took one of his files, talked over things, went to lunch together, and generally related to one another,” said Conley. Attorneys like James Gault and his wife invited new hires to their home for dinner. “My wife and I felt those dinners were very important in establishing morale,” he said. Then again, by 1979, the times they were a changin’, and not just because Bob Dylan said so and Jimmy Carter became president. Ed Moran and Ed Saunders had died, the firm had surpassed forty-five attorneys, and it started its expansion to Los Angeles— one of a dozen new offices to come in the years ahead.

From 1965 to 1977 the firm more than doubled in size, as demonstrated by the letterhead from those years.

The Changing of the Guard

Above: A ndrew Collins

A law firm’s transition to the next generation can be fatal. “Either they can’t get the old folks to leave on acceptable terms or they pick the wrong people as the next group of leaders,” said David Bordon. That wasn’t the case at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. The mix of talent, luck, and leadership made the transition happen relatively smoothly. Bordon credits managing partner Andrew Collins for this turn of events: If it hadn’t been for Collins, I think the firm would have disappeared after the first generation. Somehow, Collins knew how to gracefully transition out, and he got the others to do the same. But it wasn’t like he wanted to push out the founders and become the Supreme Leader. He was very happy to be a transitional figure. He created an exit strategy for the older attorneys and an entry strategy for the new generation. He understood the business of law firms, and he put some things into play, creating a partnership agreement that has served us well.

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From 1965 to 1977 the firm more than doubled in size, as demonstrated by the letterhead from those years.

The Changing of the Guard

Above: A ndrew Collins

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Chapter 5

Sedgwick Becomes a National Law Firm (the Eighties)

y 1979, momentum was building for change. Those with foresight saw the need to expand the practice beyond its sole San Francisco office. With its attorneys trying cases all over California, the firm was beginning to develop a national reputation and needed a broader base. A few clients in London, and a handful based in Los Angeles, were hinting that expansion would result in more business for the firm. The years of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold’s national growth coincided with the Reagan Era, the end of the Cold War, and perestroika in the Soviet Union. The shooting of John Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment in 1980 and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 shocked millions of people, who mourned these losses. Americans played cassette tapes in their Sony Walkmans and booted up their first personal home computers. Between 1979 and 1985, the firm expanded into three important new markets: Los Angeles, London, and New York. By the end Opposite: A lthough its attorneys tried cases throughout California, until 1979 Sedgwick had only one office, in San Francisco.

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Sedgwick Becomes a National Law Firm (the Eighties)

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Sedgwick Becomes a National Law Firm

of the decade, two more offices—Orange County and Chicago— would open. As the firm extended its reach, it also made the amicable decision to split from its workers’ compensation practice. Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold’s expansion was needbased, driven by important clients, and carefully managed by the partners. It was a thoughtful and even a bit conservative approach that, in classic Sedgwick style, put people first.

The Sleight Era

Above: R oger Sleight, who joined Sedgwick in 1964, tried numerous bad faith cases and went on to become managing partner.

Following Scott Conley and Andy Collins, Roger Sleight served as managing partner from 1980 to 1990, during the early years of the firm’s expansion. “I thought that we had reached the point where we needed to make a decision for the future of the firm,” Sleight recalled. “I decided that there was a challenge to expansion, and the chance to take a different road down the path the way the legal community was going anyway.” He added: “Bigger is not necessarily a good thing. But it turned out to be the right thing for the firm.” Roger Sleight was known as a sharp legal mind with a gentle soul. “Roger was one of the smartest lawyers I’d ever seen,” said Bruce Wold. “He was absolutely adored by every partner in the firm. Never played favorites. Never got angry.” His modesty was legendary; Sleight would come back to the office after a huge victory without saying a word, until someone pressed him for details. Even then, his response was brief. During his ten years as managing partner, Sleight was known for resolving issues with fairness and compassion. “There’s no magic to it,” he said. “I got along with everybody, and usually things straighten themselves out if there’s a problem.”

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Of course, there were partners who simply didn’t want the expansion that took place in the eighties, nor the departure of the workers’ compensation group. “There was the challenge to explain, or for people to understand, that this was in the longterm best interest of the firm and in their financial best interest,” said Sleight. “Not that finance was necessarily the driving force, but it is a major factor in these decisions.”

Los Angeles: 1979 The Los Angeles office started as a mail drop. By the late seventies, the firm’s client base had grown, including many companies based in Southern California. And the underwriters at Lloyd’s of London were eager for a Los Angeles office; word spread that if Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold wanted that business, they had better get a Los Angeles presence, and fast. Not everyone was on board; in the early days of technology, some thought the money for a Los Angeles office would be better spent on a brand-new computer system. The firm rented space for two young associates in the Travelers Building, a tall glass rectangular structure at 3600 Wilshire Boulevard. They kept busy doing immigration and insurance work. After a while, management realized they couldn’t get by on this shoestring and needed a full-fledged office. With the help of George Sayre, who had arrived in 1961, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold opened shop at the very same address on Wilshire. Sayre had been helping the insurance group Cravens Dargan, which had a major office in Los Angeles, with some of their cases after an attorney they were working with died in a car accident. “They had a bunch of cases they didn’t know what to do with.” They started sending him more business. “After wrestling with these cases for several years, and I suppose doing a pretty good job, they came to the conclusion

Below: T he firm’s Los Angeles office opened in the Traveler’s Building on Wilshire Boulevard.

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The Sleight Era

Above: R oger Sleight, who joined Sedgwick in 1964, tried numerous bad faith cases and went on to become managing partner.

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Below: T he firm’s Los Angeles office opened in the Traveler’s Building on Wilshire Boulevard.

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Right: B ruce Wold joined the firm in 1974 and headed the new Los Angeles office in 1979, sometimes flying between San Francisco and Los Angeles in his Beech Bonanza. Below: S edgwick opened a Los Angeles office with two associates working out of subleased space in 1977. However, it was really two years later, in 1979, when the firm signed its own lease in the same building that the Los Angeles office was fully established.

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that we were doing a better job than their LA counsel, so they approached me about starting an LA office for their benefit.” Sayre commuted to Los Angeles three times a week from San Francisco, splitting his days between the two offices. Once half a dozen attorneys found a home there, the partners decided that they needed someone to go there permanently to run it. Enter Bruce Wold, a dynamic attorney who had served at the firm for about three and a half years. The partners offered him a three-year assignment in Los Angeles, plus partnership. He agreed, becoming the first resident partner in Los Angeles. His responsibilities? Managing partner and lead trial lawyer. “I was very flattered that they would offer me that position,” said Wold. “I thought it was consistent with the description I’d gotten when I first arrived, that if you do a good job and show that you can handle responsibility, they’ll give you responsibility.” The idea to grow internally was typical of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. The drawback is that this takes a little more

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time. The benefit? It produces loyalty. “That type of organic growth was a trademark of Sedgwick and really produced the stability that a lot of firms that grew and fell apart didn’t have,” said Wold. The office soon grew busy doing product liability and complex litigation, as well as insurance coverage. They eventually outgrew their space, moving across the street when a good client “encouraged them” to stick close by. Six months after Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold signed the lease, that client moved. So much for good intentions. Today, the office is in downtown Los Angeles, where the partners wanted to settle in the first place. Beach Kuhl and Roger Sleight, among others, often flew to Los Angeles to oversee how things were progressing and maybe play

Below: I n 1983, the firm celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.

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Below: I n 1983, the firm celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.

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National Litigation Over IUDs

some tennis. “I’d go down there and go through files and make sure they were in good shape and that they were being handled right, and make suggestions,” said Kuhl. “I talked to the younger lawyers if something needed to be done or they were off on a wrong track.” At the end of the three-year term, the partners asked Wold to stay another four years. He agreed. When he finally came back to the Bay Area after a total of seven years, the LA office had grown from two to eighteen lawyers. Wold had changed, too: “When I went down I was single. I had an airplane. I was having a good time. And I came back seven years later with a wife and two kids—and no airplane,” remembered Wold. Lane Ashley took over management of the office, followed by Elliott Olson. Today, the LA office is an integral part of Sedgwick LLP, with fifty attorneys representing clients in a wide range of practice areas, including insurance coverage, product liability, professional liability, commercial litigation, employment law, and general liability.

In the Dalkon Shield cases, which took place in the eighties, the pharmaceutical company A. H. Robins was sued around the country due to injuries allegedly caused to young women who used the Dalkon Shield intrauterine device (IUD). Kevin Dunne represented the inventor and got a defense verdict in each of about ten cases, which went to trial against the inventor. Soon after, the company went into bankruptcy. Two billion dollars was put in trust by a subsequent purchaser to pay for the Dalkon Shield claims, and Dunne was selected as one of five lawyers around the country to represent the trust in cases brought against it. Dunne tried the first one in the country and went on to try about twenty more. They received a great deal of publicity because the trust decreed that it would make one offer, and if it wasn’t accepted within twenty days, the case would be tried. Melvin B elli’s office, which represented the claimant, did not accept the trust’s offer within twenty days but tried to accept the offer shortly before trial. The trust denied the request, and Dunne tried the case in Santa Cruz County. The court allowed cameras in the courtroom, and the local press, which reported on the trial daily, predicted that Dunne would “get his hat handed to him.” The jury returned a defense verdict. As a result, the acceptance rate of future trust offers went from 70 to 99 percent, and the case was listed as one of the outstanding trials of the last fifty years by the International Academy

London: 1985 Wally Sedgwick greeted the doorman at the original Lloyd’s of London building at 12 Leadenhall Street. As a frequent visitor, he knew—and had charmed—many doormen past and present who stood sentinel outside this venerable place. Depending on the day, the doorman chatted about the weather, offered him an umbrella, took his jacket. Whatever Sedgwick needed, the doorman provided. Sedgwick had his sights set on this market ever since he met another attorney in the sixties who did work for London. And he was not one to give up. Along with Andy Collins, he began his forward march to conquer the market. Some say their success was the result of sheer persistence. “They penetrated the London market just by showing up and knocking on doors,” recalled Michael McGeehon, who began making trips to London with Sedgwick. Whether it’s fact or legend, one story has Wally Sedgwick and Andy Collins showing up unannounced and demanding an appointment at a firm called Sedgwick Collins, imploring the receptionist to give them an appointment on account of their names. Sedgwick and Collins began cultivating relationships, representing Lloyd’s underwriters and clients. Soon, David Bordon

Below: A n IUD litigation headline from The Recorder.

of Trial Lawyers.

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National Litigation Over IUDs

Below: A n IUD litigation headline from The Recorder.

of Trial Lawyers.

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Below: S edgwick partnership group picture taken around 1985.

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joined them. “Bordon really deserves the credit for building on what Wally Sedgwick and Andy Collins started. He was a real force in developing the London practice,” recalled Michael McGeehon, who devoted his career to representing Lloyd’s underwriters until he stopped actively practicing law in 2007 and became the firm’s first general counsel. Sedgwick loved to live high on his London trips, taking a flat in the charming city of Bath. The joke around the office was that Wally was giving the firm another “bath” because of the lavish expense of his trips. But he was Wally. He thrived on entertaining clients lavishly, hosting big dinners with lots of wine. He wasn’t without calculation. His dinner party trick, according to people who were there, involved giving the impression that he was drinking, while in reality he wasn’t. The consummate manager, he left nothing to chance.

Left: W ally Sedgwick with Marion Collins (left) and Georgina Jones (right) at a 1980 party at the St. Francis Yacht Club.

Wally Sedgwick Dies In 1982, another landmark for the firm: the loss of Wally Sedgwick. The papers announced his death at Mt. Diablo Medical Center on January 16 at the age of seventy-three. It was a sad day at the offices of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. While new partners and associates never knew Wally, many others had come up the ranks with him as their leader, champion, and friend. Friends and clients as far as London came to a reception in Berkeley to share their stories and remember this pioneering attorney’s legacy.

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Below: S edgwick partnership group picture taken around 1985.

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Left: W ally Sedgwick with Marion Collins (left) and Georgina Jones (right) at a 1980 party at the St. Francis Yacht Club.

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Lloyd’s of London Built in 1928, the Lloyd’s building housed the world’s most renowned insurance institution. Later, contractors would tear it down and build a new one across the street on the site of the old Roman Forum. Completed in 1986, that new building was designed by architect Richard Rogers, who famously installed staircases, elevators, and pipes on the building’s exterior. Today, the building is an architectural wonder, a destination for travelers from around the world to admire.

The story of the London office has everything to do with Lloyd’s of London. Known worldwide simply as Lloyd’s, this British insurance and reinsurance market works differently than the American market. Instead of one insurance company writing a risk, multiple financial backers known as underwriters—whether individuals or companies—come together, essentially spreading the risk. There are two classes of people and firms active at Lloyd’s: “Members,” who provide capital, and “professionals,” who support the Members, underwrite the risks, and represent companies seeking insurance or reinsurance. Lloyd’s began in a coffeehouse in 1688, on London’s Tower Street, where sailors, merchants, and ship owners came together to discuss insurance deals and shipping news.

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Above: L loyd’s of London headquarters.

Even as the trips to London increased in frequency, the American attorneys still were nomads in search of a home base. “We had no place to go between appointments, other than bars and coffee shops where we would shelter from the rain in between knocking on doors, calling on people,” remembered McGeehon. “It was the most primitive, elemental marketing.” From an attorney’s point of view, the London market means that you have twenty clients instead of just one. The key to those twenty clients is having the confidence of the lead insurer who put the whole insurance program together. That same person would also decide who would represent them, if there was a problem. That person was Stephen Burnhope. David Bordon had met Burnhope after the biggest safe-deposit-box robbery in the world, which took place at the West End branch of London’s Bank of America in 1975. The bank had two insurers: One was Lloyd’s of London, represented by an attorney named Robert Budelman, who worked in London for a New York –based firm. The other was the US insurer, which had a fidelity policy on Bank of America, which Bordon represented. Through this case, Bordon met two key players in London who wrote worldwide bank insurance, John Twitchett and Burnhope. Burnhope had a voracious appetite to insure every bank in the world for huge sums of insurance, according to Bordon, which caused Burnhope trouble down the road. The collaboration had all the ingredients for success: Burnhope, who led most of the risks they were interested in, had confidence and a close relationship with Bordon.

Below: D avid Bordon (left) joined the firm in 1971 and became a managing partner during the 1990s. Bob Budelman (right) opened the firm’s New York office in 1985.

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Above: L loyd’s of London headquarters.

Below: D avid Bordon (left) joined the firm in 1971 and became a managing partner during the 1990s. Bob Budelman (right) opened the firm’s New York office in 1985.

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Blue Cross v. Tobacco Industry

When Burnhope later needed a lawyer, he chose Bordon. Kevin Dunne was national counsel for one of the When the London office finally defendant companies in the tobacco litigation. opened in 1985, it focused on crimBlue Cross, which insured many hospitals and docinal fraud investigations, and it was tors, brought a series of actions against the tobacco run by former members of Scotland industry in each state seeking reimbursement for Yard. Once the office was up and all the expenses it had paid for medical treatment running, the attorneys stateside relof patients with tobacco-related illnesses. The first ished the opportunity to go visit case was tried in Brooklyn federal court before the beer-soaked mecca of business a well-known judge, Jack Weinstein. Blue Cross and commerce, where deals were was seeking $2.7 billion. Dunne and Jim Conlon often done in the pub. Roger Sleight tried the case for two of the tobacco companies. remembers traveling to London with During the trial, which lasted about three months, Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick. “The eating an entire floor of a downtown New York office building was rented for the more than a hundred and drinking was so severe that I defense lawyers involved in various aspects of the couldn’t do it,” he recalled. McGeetrial. The jury returned a verdict of only $2.7 milhon remembered: “Just surviving two lion against one of Sedgwick’s clients and the court weeks was a punishing experience. then awarded a staggering $37 million in attorIt was called the London flu because ney’s fees. However, the appellate court reversed it was a constant hangover from the and entered judgment for the defense, no attorday or night before. That was part of neys fees were allowed, and the rest of the Blue the London experience. It was LonCross cases went away for nothing. don. It was wonderful. If you have to go somewhere, it’s better than Waterloo, Iowa.” After a few years up and running, the firm acquired many other clients besides Lloyd’s of London. But Bordon and Budelman, who eventually left his firm to start Sedgwick’s New York office, didn’t limit themselves to just solving individual problems. As their business grew, they became more deeply involved in the London market. When the savings and loan crisis hit in the eighties, and again when high tech melted down starting in 2000, they served as consultants to help the London market with risk management and to understand how to dig themselves out.

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New York: 1985 London and New York are thousands of miles apart but inextricably connected in the history of the firm. That’s because David Bordon’s London contact, Stephen Burnhope, encouraged him to open a New York office. “He told me that if I opened a New York and London office, I could have all his business,” recalled Bordon. Never one to shy from a challenge, Bordon went into a full-court press, convincing the firm to open the

Left: B ob Budelman (left), who opened the firm’s New York office in 1985, is pictured with partners David Covey (center) and Jim Conlon (right), who joined the office that same year.

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Blue Cross v. Tobacco Industry

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Left: B ob Budelman (left), who opened the firm’s New York office in 1985, is pictured with partners David Covey (center) and Jim Conlon (right), who joined the office that same year.

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Above Right: J oe Powers joined the firm in 1985 and later became the New York office managing partner.

Below: ( left to right) David Covey, Steve Jones, and Scott Mroz in New York.

New York office and hire Robert Budelman as part of the package. Bordon and Budelman had met throughout several years for the safe-deposit-box case, and they had developed a mutual respect. Budelman flew from New York to San Francisco to meet with Kevin Dunne and other senior partners, and he decided to leave his firm to help Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold open their New York office. “We saw that we had similar clients doing a similar type of business, and therefore we saw there was an opportunity here that we could work together,” said Budelman. In February 1985, Bob Budelman opened the New York office at 20 Exchange Place. Joe Powers, Jim McCullough, and others joined shortly thereafter, working on international fidelity matters, including business in London. “When I left the firm that I was with, the London underwriters sent me a lot of cases, and immediately I had to go out and hire five full-time attorneys and five summer associates,” Budelman said. Compared to his old firm, Budelman immediately felt a difference in the amount of trust and responsibility he was given. “The firm pretty much gave me the opportunity to do what I wanted to do, to hire whom I wanted to hire, and to run the office the way I wanted to run the office,” he recalled. He also appreciated the friendlier approach than the somewhat colder New York firms of that era. “It was very open, the communication between New York and San Francisco was easy, and the people in the San Francisco office were very accommodating.” In December 1985, after several months of discussions, litigators David Covey and Jim Conlon joined.

Arriving from another firm, these two attorneys had come to know Sedgwick attorneys Kevin Dunne and Mike Healy as national counsel in the birth defect litigation. Covey and Conlon also immediately felt the difference in cultures. In their old firm, all the power resided with the top named partners. They were relieved to find more transparency, collegiality, and a whole new way of being at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. They found an environment where people were actually happy to work and a firm that entrusted them with making big decisions. “What was nice about Sedgwick was that we were able to hire who we wanted and bring in and create an atmosphere in New York that we thought was appropriate,” said Covey. “We were pleased with the firm’s culture, but also pleased with the autonomy we had in running the New York office.” The lawyers also found that although they lived in different places, they felt a great friendship among partners in other locations. This helped when they were required to work together. “There was a lot of all-for-one, one-for-all,” said Covey. “There were no jealousies, and partners weren’t trying to build their own little empires.”

TRIAL BRIEF

Elizabeth Taylor’s Passion Perfume In between her two marriages to Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor dated a man named Henry Weinberg. It didn’t last. When Taylor decided to reunite with Burton, she signed a one-page document, witnessed by Burton, giving Weinberg the “right, title, and interest” to any cosmetic product bearing her name or likeness. Taylor and Burton got married for a second time in Botswana, and Weinberg did virtually nothing to develop such a cosmetics product. Fast-forward ten years, when Taylor entered into a contract with a large cosmetics company to develop fragrances and other products. This led to the creation of Passion, then the largest-selling celebrity perfume in the world. Reenter Weinberg, seeking his piece of the action, who filed suit against Taylor and the cosmetics company. Greg Read was retained to represent the cosmetics company. Taylor was deposed in Century City and starstruck Read had lunch and dinner with Taylor and her celebrity attorney, doing his best (unsuccessfully) to act suave and sophisticated. Ultimately, Read was successful in getting a summary judgment in favor of the client, and the case ended without a trial.

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Above Right: J oe Powers joined the firm in 1985 and later became the New York office managing partner.

Below: ( left to right) David Covey, Steve Jones, and Scott Mroz in New York.

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Above Right: M ichael Healy, who joined the firm in 1980, became the San Francisco office managing partner and an Executive Committee member.

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From the start, Robert Budelman, Joe P owers, David Covey, and Jim Conlon were instrumental in building the New York office, growing the firm nationally, and paving the way for more expansion. It became known for its great assortment of legal talent and high-profile cases. Along with rapid growth came new practice areas in product liability, toxic tort, medical device litigation, environment, employment, entertainment, health care, and reinsurance. The eighties had their own brand of scandal and intrigue. During this time, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold was lead defense counsel in a suit brought by the Drexel Burnham Lambert Group arising out of the infamous late-eighties Wall Street insider trading scandal. Drexel sought to recover $450 million from its insurers for the alleged dishonesty of employee Michael Milken and others. Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold’s defense team proved to the court that Drexel Burnham was aware of Mr. Milken’s dishonest

Right: A January 26, 1993, New York Law Journal headline.

Judge Dismisses Drexel’s Claims Against Insurer State Court Ruling Could Jeopardize Portion of Federal Settlement Act

Above: B y 1987, the firm had stopped using attorney names on the letterhead.

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Above Right: M ichael Healy, who joined the firm in 1980, became the San Francisco office managing partner and an Executive Committee member.

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Right: A January 26, 1993, New York Law Journal headline.

Judge Dismisses Drexel’s Claims Against Insurer State Court Ruling Could Jeopardize Portion of Federal Settlement Act

Above: B y 1987, the firm had stopped using attorney names on the letterhead.

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TRIAL BRIEF Right: S teve Roland joined the firm in the 1980s and served as the Commercial Division chair. Below: M ichael Davisson joined in the 1980s and became the Los Angeles office managing partner and an Executive Committee member.

acts, had participated in some of the alleged dishonest transactions, and had failed to do anything about Mr. Milken, thus disqualifying them from collecting from the insurers. Many partners who joined during the e ighties went on to stay with Sedgwick for their legal career, including Mike Healy and Scott Mroz, who each served as managing partners of the San Francisco office at different times. Steve Roland went on to become the Commercial Division chair. Fred Baker headed up the Appellate Practice Group. Mike Davisson and Craig Barnes went on to become managing partners of the Los Angeles office, and Paul Riehle ascended the ranks after starting as a summer clerk. Others who started during this time included David Humiston, Marilyn Klinger, Gene Elsbree, Martin O’Leary, and Rebecca Hull.

Workers’ Compensation Group Spins Off In the early years, workers’ comp was the beating heart of the firm. By the mideighties, however, that time had passed. By 1985, the workers’ compensation group had grown to thirteen attorneys. But as a small division in a defense firm known

Right: A ttorneys specializing in workers’ compensation defense left Sedgwick in 1985 to form the firm of Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP.

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747 Airline Accident in Hawaii

for its liability work, the comp group had its challenges. The liability partners wanted the firm to grow nationally, while the comp partners wanted to have visibility in places around the state, like Walnut Creek, Santa Rosa, and Eureka. Also, conflicts often resulted from the two types of legal business and the insurance companies involved. The comp department couldn’t bill as high an hourly rate as liability defense. That was just a fact. “We were very dependent on volume to make a decent living, and so our hourly rate differential became significant. It never led to any jealousies or animosities, but it was just kind of an undercurrent that I felt,” said Michael Laughlin. He added: “We were treated pretty much the same as the partners our age and same years of service, but I could almost foresee that was not going to be the course of the future.” But the “people first” approach that had endured for decades kept the comp group close by. Laughlin was a widower with four children to raise. “Sedgwick was very cooperative and wonderful about letting me go coach the Little League and do those types of things. For some firms of that size, the billable hours are the most important thing, and if you don’t get them in, they don’t care about the

In 1989, shortly after takeoff from Honolulu, a 747 aircraft fully loaded with fuel suffered an explosive decompression when the cargo door and a large section of the fuselage separated from the aircraft, along with ten seats containing nine passengers who were instantly killed. The pilot managed, against all odds, to safely return the aircraft to Honolulu airport (even though later flight simulations showed this was impossible). Greg Read represented the airline in multidistrict litigation, ultimately venued in Northern California District Court, involving nine wrongful death actions and some two hundred actions for emotional distress. The aircraft manufacturer and airline tried a series of damages-only trials and then settled the remainder of cases. Years after these cases were tried, the airline recovered the cargo door from two miles down on the ocean floor and proved that the maintenance was not the cause of this failure.

Above: T he 747 aircraft being evacuated after successfully landing.

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Right: A ttorneys specializing in workers’ compensation defense left Sedgwick in 1985 to form the firm of Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP.

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747 Airline Accident in Hawaii

Above: T he 747 aircraft being evacuated after successfully landing.

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Landmark Toxic Tort

circumstances. I’m sure they met and talked about it, but we never really did have a lot of emphasis on billable hours.” Suddenly, the firm reached a fork in the road, in the form of an office move from 111 Pine Street to the Embarcadero Center. The question arose: Should the workers’ comp group come? After vigorous discussions, both sides agreed that a split was in the best interests of all concerned. Thirteen of the firm’s workers’ comp attorneys left with their existing client files in tow to form the San Francisco firm of Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP, with Sedgwick providing their back office support

In one of the first landmark toxic tort cases in the country, Steve Jones defended the manufacturer of an agricultural chemical against a series of cases by workers in a chemical fabricator plant, claiming sterility, cancer, fear of cancer, and increased risk of cancer. Through pretrial motions, Jones convinced the trial court to exclude certain evidence of increased cancer risk and fear, and won rulings dealing with the admissibility of expert opinions on those issues, along with medical causation. The trial court’s unpublished opinion served as the model for dealing with those issues for many years in California and in other states. After five months of trial, the jury returned a defense verdict for the firm’s client.

for a year or two. By all accounts, the move was amicable, based on each group’s different vision for their future. At its height, the Laughlin, Falbo firm had 160 attorneys and eleven offices around the state, the biggest workers’ comp firm in California. “To this day I still have close relationships with the guys at Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi,” said Paul Lahaderne.

The Firm Continues to Grow By the mideighties, the San Francisco office had moved to One Embarcadero Center, while the New York office moved to 120 Maiden Lane. In addition to Los Angeles, London, and New York, the firm opened shop in Orange County and Chicago by the end of the decade.

Below: G reg Halliday, who joined the firm in 1978, opened Sedgwick’s Orange County office in 1988.

Orange County: 1988 In 1988, the firm decided to expand to Orange County, in part to better serve two insurance clients who were located there. Curtis Parvin, who later would become the managing partner, recalls the move vividly: “A couple of us from Los Angeles opened a very small office with the idea that we would work part-time, a couple days a week, and spend the rest of the time in LA. But almost immediately we were inundated with work and never looked back. Once we stuck our toe in the water, we were suddenly in the deep end.” Within a couple of weeks, Greg Halliday came down from the San Francisco office to manage the office and quickly began expanding its client base. At its peak, the Orange County office had twenty-nine lawyers.

Right: T he firm moved its San Francisco office to the Embarcadero Center in 1985.

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Landmark Toxic Tort

Below: G reg Halliday, who joined the firm in 1978, opened Sedgwick’s Orange County office in 1988.

Right: T he firm moved its San Francisco office to the Embarcadero Center in 1985.

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Chicago: 1989 In 1989, Christopher Kerns, with four associates, opened the firm’s Chicago office. By 2012, it had twenty-six attorneys and was still growing. Cathy Sugayan, who joined the firm in 2008 and took over as managing partner in 2011, described the office as “a hidden gem, with the benefits of a national firm and the feel of a family.” She said: “The partners in the Chicago office when I joined— Anthony Anscombe, Dick Geddes, Kirk Jenkins, Eric Scheiner, Fred Smith, and Jim Wangelin—are excellent attorneys with diverse practices.” The office added two lateral partners in 2011 and four associates in 2012, which expanded its insurance expertise and diversified its commercial practice. “The entire office is client and business development oriented,” she said. “And yet we find time to celebrate the birthdays and anniversaries of attorneys and staff by ordering cakes from Dinkel’s every month.” By the end of the decade, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold was no longer a San Francisco law firm. It was becoming an international presence. Opposite: T he firm’s Chicago office was at one time located in the historic Rookery Building.

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Chapter 6

Expanding the Global Footprint (the Nineties)

s the 1980s gave way to 1990, George H. W. Bush was president, David Souter was nominated to the Supreme Court, and Iraq invaded Kuwait, igniting the Persian Gulf War. Behind the scenes of the Los Angeles, London, and New York offices was a dynamic management team dedicated to the firm’s long-term sustainability. The push to go national would set the firm on a whole new trajectory. “It was an important era that directed the future of the firm,” said Michael Healy, who arrived in 1980. During this decade of hope and devastation, invention and destruction, the firm contended with its own transitions. It was the very beginning of wholesale changes in the industry, a quiet drumbeat that would start to play louder and louder with the passage of time. But the “business model” approach to law firms had only begun, and Sedgwick faced the changing industry with a strong identity and deeply rooted culture. This made it easier to weather the storms that lay ahead.

Opposite: N elson Mandela is greeted by US senators and representatives in 1993.

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Expanding the Global Footprint (the Nineties)

Opposite: N elson Mandela is greeted by US senators and representatives in 1993.

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The Professional Model Endures

Below: B ruce Celebrezze came to Sedgwick in 1984 and went on to lead the firm’s Insurance Division.

Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold had long operated under a formula that had served them exceeding well since 1933: The firm stayed loyal to clients. Clients stayed loyal to the firm. The firm stayed loyal to partners. Partners stayed loyal to the firm. This simple model had been slowly eroding throughout the industry. But while other firms began changing, Sedgwick remained steady. “It was still the old professional model that prevailed in this firm,” remembered Nicholas Heldt. People stayed, simply put, because they liked working at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. They felt fairly compensated, enjoyed the transparent model of decision making, and appreciated that the firm groomed young attorneys from within. Attrition was quite low compared to the firm’s peer groups, who were beginning to suffer. “There was a culture of camaraderie,” said Bruce Celebrezze, who arrived in 1984. “When I started, there was always a sense that we had to represent the firm. We all felt proud and lucky to be here, to learn from the partners.” Celebrezze remembered coming in during a weekend, something he was quite familiar with. “There were a lot of people here. There was excitement in the air. It was a sense that we are in this together and will always help each other out.” Celebrezze, a nationally known insurance expert, went on to lead the 150-person Insurance Division. Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold was still known as a trial firm, a place that attracted gifted young attorneys. Because these hardcharging lawyers could still become partner after five to seven years, the generation of young upstarts felt unstoppable, with their entire careers stretched gloriously in front of them. “We felt that we were on the verge of something special,” said Michael M cGeehon. “This was a

Indy 500 Expert to the Rescue

firm that was full of energy and enthusiasm. We knew we were different, and we were very, very proud of that.” The small firm that Wally Sedgwick molded was getting bigger and stronger. In the eighties and nineties major corporations retained the firm to handle high-profile national litigation. It was appointed regional and national counsel in major multi district litigation involving breast implants, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. It defended air carriers and general aviation manufacturers in cases arising out of airplane accidents, and it represented Fortune 500 companies in toxic tort cases involving hundreds of plaintiffs. It was becoming one of the go-to firms in the country for high-stakes litigation. With the momentum of a new group of top-tier attorneys and the push to go national, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold continued to grow its specific practice groups focusing on toxic torts, construction, environment, employment, entertainment, health care, reinsurance, fidelity, and intellectual property issues. Just like in Wally Sedgwick’s days, the firm was always thinking one step ahead.

A Silicon Valley multimillionaire lost control of his extremely fast sports car on a freeway on-ramp and impacted a support pier, resulting in the death of the passenger and brain injury to the driver. The car was operating within the speed limit at the time. Plaintiffs claimed the vehicle was defective because the suspension system allegedly could not handle the horsepower and torque of the vehicle. They supported their claim with a letter to the manufacturer by an expert who had consulted with the company on the design of the car, stating that he thought sudden oversteer was a problem due to the suspension. The letter, written the year before the accident, predicted the kind of accident that occurred in the case. That expert testified for plaintiffs at trial, essentially saying, “I told them this could happen.” Bruce Wold, who represented the manufacturer, retained Bobby Unser, three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, as an expert in the case. Unser did extensive testing of the subject model for trial, and he testified that the sports car was not defective. The plaintiffs’ attorney claimed that the economic damages were $27 million for the driver alone. The jury returned a defense verdict after a month-long trial.

Above: R acecar driver Bobby Unser

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The Professional Model Endures

Below: B ruce Celebrezze came to Sedgwick in 1984 and went on to lead the firm’s Insurance Division.

Indy 500 Expert to the Rescue

Above: R acecar driver Bobby Unser

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TRIAL BRIEF

Toxic Tort Case in Fresno

The Bordon Era Industry-wide, the law was continuing its shift from a gentlemanly profession whereby deals were done with a handshake toward a corporatestyle business. No one understood this better than David Bordon. An astute businessman and one of the firm’s top producers, Bordon was keenly aware of the economics of law firms. He’d been a major advocate and driving force behind the expansions in London, New York, and Chicago. He didn’t want to stop now. As managing partner from 1990 to 2001, he set out to make the firm more profitable, expand into new markets, and reduce expenses. “What happened is that we went from being a California firm doing California legal work to a national firm that did national business,” said Mike Healy.

In Perry v. Thompson-Hayward, more than one hundred homeowners and residents of the area surrounding a chemical formulator plant in Fresno sued various defendants, including Sedgwick’s client, for personal injury (including sterility), property damage, fear of cancer, and diminished property value as a result of exposure to dibromochloropropane (DBCP) in their well water. Steve Jones represented one of the product manufacturers. The plaintiffs selected a lead case for trial, which involved a man who alleged sterility as a result of his exposure. Defendants argued that the plaintiff had not been exposed to sufficient levels of DBCP to have caused his sterility. After a four-month trial in Fresno Superior Court, the jury returned a defense verdict.

Right: D avid Bordon was instrumental in growing the firm internationally.

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Bordon felt that planting the seeds for future expansion was crucial for the firm’s survival. Not everyone agreed. There were those who were very happy with their caseload and who didn’t desire to become a national firm. “They didn’t understand the economics of a local firm versus a national firm,” said Bordon. “I was convinced that if we had stayed a local firm, the more dynamic lawyers would not make enough money, would not have enough challenges, would have left, and the firm would have died.”

Zurich: 1991 Erik Stenberg opened the firm’s Zurich office in 1991. These additions brought the total number of offices to seven, with a total of 166 attorneys—53 partners and 113 associates. The Management Committee, composed of partners from each office plus a few at-large members, wholeheartedly supported the continued expansion. But growth didn’t happen haphazardly. Clients drove the “who, what, when, where, and how” of the firm’s entry into new markets. “Our expansion was driven by the enthusiasm of clients for both geographic areas they were interested in and people they were interested in,” said Bordon. “I got my clues for where to go and where to expand from clients.” This meant opening other European offices at the urging of the London clients, or taking the suggestions of new offices based on attorneys from other firms that partners knew and trusted. This thoughtful expansion kept the firm out of financial trouble, and the continuing evolution of new areas of litigation kept the firm competitive. While other firms stayed local and went under or got eaten up, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold thrived.

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TRIAL BRIEF

Toxic Tort Case in Fresno

Right: D avid Bordon was instrumental in growing the firm internationally.

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The Contributions of Lateral Partners In the nineties, the firm adopted the industry-wide practice of hiring lateral partners like Elliott Olson and Ralph Campillo in Los Angeles, excellent attorneys who came from very established firms. “They were willing to take a chance,” said Bordon. “They were motivated somewhat by clients, but they were also motivated by seeing that their firms weren’t going anywhere.” When Olson arrived, he noticed the differences from his old firm: “It was better managed, more objective in its evaluation of people, more aggressive and realistic in getting business, and seemed to attract better people,” he said. Olson brought two major clients with him, one of which became the fourth-largest billing client. But when the firm hired laterals, they didn’t hire just anyone who would bring in business. It was just as important that they fit the Sedgwick mold: excellent trial lawyers who valued hard work and cared about the profession of the law. Above: R alph Campillo, who joined Sedgwick in 1998, is a respected trial lawyer who specializes in drug and medical device litigation.

Opposite: F irm partnership photo from 1992. Right: Elliott Olson joined the firm in 1994 and went on to become managing partner of the Los Angeles office.

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Opposite: F irm partnership photo from 1992. Right: Elliott Olson joined the firm in 1994 and went on to become managing partner of the Los Angeles office.

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TRIAL BRIEF Olson, who was managing partner of the Los Angeles office for six years, appreciated a culture that discouraged individual fiefdoms. “Being The parents of an infant brought a medical mala good lawyer was not enough,” he practice claim in Kings County Supreme Court in said. “You had to manage in such a Brooklyn, claiming that the defendant obstetrician way that your clients allowed you to had botched the delivery of the child, resulting in pass work along to other people.” He profound mental retardation for the baby. David Covey represented the doctor. While conceding would go on to develop a tier system that the doctor had not met acceptable standards of acknowledging and rewarding of medical practice by not coming to the hospital partners when they passed work along. to examine the mother on the night before the He believed that rewarding attorneys delivery (the mother claimed she had not felt the in a pyramid structure was a major baby move for thirty-six hours), Covey asserted reason Sedgwick was able to attract that the retardation was caused by chromosomal and keep such talented attorneys, and damage. During the trial, plaintiffs produced, for he promoted this idea until his retirethe first time, an earlier study that purported to ment. When he did retire, in order to show no chromosomal damage. Covey convinced spend time on his boat, he had the court to appoint its own geneticist—which groomed a senior lawyer to take over had never been done in New York state court— his big clients. “The clients were to perform a new chromosome analysis. The new happy to accept the lawyer I recomstudy confirmed the chromosomal damage. The mended because he had been workjury found no causation and rendered a defense verdict. The case was reported in the National Law ing with me for ten years, and they Journal in 1998 as one of the Top Wins of the Year had a chance to get to know him.” for the Defense. When Michael Fox arrived in 1998 from a small Los Angeles defense firm, he could also feel the Sedgwick difference. Although he was at first taken aback by the firm’s size, spread over several floors at One Embarcadero Center, he was pleasantly surprised that the attorneys were friendly and interested in each other’s cases. “I noticed really quickly that the success of the firm was a big deal, and there was a sense of pride in what we were doing,” he remembered. Like those before him, he took full advantage of the opportunity to learn from his predecessors, who

Medical Malpractice Defense Verdict

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Gunther Detert Dies Another named founder wouldn’t see the growth of the firm by the decade’s end. In 1994, the news came that Gunther Detert had died. He was eighty-one, and he was survived by his two daughters and wife, Marie-Louise Detert, who would continue on as the matriarch of the family and overseer of the family’s wine business.

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Medical Malpractice Defense Verdict

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had come up in the golden age of the law: “I learned the importance of being collegial, and the importance of being a consummate professional and a trusted advisor to your clients.” It was a magical combination: carefully selected young attorneys, leadership in the defense bar, and conservative expansion. By the end of the decade, the firm had nearly doubled its ranks from the previous one, and Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold was still one of the top defense trial firms.

Paris: 2000 New offices kept on coming: In 2000, the firm spread its reach to France by entering into a cooperative agreement with the partners of Leclere & Associés in Paris. The office, on Avenue Kléber just blocks from the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées, gave the firm a presence in continental Europe and allowed for the sharing of business and clients between the London and Paris offices.

Opposite: A 1992 letter to The Recorder includes statistics for the firm at that time.

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Opposite: A 1992 letter to The Recorder includes statistics for the firm at that time.

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Chapter 7

The New Millennium (2000–2013)

y the late 1990s, the dot-com bubble was expanding, fueled by technology companies in Silicon Valley and beyond. The term “going public” became part of the vernacular, and Wall Street seemed flush with cash and excitement. It was a national frenzy, the start of the Internet Age. America Online was on top of the world, while Google was not yet a household word. It wouldn’t last. By 2000, the tech bubble burst, with a few big names surviving the shakedown. Millions had been gained, only to be suddenly lost. With the industry-wide transition to a business model complete, along with the fallout from the Internet economy, many law firms floundered. They restructured, merged, or went broke. Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold remained steady, finding that precarious balance between keeping up with the times while never losing its way. In those heady days, it was de rigueur for big firms to open offices in various locations simply so they could impress clients,

Opposite: T he NASDAQ MarketSite display in Time’s Square announces the initial public offering of Google Inc. on August 19, 2004.

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The New Millennium (2000–2013)

Opposite: T he NASDAQ MarketSite display in Time’s Square announces the initial public offering of Google Inc. on August 19, 2004.

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Below right: M ichael Tanenbaum opened the Newark office of Sedgwick in 2001 and currently serves as the firm’s chair.

The New Millennium

while they did all their work out of their headquarters. That was not the Sedgwick style. Expansion meant something at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold. “We never would have come here if the firm had viewed us as a spot for the letterhead,” said Wayne Mason, who opened the Dallas office with Neil Rambin, both lateral hires, in 2001. These accomplished attorneys, who left their prestigious posts elsewhere, weren’t interested in a vanity position. They wanted to become a significant presence in management and firm leadership. This is exactly what happened. Mason and Rambin ended up heading two of the firm’s three divisions and collectively served on most of the firm’s significant committees. The firm’s thoughtful growth continued. Promoted by Bordon, Dunne, and others, Newark and Dallas opened in 2001. This brought the total number of offices to ten.

representation of that company in numerous medical device and prescription drug litigations. Many of these involved consolidated proceedings before a multidistrict litigation judge in which the firm served as lead counsel. Within a year, the size of the office tripled and continued to grow. In 2004 Jim Keale, a distinguished trial attorney, joined and expanded the firm’s representation of a key client to the Middle Atlantic states. By 2012, attorneys in the Newark office, working with attorneys across the firm, served as national counsel for a number of Fortune 100 clients, bringing these clients exceptional litigation management backed by some of the best trial lawyers in the country.

Newark: 2001

Dallas: 2001

The Newark office opened on January 2, 2001, when Michael Tanenbaum, along with four additional attorneys, joined the firm. The opening of Newark aligned the needs of a key client with the strategic vision of Bordon and Dunne. It brought national counsel for a major pharmaceutical company and, ultimately, national

The Dallas office was opened in 2001 with partners Neil Rambin, Wayne Mason, Paul Cauley, and Alan Vickery, who joined Sedgwick from another firm. Neil Rambin took the reins as managing partner. The office was slated to open on April Fool’s Day, 2001. Call it superstition, but the firm decided that this just wasn’t a good idea, and the official opening date for the Dallas office became April 2. Things started off a bit rocky: During the move, the delivery truck’s back door opened, strewing furniture along the highway. That wasn’t the only bumpy part of the road. In what was a surprise to all, Mason’s largest client decided not come with him at the last minute. “One of the things that shows the character of this firm was that they never missed a beat,” he said. “They basically assured me that they hired talent, not just what people had on a piece of paper, and

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Left: J im Keale joined the firm in 2004 and would go on to lead the Complex Litigation Division.

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Below right: M ichael Tanenbaum opened the Newark office of Sedgwick in 2001 and currently serves as the firm’s chair.

The New Millennium

Newark: 2001

Dallas: 2001

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Left: J im Keale joined the firm in 2004 and would go on to lead the Complex Litigation Division.

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TRIAL BRIEF

Above: I n 2001 (left to right) Neil Rambin, Alan Vickery, Wayne Mason, and Paul Cauley opened the firm’s Dallas office.

that they fully expected that business—if not that business, other business—would come back in short order and that it would be a nonfactor. And with their support, and certainly my work on business development, that happened in a relatively short period of time. It was a very important historic experience with the firm.” While each office opening happened under different circumstances, this underlying attitude remained the same. Within thirty days, the Dallas office had ten new attorneys and was on its way to becoming an integral part of Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold.

Changing Times Law school graduates could no longer count on partnership in five years. As this idea faded for young associates, the focus switched to their ability to bring clients to the table. “In the 2000s, we were fully into this sort of modern practice of law, in which the successes that people trumpet are landing clients, not winning cases,” said Nicholas Heldt. Attorneys hired in the seventies remembered trying cases for $20,000. But in these days, that notion was all but obsolete. Judges

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Alleged Tire Failure

thought it was a waste of the court’s resources, and clients didn’t want to try small cases because the fee structure didn’t make it cost-effective. Although there were fewer cases, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold was still a quintessential legal defense firm, still trying more cases than most firms, still thinking like litigators all the time. In light of this, new associates at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold weren’t relegated to pushing papers. Just as in the days of Keith & Creede, the mandate was clear: Show drive, initiative, and ambition, and you’ll have the chance to shine. Young associates took depositions, secondchaired jury trials, prepared witnesses, and drafted briefs. As always, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold attorneys believed in hard work. The firm remained democratic, and virtually every important firm decision was voted on by the partnership. No doubt that it took more time than passing down unilateral decisions made at the top. But this was still Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, a place that valued people, transparency, and fairness. This governance structure preserved the culture of the firm and gave everyone a voice.

After a car rolled over and slid across the pavement, causing traumatic and disfiguring injuries to the driver’s face, the plaintiff contended that the rollover was caused by a defective tire and filed suit against the tire manufacturer. Elliott Olson was retained to represent the defendant. The case went to trial in Los Angeles Federal District Court. On the last day of a long trial, the plaintiff’s attorney accused the company’s witness of puncturing the tire after the accident to support the company’s claim that a leak caused the tire to fail. The court would not allow a recess or give the defendant a chance to put on rebuttal evidence the next day. Fortunately, Olson had suspected something fishy and asked his expert to stick around after he had testified. With no chance for preparation, Olson called his expert back to the witness stand. To a hushed courtroom, with the jury looking on intently, Olson silently started looking through a large stack of photographs taken by the plaintiff’s expert before the company witness ever saw the tire. Finally he found one, handed it to his expert, and asked what he saw. The expert looked at the photograph closely and said he could see the puncture mark, which existed at the time of the accident. Olson was given permission to pass the photograph to the jury. The jury went home late and returned a defense verdict after closing arguments the next day.

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Above: I n 2001 (left to right) Neil Rambin, Alan Vickery, Wayne Mason, and Paul Cauley opened the firm’s Dallas office.

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Alleged Tire Failure

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The Dunne Era

Above: K evin Dunne joined the firm in 1968. He went on to become managing partner and one of the firm’s best trial attorneys and highest business producers.

Riding the wave of change, Kevin Dunne became managing partner from 2001 to 2007. A top trial attorney who specialized in tobacco, drug and device, class action, and other complex litigation, and a prodigious business producer, he wholeheartedly believed in continuing Bordon’s vision of expansion. Dunne believed that in order to be national counsel and get major cases, Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold needed more offices to compete. “I thought we had a great reputation as a trial firm, but I didn’t think we could accomplish our goals if we didn’t become a national firm,” he said. “I found it very exciting because I thought for the kind of work that most of the partners wanted to do, we had to grow.” When he started, the firm had two hundred attorneys, and Dunne had a vision of building the firm up to four hundred attorneys, dubbing his plan “The Road to 400.” At one point before his tenure ended, he did just that. Dunne’s era came with some growing pains. A week after Dunne was elected, an insurance partner handed in his resignation, taking twenty-three other lawyers with him. Dunne ended up negotiating a deal whereby the lawyers said good-bye but left the work in progress behind. The silver lining was that the loss allowed the firm to upgrade its insurance business. Dunne then hired people from around the country who defended insurance companies in big class actions and mass torts. “We switched to representing the insurance companies, and I personally spent a lot of time making that happen.” During that same era, Dunne came up with the idea of structuring the firm into three divisions: Insurance, Complex Litigation,

and Commercial. The vision was to organize all the attorneys who did the same kind of work into a management structure with common goals and marketing, which would encourage cross-selling of clients between offices and the expansion of business on a nationwide basis. While Bordon was a strict taskmaster, Dunne was the firm cheerleader. He based his approach on what he’d learned in the army: Great leaders are made. He became an ally, advocate, and source of support and encouragement. Most law firms think that turnover is healthy, a way of getting rid of dead wood. Not Dunne. He believed that every lawyer lost was expensive. Although he was in favor of finding legal superstars, he felt it was the firm’s job to make great lawyers. “In my own practice, I had taken lawyers who I didn’t think were going to be partners and turned them into very good partners. It took me time and it took time away from my billing, but I thought it was a great investment in my practice and ultimately in the practice of the firm.” Not one to crack the whip or criticize, he took the opposite approach: building up the partners and the firm, buoyed by a sense of great optimism.

TRIAL BRIEF

Kalitta Air v. Aircraft Modifier In 1997, a cargo airline owned by Connie Kalitta, a well-known national drag race champion, filed suit against several defendants, including Sedgwick’s client (the aircraft modifier), alleging that the defendants had negligently designed and installed a defective passenger-to-cargo modification in two of its Boeing 747 aircraft. The modifi cation design was approved by the FAA in 1987. But nine years later, after the modifications had been completed, another office of the FAA grounded the aircraft, asserting that the modification design was unsafe. Kalitta contended that the grounding caused the company to lose profits and ultimately collapse due to an unsuccessful merger. Kalitta claimed that it incurred damages of $235 million, which could have been doubled with prejudgment interest. The case involved 350 days of depositions and the production of hundreds of thousands of documents. Greg Read had represented the modifier since the complaint was first filed in 1997 and tried the case three times during its fifteen-year history. The third trial took place in the fall of 2011 (previous trials were in 2001 and 2005). An entire floor of a small office building was leased as a war room for the trial team, clients, jury consultants, and experts. After a month-long trial, the jury returned a complete defense verdict, which was honored by the Daily Journal as one of the top defense verdicts of the year.

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The Dunne Era

Above: K evin Dunne joined the firm in 1968. He went on to become managing partner and one of the firm’s best trial attorneys and highest business producers.

TRIAL BRIEF

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The New Millennium

Houston and Austin: 2006 The growth continued in 2006 with the opening of the firm’s Houston and Austin offices. Soon after Kevin Dunne took over as firm managing partner in 2001, he began having discussions with Neil Rambin, managing partner of the Dallas office, and other Dallas partners, about the possibility of opening a Houston office in order to expand the firm’s presence in Texas. Rambin and his partners began quietly looking for potential opportunities in the Houston legal market. In the meantime, even though Austin was not then on the firm’s radar screen, it took advantage of an unexpected opportunity that was presented in early 2006 to expand its commercial practice by opening an office in Austin, starting with a wellknown media and entertainment specialist and several associates. Among the early associates of the Austin office was the granddaughter of famous Texan and former US president Lyndon Baines Johnson. At the end of 2006, the firm’s goal of entering the Houston market was achieved when Julie Adams and four associates joined the firm and opened the Houston office. Neil Rambin served as managing partner of all three Texas offices from 2006 to 2009. “I tried to be in Houston or Austin once every other week or so,” said Rambin, “but managing three offices at once while trying to maintain a law practice was more challenging than anticipated.” Karen Maston then became managing partner of

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Houston, which grew to twenty attorneys, and Mike Shaunessy took over as managing partner of Austin.

Bermuda: 2006 The Bermuda office also opened in 2006, led by Mark Chudleigh. Born and raised in Bermuda, he went overseas for law school (Bermuda has none) and was admitted to the bar in his home country. He went on to join Sedgwick’s London office as special counsel in 1998, working on multinational insurance and reinsurance practice. Following insurance rate hikes in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the events of 9/11, Bermuda grew into one of the most important insurance centers in the world. The time seemed ripe for a Bermuda office, but there were challenges. The Bermuda Bar Council opposed the opening of the office, suspicious of Chudleigh’s connection to an international law firm. Eventually, the council softened and the Sedgwick Chudleigh firm took a respected place in the community. “The Sedgwick brand, management discipline, and firstrate administrative support help me to compete alongside the biggest and best Bermuda law firms and attract assignments in the most interesting, complex, and high-value disputes,” said Chudleigh.

Left: M ark Chudleigh joined Sedgwick’s London office in 1998 and later opened the Bermuda office.

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The New Millennium

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Houston, which grew to twenty attorneys, and Mike Shaunessy took over as managing partner of Austin.

Left: M ark Chudleigh joined Sedgwick’s London office in 1998 and later opened the Bermuda office.

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The New Millennium

The Tanenbaum Era

Below: F irm Chair Michael Tanenbaum.

By the middle of the decade, the recession hit. At the same time, a new managing partner set the tone for the firm. Michael Tanenbaum had arrived to open the Newark office on January 1, 2001, after doing national counsel work for a number of different clients. He sought out a national platform and found it at Sedgwick. Specializing in mass tort, medical device, and pharmaceutical litigation, he was widely regarded for his ability to manage nationwide litigation, often involving thousands of cases, for major corporations. Heading up the Newark office, Tanenbaum was also a shrewd businessman with high expectations for excellence. He took over as firm chair in 2007. Although it had grown into a national law firm, Sedgwick still maintained its collegial and democratic management style. In partnership meetings, partners could sit together in a room, speak directly and bluntly about their differing opinions, and then all go out to enjoy a nice dinner together. This kind of respect for one another’s views was hard to come by. “In my experience, it’s different not just from the firm from which I came but from other firms about which I’m aware,” said Tanenbaum.

Bud Arnold Dies On January 6, 2004, the firm received word that Bud Arnold had passed away a few days short of his ninety-first birthday. It was a significant event: Arnold was the last remaining named partner of the firm. Although he had retired in 1988, he had an office at the firm, which he visited regularly until his death. A group of partners gathered at the Pacific Union Club with his wife, Dee, to tell stories and reflect on Bud’s legacy as one of Sedgwick’s founders.

Left and above: A rticles in The Recorder and San Francisco Daily Journal remember Bud Arnold.

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The New Millennium

The Tanenbaum Era

Below: F irm Chair Michael Tanenbaum.

Left and above: A rticles in The Recorder and San Francisco Daily Journal remember Bud Arnold.

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TRIAL BRIEF

Big Changes for Modern Times Below: ( left to right, standing) Scott Mroz, Warren Krauss, Jim Gault, Greg Read, Paul Lahaderne, Roger Sleight, Beach Kuhl, Barry Marsh, Bill Judge; (left to right, seated) Kevin Dunne, Steve Jones, and Bruce Wold gathered in 2004 to remember Bud Arnold.

In his typical proactive approach, Tanenbaum went about making some changes for modern times. In 2011, the firm made the decision to shorten its name from “Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold” to simply “Sedgwick LLP.” But not without a passionate homage to the founders at the retreat where the final decision was made. “I knew a shortened name was the right thing to do, but I lamented that we were losing our heritage,” Greg Read said. “A lot of the people in the room had never met Sedgwick, Detert, Moran, or Arnold.”

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In that same year, the ManageFlorida Reservoir Construcment Committee underwent a trantion Defect Action sition. Until then, the committee The plaintiff, a regional water authority, brought a included a partner who represented $150-million action in Florida federal court against each office. But with the number of several defendants as the result of cracking in the offices growing, the size was getsoil cement erosion protection barrier at a fifteenting unwieldy. “If it existed today, it billion-gallon reservoir outside of Tampa. Wayne would have eighteen members trying Mason, Kurt Meaders, David Kent, and Cori Steinto either manage the firm or actumann represented the design engineer for the ally thinking deep thoughts about project. Before trial, the plaintiff settled with the firm’s future,” said Tanenbaum. three other defendants, leaving Sedgwick’s client After a year of discussions, the comas the sole remaining defendant. The plaintiff mittee decided to restructure. On alleged that certain design defects led to increased January 1, 2012, the firm formed an water pressure behind the soil cement upstream Executive Committee comprising five erosion protection of the reservoir, which caused members—the chair of the firm, the continual cracking and would require significant repairs to the project. The repair cost alone was chairs of each of the three divisions, estimated to be between $73 million and $119 miland one at-large member. In this way, lion. After a month-long jury trial, the jury returned representation got funneled through a “no liability” verdict in less than three hours of the division heads, rather than the deliberation, finding that Sedgwick’s client did not regional offices. Today, the Execubreach its standard of care in design of the facility. tive Committee meets each month at different regional offices, focusing its efforts on short- and long-term goals, the overall vision for the firm, and lateral recruitment. At the same time, the Management Committee remained in place, composed of office managing partners without any at-large members. Management was something the busy partners undertook out of a deep commitment to the firm. Managers, division heads, and committee members all have full caseloads. “Nobody is just a manager here,” said Michael Healy, who serves on the Executive Committee. “Everyone does two jobs: litigation and management. That’s not like other firms. People here dedicate their time.”

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The New Millennium

In addition to being a top business producer who worked incredibly long hours, Tanenbaum understood the business aspects of running a law firm and had a clear vision for the future of the firm.

Fort Lauderdale: 2009 Even in the biggest downturn in the history of the corporate legal market, Sedgwick continued its national expansion. In 2009, doors of the Fort Lauderdale office opened with Gordon James III at the helm. The office focused on product liability and insurance and commercial litigation. James, who had been a name partner at his own firm, had grown tired of running his own firm and was looking for a succession plan. He found it with Sedgwick: “It gave us the chance to have a national platform and become part of a strong, highly regarded national law firm that has been eighty years in existence.” Meanwhile, it gave the firm a solid presence in southeastern Florida. “We are a significant part of the national footprint,” said James.

Washington, DC: 2011 The Washington, DC, office opened in 2011. Managing partner Rick Wallace had worked with Sedgwick attorneys during the previous decade, and he liked what he saw. “I was always impressed with their work and envious of their workplace,” he said. So when the chance arose for the majority of the lawyers from his boutique litigation firm to join with Sedgwick, he jumped at the chance. “From our perspective, the move was motivated by three factors: the ability to provide quality representation for our clients from the other Sedgwick offices around the globe, the desire to attract new clients with Sedgwick’s strong resources and broad expertise, and the

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opportunity to practice with fine lawyers and terrific people.” Meanwhile, Sedgwick had the chance to open an office in the nation’s c apital—a natural fit for a national law firm. Today, the Washington, DC, office has fifteen attorneys working on complex litigation, including products liability, class actions, and environmental tort matters.

Seattle: 2011 With Chris Marks as managing partner, Sedgwick LLP opened the S eattle office in 2011 as part of the firm’s ongoing strategy to explore and take advantage of opportunities for growth to benefit the firm’s clients. The primary focus of the five attorneys in Seattle has been commercial litigation and product liability cases. “I joined Sedgwick because of its reputation as a go-to trial firm for many of the world’s largest companies,” said Marks. “Over the past year, I have been tremendously excited to become a part of that history and to contribute to expanding that reputation in the Northwest.”

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In addition to being a top business producer who worked incredibly long hours, Tanenbaum understood the business aspects of running a law firm and had a clear vision for the future of the firm.

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Chapter 8

The Sedgwick Legacy

n the eighty years since it was founded, Sedgwick has never lost its way. That’s because the core values of the firm— hard work, intense loyalty, exceptional client service, the art of litigation—are woven into its very fabric. Over time, this fabric has proven strong enough to weather many changes, from major recessions to huge industry-wide transitions, without unraveling. Mentoring, diversity, and education are cornerstones of how Sedgwick preserves its values over time. These are not done haphazardly: They are a well-thought-out and well-executed part of the firm’s overall strategy. The breadth and scale of Sedgwick’s programs that focus on educating its attorneys and staff; fostering diversity of race, gender, and ethnicity; and mentoring the next generation showl, the firm’s commitment to keeping its legacy strong. “It’s consistent with the firm’s practice of not only giving responsibility but also training people, not just throwing them to the wolves and seeing what happens,” said Trial Academy dean Bruce Wold.

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Chapter 8

The Sedgwick Legacy

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Below top: R etired partner Bruce Wold (center), speaks to the Trial Academy class, while professors Mike Tanenbaum (in back), Paul Cauley (left), and David Covey (right) look on.

Below bottom: S edgwick’s Trial Academy trains the next generation of the firm’s trial attorneys.

The Sedgwick Legacy

Education

James T. Conlon Advocacy Award

The Trial Academy The Old Red Courthouse in downtown Dallas is a grand sight: a fully restored historic building erected in 1892, complete with an elaborate judge’s bench, jury box, and gallery seating. It’s known for its view overlooking Dealey Plaza, the infamous location where JFK was assassinated. The courthouse is also the site of Sedgwick’s Trial Academy, where a hand-picked group of young associates come to learn the art of trying cases from Sedgwick’s most senior and accomplished trial lawyers. The Trial Academy—part of Sedgwick University’s in-house training program—started with a simple idea: to provide young lawyers training in trial techniques. The original vision involved a few senior attorneys teaching a video-conference class on trial techniques. Bruce Wold envisioned something grander: an environment away from the office where attorneys could get a total immersion into the trial experience. The firm approved the idea, and the Trial Academy was born. Every year since 2004, the partners select among the firm’s best and brightest young lawyers and give them a formal invitation to Dallas for an intensive six-day “boot camp” to learn and practice the skills required to try a case in court. The homework starts weeks before, with students trying to make sense of mock cases by analyzing exhibits and photographs and reading documents and deposition

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The top performer at the Trial Academy is awarded the coveted James T. Conlon Advocacy Award, named after one of the firm’s most skilled defense attorneys, James T. Conlon, who died in 2011 at the age of sixty-four. Born in New York in 1947, Conlon was a college baseball player who was drafted into the minor leagues, only to sustain a career-ending shoulder injury. He decided to pursue a career in law, attending Fordham University and then becoming assistant district attorney in New York. He practiced law for twenty-five years at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, for which he handled a wide variety of complex, high-stakes trials. Conlon was an expert in the science associated with defending pharmaceutical and medical device litigation. “He could disarm any expert with his charm and wit, before destroying the expert on cross-examination,” remembered Greg Read. “Juries loved him. Clients loved him. His partners loved him.” In addition to his

Above: J ames Conlon came to Sedgwick’s New York office in 1985 along with David Covey.

advocacy skills, he was known for his modesty, storytelling, generosity, and humor. He retired in 2008 and moved to Kansas City, where he opened up a practice representing individuals who couldn’t afford legal representation. On September 11, 2001, Conlon and others in the New York office watched as the second hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center towers; the 9/11 terrorist attacks had a profound impact on his life. In a memo to the firm he wrote: “We bore witness and with that comes the privilege not to forget. I will remember these people were like you and me; all with the promise of tomorrow.” The James T. Conlon Advocacy Award is just one way to remember Jim Conlon and to ensure that generations of trial attorneys continue his legacy of bringing impeccable trial skills to the courtroom. Left: S teve Burke (left) and Bruce Wold (right) present the James T. Conlon Advocacy Award to Washington, DC, associate Mimi Dennis.

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Below top: R etired partner Bruce Wold (center), speaks to the Trial Academy class, while professors Mike Tanenbaum (in back), Paul Cauley (left), and David Covey (right) look on.

Below bottom: S edgwick’s Trial Academy trains the next generation of the firm’s trial attorneys.

The Sedgwick Legacy

Education

James T. Conlon Advocacy Award

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Above: J ames Conlon came to Sedgwick’s New York office in 1985 along with David Covey.

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Below: T he 2012 Sedgwick Trial Academy graduates with some members of the faculty.

The Sedgwick Legacy

summaries. When they arrive in Dallas, attendees hit the ground running. For six jam-packed days, they take on various roles: cross-examining, direct examining, making opening statements, playing a witness. They practice the art of trial law. “There’s so much to attack in such a short amount of time,” said Caitlin Ross, who attended the 2012 Trial Academy. “There’s a lot of adrenaline, ups and downs, and everything changes so fast. It really does approximate what it feels like to be in a trial, and it’s a great training tool.” Senior and retired partners fly to Dallas to volunteer their knowledge and expertise. “When the students walk in and see the friendships that exist among the partners and how they care about each other, along with the level of commitment that the firm has to send all these people at their expense, it really creates a strong

Left: T rial Academy participant Monty Cooper with judges in background.

impression,” said Wold. The partners come to give back to a firm that has supported them for many years. The Trial Academy offers a rare opportunity to gain insight into the profession. “It showed me how incredibly hard it is to be in trial and also, astoundingly, how much fun it could be,” said Washington, DC, associate Mimi Dennis, the winner of the first annual James T. Conlon Advocacy Award, named after a beloved partner known for his mastery in the courtroom (see page 195). “I learned an enormous amount about the art of being a trial attorney. It’s not often that you get the chance to have a ‘trial run,’ for lack of a better term, and it was incredibly beneficial to have the opportunity to get up in the courtroom and just go for it. It was enormously confidence-boosting and helpful.” It’s a rigorous week, but with a big payback. The associates sharpen their skills, learn new strategies, and experience the intensity of a trial. They also bond with one another, creating lasting relationships across offices that help maintain a cohesive culture despite the firm’s distant locations. “The DC office is the newest in the firm, so I went to Trial Academy knowing only those associates from my home office,” said Dennis. When she got there, she met

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Below: T he 2012 Sedgwick Trial Academy graduates with some members of the faculty.

The Sedgwick Legacy

Left: T rial Academy participant Monty Cooper with judges in background.

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The Sedgwick Legacy

The Roger Sleight Mentor Award Every year, a firm-wide award is given to a partner who excels as a mentor. The Roger Sleight Award for Commitment and Excellence in Mentoring is named after a former managing partner known for mentoring hundreds of attorneys, both novice and experienced. When an attorney walked into his office and asked for advice, Sleight would lean back in his chair with his hands behind his head. Instead of telling the attorney seeking advice what to do, he would ask questions to empower the person to think critically through the problem—and find the answers themselves. During more than fifty years at the firm, Sleight consulted with innumerable attorneys, helping them analyze the facts, figure out the key issues, evaluate evidence, brainstorm about strategy, and prepare for trial. “It’s an honor,” said Sleight of his namesake award. “I’m very pleased to have it named after me, because mentoring is an important thing. Fortunately, I had the time to do it, and I guess people thought I did a pretty good job.”

Above: R oger Sleight Mentor Award recipients (left to right) Mark Hancock, Steve Wasserman, Earl Hagström, and Bruce Celebrezze.

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new partners and associates from around the globe. “Getting to know all those people really changed how I feel about the firm and colored how I feel about my Trial Academy experience. I feel much more a part of the firm now.”

Sedgwick University Sedgwick University consists of seven schools: School of Law School of Ethics School of Leadership School of Personal & Professional Development School of Marketing & Business Development

Sedgwick University

School of Finance

School of Technology Professional development can be a headache for law firms. It’s often expensive, disorganized, and unpredictable. Eight years ago, Vicky Berry, the director of professional development and training in the Orange County office, saw these obstacles and had an idea: Why not create an in-house training program just for Sedgwick attorneys? She proposed it to the firm, who gave her the okay. Berry sat down with Wayne Mason and mapped out the areas where attorneys could get additional training—law, ethics, leadership, personal and professional development, marketing and business development, finance, and technology. These became the basis for seven schools under the umbrella of Sedgwick University, which was established in 2008 for the continuing education of both partners and associates. This well-organized, formal program uses in-house attorneys and outside speakers to present ongoing training and information to Sedgwick attorneys. Each year, the committee plans a curriculum for each category of attorney, depending on their years of practice. The first-years might learn how to take a deposition, the fourthyears might explore marketing techniques, and partners might be offered a class on mentoring. When the university started, it offered eight to ten courses. By 2012, Sedgwick University (SU) sponsored

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The Sedgwick Legacy

Above: R oger Sleight Mentor Award recipients (left to right) Mark Hancock, Steve Wasserman, Earl Hagström, and Bruce Celebrezze.

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Sedgwick University

School of Finance

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Above: S edgwick partner Maria “Kiki” Karos currently serves as the dean of Sedgwick University.

The Sedgwick Legacy

approximately sixty-four classes, including programs for summer associates and paralegals. Some of the classes are mandatory, while others are optional. “There are certainly other firms that have internal teaching programs, but none that I am aware of that are as in-depth and service so many different learning paths as SU,” says Maria “Kiki” Karos, the school’s first dean. “The SU program is on the cutting edge of internal professional development programs. We certainly didn’t invent the idea, but we are leading the way.” The university’s extensive curriculum takes many forms, including televised CLE-approved courses in trial skills, oral advocacy, legal writing, marketing, client retention, case handling, legal ethics, and more. Classes like “Technology in the Court Room,” “How to Follow Up without Looking Like a Stalker,” “The Art of Direct Examination,” and a series called “Lessons Learned,” during which senior associates present to junior associates, are some of the popular offerings. “Sedgwick University not only assists our attorneys with meeting state license requirements but develops our attorneys’ legal potential in the varied roles that they play to support our clients, as advocates, leaders, counselors, and advisors,” said Karos. The offerings keep getting better, with more outside speakers, such as specialists in oral advocacy, jury selection, and communications techniques; intensive writing classes; courses for paralegals and summer associates; and “Sedgwick U Players,” a small group of partners who enact role-playing scenarios to provide examples for a professor’s instruction. In addition to the benefits like meeting CLE credits, not losing billable hours going off-site, and learning new skills, Sedgwick University is yet another avenue for preserving the Sedgwick culture: “It gives the ability for partners to instruct attorneys from the time they arrive until they become partners, so we can build a Sedgwick partner as opposed to just a lawyer,” said Berry.

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Mentoring Informal mentoring has been a tradition at Sedgwick for generations. Decades earlier, Bud Arnold called young associates into his office and meticulously explained the art of grammar when writing a brief. Roger Sleight was one of those young lawyers. “I became a stickler for detail, which I learned in part from Bud Arnold,” said Sleight, who went on to be a remarkable mentor, with a prestigious mentoring award named after him (see page 198). Guiding young lawyers has always been considered a responsibility that partners take very seriously. When asked about the similarities between 1968, when he started at Sedgwick, and 2012, Steve Jones didn’t hesitate to answer: “The desire to train and develop new lawyers, give them responsibility and bring them along the ranks, and make them into contributing partners has endured,” he said. While junior lawyers still learn the ropes by working closely with a senior on cases and trials, the firm has developed a robust formal mentoring program. When they join, each new associate is paired with two mentors, a junior partner and a senior associate. These mentors are available to talk confidentially anytime, and they are Mentoring Program’s tasked with helping their Mission Statement mentee progress in their career. “The mentoring To retain and motivate talented associates, program demonstrates provide support and guidance for career advancement, and create a partnership with our commitment to one all new attorneys to integrate them into the another and to our lawfirm’s culture. yers,” said Steven D. Wasserman, firm-wide chair

Above: S teve Wasserman serves as the firm-wide chair of Sedgwick’s mentoring program.

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Above: S edgwick partner Maria “Kiki” Karos currently serves as the dean of Sedgwick University.

The Sedgwick Legacy

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Above: S teve Wasserman serves as the firm-wide chair of Sedgwick’s mentoring program.

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Sedgwick Diversity

The Sedgwick Legacy

for the mentor program. Wasserman, who works with mentor program coordinators in each office, says that the program reflects the firm’s culture. “We try to work in a way that supports one another because that benefits the firm as a whole. It’s that commitment to one another that has allowed us to stay together as a firm, to stay successful and have precious little attrition.” Like their predecessors, modern mentors show unwavering generosity with their time, advice, and expertise. Wayne Mason, like many others, believes that mentoring is more than just teaching the art of preparing arguments or taking a deposition. “I think that caring about people is paramount,” said Mason. “Showing them that it’s not just about how much money they can generate for the firm, but caring that they’re enjoying their experience and that they, too, want to get up and go to work in the morning. I take a lot of pride in that.” As the firm grows, it retains this culture of continuity by assigning mentors across different offices. “Attorneys not only develop relationships in their own office, they also feel part of the whole firm,” said Wasserman. “Not a lot of firms, if any, do that.” At Sedgwick, mentoring is considered a responsibility for every attorney, both to keep the culture intact and because it’s the right thing to do. “We need to start turning the firm over to the next generation,” said Bruce Celebrezze, the 2011 winner of the Roger Sleight Award for Commitment and Excellence in Mentoring.

Diversity Committee and managing Diversity Committee’s partner of the Los Angeles office. Mission Statement The firm believes that diversity To foster an environment in which people of all backisn’t just important because clients grounds are given access to the mentorship, educawant it. “In every respect, we recogtion, and opportunity critical to reaching their full nized that we became better lawyers potential. by being more diverse,” said Barnes. “When this happens, the unique perspective that everyone brings to the table is considered, whether addressing a legal issue, a policy question, or how to interact with a witness, court, or jury.” The task force resulted in increased funding for programs and outreach efforts. Led by Barnes and Tanya Lawson of the Fort LauBelow: S edgwick’s 2012 derdale office, the Diversity Committee is charged with harnessing Diversity Committee, the firm’s interest and energy in promoting diversity. By 2012, SedgAdvisory Council, and support staff. wick had in each office diversity committees for African American,

Diversity A more diverse workforce means better lawyers and a stronger firm. This is the underlying belief behind Sedgwick’s dedication to diversity. By 2012, diversity had become a formalized part of the firm’s infrastructure. The impetus for a more diverse workforce started in the 1990s, when a task force was formed to ensure that Sedgwick’s “best and brightest” reflected diversity in gender, race, and sexual orientation. “The ability to have a broader view of the issues is impaired if we don’t allow ourselves the opportunity to consider the broader views of our culture,” said Craig Barnes, cochair of the

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Right: C raig Barnes is cochair of Sedgwick’s Diversity Committee and the managing partner of the firm’s Los Angeles office. Below: T anya Lawson is cochair of Sedgwick’s Diversity Committee and works out of the firm’s Ft. Lauderdale office.

Asian Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and LGBT groups. Each of these affinity groups implements programs and sponsors speakers and events. Sedgwick’s focus on pipeline programs shows its commitment to a diverse future. To this end, the firm works with the Posse Program, which matches up diverse college students with an externship at the firm, with the hopes they will consider law school. The Summer Attorney Girls Inc. Externship (SAGE) program provides an externship for underprivileged high schools students, who can get an idea of careers available in the legal field. “This energizes all the attorneys at the firm and gives us access to and allows us to have contact with the next generation of lawyers,” said Barnes. The firm also works closely with the firm’s directors of professional development and training, marketing, division heads, and practice group leaders to ensure that diversity takes hold through all avenues, including recruitment, training, retention, and advancement. The firm’s efforts have been noticed: In 2012, Sedgwick won the California State Bar Diversity Award and ranked in the top fifty on the Corporate Counsel’s Diversity Scorecard in 2012.

Opposite: S edgwick Diversity Committee Annual Report and Diversity Symposium signage, and an LGBT Action Committee ad.

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Opposite: S edgwick Diversity Committee Annual Report and Diversity Symposium signage, and an LGBT Action Committee ad.

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The Sedgwick Legacy

Women’s Forum In 1971, when Cindy Plevin arrived at Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, she made firm history as the first female attorney. By 2012, the firm’s demographics had drastically changed: Females composed 24 percent of the firm’s partners, 29.6 percent of nonequity partners, and 17.2 percent of equity partners, with each of these numbers exceeding the industry standards. Today, there are not only more female attorneys but also more female clients and hiring managers than ever before. Statistics don’t tell the full story of the firm’s female attorneys. The Women’s Forum—founded by partner Stephanie Sheridan as chair and Chief Marketing Officer Kathleen Flynn as president—is a revolutionary program started in 2004 to respond to the unique needs of women while also celebrating their achievements. When Flynn arrived in 2003, she immediately saw the plethora of talent among Sedgwick’s women. Hoping to harness this talent, she took the idea of a women’s initiative to Chair Kevin Dunne to request funding. “He didn’t ask what we were specifically going

Right: ( left to right) Sedgwick partner Stephanie Sheridan, Clorox Sr. VP–GC Laura Stein, astronaut Sally Ride, and Deloitte LLP Vice Chairman Cathy Benko at a Women’s Forum event.

Sedgwick Women’s Forum

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to do with it,” she said. “He just said go forth and spend wisely.” The Women’s Forum was born. With a motto of “We Celebrate Women,” the forum takes a three-pronged approach to work vigorously to recruit, retain, and provide business development opportunities for women. The forum’s structure includes a board consisting of a female attorney in each office and an advisory board, composed of women from major corporations like JetBlue, Sony, and Apple. “We talk about what is going on for women in the profession, what the issues are in corporate America, how companies are finding solutions, and ask the board to hold us accountable to our annual Women’s Forum goals. It’s also a great business development opportunity,” says Flynn. The forum hosts women-only business development events, where attorneys can network with women clients. These have included high tea in New York and San Francisco, a historic trolley tour in Chicago, and a cocktail hour in Bermuda. Other events have included an impressive roster of speakers, such as Congresswoman Jackie Speier, writer Ayelet Waldman, New York Times columnist Lisa Belkin, 20/20 news anchor and author Lynn Sherr, and astronaut Sally Ride. In all, each office aims for at least two events each year. “It’s pretty inspirational,” said Lillian Stenfeldt, the chair in 2012. “People come away from the events really charged up.” Indeed: One attendee reported to management that these events nourished her soul. In addition, the forum provides internal programs designed to address issues facing woman professionals, featuring speakers on such topics as financial planning, professional image, nutrition, and work/life balance. And that’s not all: With an eye on retention, and developing leaders, the forum sends two women a year to an intensive workshop for female attorneys at UC Hastings law school. The forum also works with the Diversity Committee to sponsor a female high school student through the SAGE program, whereby she attends

Sedgwick Women’s Forum Above: S an Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris speaks at a 2007 Women’s Forum event.

Sedgwick Women’s Forum

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Right: ( left to right) Sedgwick partner Stephanie Sheridan, Clorox Sr. VP–GC Laura Stein, astronaut Sally Ride, and Deloitte LLP Vice Chairman Cathy Benko at a Women’s Forum event.

Sedgwick Women’s Forum

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Sedgwick Women’s Forum Above: S an Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris speaks at a 2007 Women’s Forum event.

Sedgwick Women’s Forum

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Sedgwick, Sushi and Sake Sedgwick Women

’s Forum

Tea at the Palace Ho French Parlor

October 7, 2010

tel Women’s Forum Mission Statement

Sedgwick Women’s Forum The Perfect Pairing

Sedgwick Women’s Forum

Welcomes You to the Elysian Spa Event

July 15, 2010

To foster professional growth and networking opportunities for women, and to address the unique professional challenges women attorneys face.

Left and Opposite Top: Invitations to Women’s Forum events.

Opposite Bottom: S edgwick partners Karen Woodward and Marilyn Klinger are featured in the firm’s “We Celebrate Women” campaign. Below: S edgwick’s 2012 Women’s Forum Committee and Advisory Council. AT T O R N E YS AT L AW

AT T O R NEYS AT L AW

A UST I N

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Sedgwick, Sushi and Sake Sedgwick Women

’s Forum

Tea at the Palace Ho French Parlor

October 7, 2010

tel Women’s Forum Mission Statement

Sedgwick Women’s Forum The Perfect Pairing

Sedgwick Women’s Forum

Welcomes You to the Elysian Spa Event

July 15, 2010

To foster professional growth and networking opportunities for women, and to address the unique professional challenges women attorneys face.

Left and Opposite Top: Invitations to Women’s Forum events.

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Below: “ Rule #73” from the firm’s national ad campaign.

The Sedgwick Legacy

depositions, court appearances, and gets to know about nonlegal job opportunities in the human resources, finance, and marketing departments. The forum is unique among law firms for putting so much time, effort, and resources toward women’s success—and the industry has taken note. “Women lateral partners have joined because of the Women’s Forum,” said Stenfeldt. “When looking at firms, it’s clear that women can thrive here.” These efforts, many by women in regional offices who are full-time attorneys, have been recognized: For two years running, the firm has garnered the Gold Standard Certification from the Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF), which highlights American law firms that have successfully integrated women partners in top leadership positions. Overall, Sedgwick’s success with diversity and the Women’s Forum came about in large part because the firm’s leadership saw the great benefit of these programs and put the full weight of the firm behind their goals.

A Firm’s Evolution While many competitors have spectacularly imploded, merged into oblivion, or simply fizzled out, Sedgwick has thrived. One way to measure its success is looking at statistics: In 2012, the firm had more than 370 attorneys, fifteen offices, and an AmLaw 200 ranking as the 139th largest firm in the country. It represents some of the world’s largest companies, nationally and overseas. But at Sedgwick, it’s not only about numbers. It’s about the people. It’s a place where people feel like they are supported and treated fairly. Where

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decisions are made democratically and transparently. Where lawyers are given enough responsibility so they can run with it and create their own destiny. This culture instills the kind of loyalty, collegiality, and passion that is the hallmark of Sedgwick. Why has Sedgwick survived when so many others have not? The firm stays focused on its core strengths in trial defense work. It has institutionalized a democratic management style, expanded mindfully, and hired thoughtfully. It focuses on education, mentoring, and client service. Together, these elements have aligned to create one of the country’s most reputable and successful litigation firms.

A Focus on Litigation Sedgwick is a litigation firm at heart. It has certainly changed with the times, adding nonlitigators with expertise in other practice areas, but overall it has been a trial defense firm for decades. This unique niche ensures that the culture of a trial defense firm prevails, even if an attorney never sets foot inside a courtroom. This focus makes it easy for attorneys to find common ground, both personally and professionally.

Conservative Business Practices Sound fiscal management has been at the core of Sedgwick for eighty years. The firm has never overextended its credit, spent money on lavish real estate, or pursued uncertain acquisitions. Instead, management has acted conservatively, opening new offices only in places with core clients and paying the bills first, partners second.

A Democratic Process Throughout its history, the firm has fostered a democratic culture where every partner’s opinion is valued and each person’s vote counts. Big decisions are never made unilaterally by one person behind closed doors: A Sedgwick partner’s retreat will often feature a lively debate over expansion, new partner candidates,

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

Below: “ Rule #73” from the firm’s national ad campaign.

The Sedgwick Legacy

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

The Sedgwick Legacy

or shedding a trouble client. The firm’s open management style, efforts to resolve issues fairly, and open-door policy makes Sedgwick truly unique.

Outstanding Client Service Excellent attorneys are one thing. But that’s only the beginning. The key to business development is focused on serving the client. This means being available and responsive, creative and intuitive. It means going above and beyond just being an excellent litigator. This is something that has been passed down from the days of Keith & Creede, and it differentiates Sedgwick from other firms of its size and scope.

Thoughtful Hiring Sedgwick has consistently hired people of integrity and the highest professional ability. It doesn’t hire people just because of how much business they produce; it hires those who are excellent lawyers. Because of this, the firm has enjoyed unusually low turnover; among a core group of attorneys that started in the 1970s, no partners left for decades.

Collegiality If there is one word to describe the culture of Sedgwick, it’s “collegial.” This term encapsulates the feeling at the firm that, across offices and across countries, Sedgwick attorneys help each other out. Partners assist new associates, and management keeps partners abreast of the firm’s dealings. People who come to Sedgwick from other firms immediately sense the difference.

its success are its people. They are excellent attorneys, contributing partners, and good friends, with a fierce loyalty to the firm, who have chosen to make Sedgwick home for their professional career. Cindy Plevin summed it up beautifully: The Sedgwick legacy is a legacy of people who are committed to making the civil justice system work by being as good at all of its aspects as they possibly can. By being very good analysts. By being very good trial lawyers. By being honest and fair with their opponents and honest and fair with the courts. There are so many firms that I’ve seen over the course of my career where that kind of honesty is really not valued. Where “win at any cost” is the ethos of the firm. I think Sedgwick has been committed to winning, but it has always been committed to doing it in an honest and forthright way. And that’s something that I think all of us can be very proud of. The memories of Gordon Keith, Frank Creede, Wally Sedgwick, Gunther Detert, Ed Moran, Bud Arnold, and many others endure. Whether a lifelong senior partner or a first-year associate, Sedgwick attorneys become part of this lineage of creative, intelligent, and impressive trial lawyers. Excellence, pride, and hard work lie at the heart of the firm’s foundation, built eighty years ago. These core elements have allowed Sedgwick to prosper, decade after decade. It is the ultimate victory and the foundation that assures that the firm will grow and prosper for decades to come.

Eighty Years of Excellence Sedgwick has endured, where others have so spectacularly failed, because it has a rich history and a commitment to excellence, and has been conservatively managed by partners with a vision for making the firm better and stronger. But even more important to

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Sedgwick: The Evolution of a Trial Firm

The Sedgwick Legacy

or shedding a trouble client. The firm’s open management style, efforts to resolve issues fairly, and open-door policy makes Sedgwick truly unique.

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The Evolution of Sedgwick 2004

1945

Bud Arnold dies

Firm name changed to Keith, Creede & Sedgwick

1941 1979

Gunther Detert joins firm

Los Angeles office

1942

1982

Firm name is changed to Keith, Creede & Leonard

2000

2009

Paris office

Fort Lauderdale office

1988

2011

Orange County office

2006

Wally Sedgwick dies

Firm name changed to Sedgwick LLP

Austin office

1946 Bud Arnold joins

1933

2001 Newark office

1959

Gordon Keith and Frank Creede form partnership and open office as Keith & Creede in San Francisco

Firm name changed to Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

1943 Wally Sedgwick joins

1960

1989 1985

2011

Chicago office

2006

London office

Seattle office

Houston office

Frank Creede dies

2001

1971

Dallas office

Gordon Keith dies

1937 Ed Leonard becomes the first associate

Ed Moran dies

1985 New York office

1945

2011

Zurich office

1994

2006

Washington, DC, office

Bermuda office

Gunther Detert dies

Ed Moran joins

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1991

1975

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The Evolution of Sedgwick 2004

1945

Bud Arnold dies

Firm name changed to Keith, Creede & Sedgwick

1941 1979

Gunther Detert joins firm

Los Angeles office

1942

1982

Firm name is changed to Keith, Creede & Leonard

2000

2009

Paris office

Fort Lauderdale office

1988

2011

Orange County office

2006

Wally Sedgwick dies

Firm name changed to Sedgwick LLP

Austin office

1946 Bud Arnold joins

1933

2001 Newark office

1959

Gordon Keith and Frank Creede form partnership and open office as Keith & Creede in San Francisco

Firm name changed to Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold

1943 Wally Sedgwick joins

1960

1989 1985

2011

Chicago office

2006

London office

Seattle office

Houston office

Frank Creede dies

2001

1971

Dallas office

Gordon Keith dies

1937 Ed Leonard becomes the first associate

Ed Moran dies

1985 New York office

1945

2011

Zurich office

1994

2006

Washington, DC, office

Bermuda office

Gunther Detert dies

Ed Moran joins

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1991

1975

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The Evolution of a Trial Firm

The Evolution

of a Trial Firm

www.sedgwicklaw.com

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