Love Litigating Lawyers Day -- August 31
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Folks, it’s been, well, meh. The goat’s month in the pen is at an end.
For the final holiday pick, today is Love Litigating Lawyers Day. The goat is just going to let that one lie there.
As this goatdom cycle ends, the goat wants to thank everyone who participated and hopes everyone had a mediocre time.
- 4 comments, 3 replies
- Comment
welcome to the dead goat club!
@chienfou Thank you!
Good job, Goat, well done!
@Barney Thank you!
You did a great job! Enjoy retirement.
@tinamarie1974 Thank you! I am indeed enjoying retirement. I am also enjoying not being goat.
Litigating lawyers:
I think Joe Jamal (of the same family as the famous Houston grocery chain) got his career start as a lawyer when a drunk driver in Houston hit a tree. Jamail convinced a jury that the accident was the “tree’s fault”, and consequently the city’s fault.
(There has been a number of driving incidents involving that tree, if I recall. The city had taken no action. Jamal convinced the jury that the physical setting was inherently dangerous and known to be so by the city. Or something like that.)
Jamail went in to craft a stellar and storied career. His most famous case was undoubtedly Pennzoil vs Texaco (involving the incredibly ugly Getty Oil takeover, at the time the largest takeover is history) where he crushed Texaco (at the time the 8th largest company in the world), in court and forced them into bankruptcy, taking advantage of the stupidity of Texaco officers to force them into witness box.
His fee for that one was (legitimately, by the legal standards of the time) was more than $1b, after the settlement was negotiated down by the court; his fee according to the original judgment might have exceeded $5b.
And most people think that Pennzoil got their money’s worth when they hired him.
And many folk think that Texaco had it coming.
He was also a lifelong UT Austin fan and Longhorn supporter.
/image Joe Jamail
