How did you do it? Financial Success Thread

[woodguy]

Posted this a while back in this forum.

[Howard Treesong]

I grew up in Malibu as part of a family of academics. Many of my friends and acquaintances were very wealthy; we were not poor, but not rich by any means. My father taught at UCLA; my stepmother, at Loyola Marymount. School wasn't too tough for me and I managed to get into MIT. I messed around my freshman year and did not do well, then fell hard for a hot smart chick and, after she decided she didn't want to be the future Mrs. Treesong, dropped out as a sophmore. Spending six months in the working world in a crap job teaching WordPerfect sent me back to school in a hurry with the realization that if I ever wanted to buy a house in Malibu, the only one that could make that happen was me.

I then started concentrating on school and graduated with a 3.2-equivalent and, with a strong LSAT, got into Duke for law school. I didn't go to class much but felt very comfortable going into exams and pretty much smoked my first year, which I capped off by writing on to the Law Review. As all small children know, that's a key for finding a good job in the law world.

After deciding that I needed to learn how to write and how to see cases from the other side, I took a clerkship for a federal judge and worked for him in Atlanta for a year. That job involved writing and editing every single day.

After that one-year gig was over, I took a job with a big law firm with an office in LA. I started off making $75K a year, and decided after two years that I was smart enough and liked the job well enough to try to make partner. My only significant bump in the road came when my secretary got fired for being an idiot and reacted by suing the firm and naming me, asserting various sexual harassment allegations. I shut my mouth and continued to work hard and well; and after that went away, I made one partner cut -- making approximately $350K. I found I liked the execution part of my job: writing, editing, taking depositions, appearing in court, and trying cases.

Shortly after that, I gambled and argued to the firm that we should take a case on contingency for a small client who had gotten screwed by Lockheed. The firm agreed. Two years later, a federal district judge granted summary judgment against us on all counts. Two years after that, largely based on my brief and my depositions, the 9th Circuit reversed and remanded for trial. Two of my partners and I tried the case; we won $64.5 million. Largely on the strength of that case, I made the second partnership cut, which was huge -- from $350K up to about $1MM/year.

I stayed in that job for five years. At that point, I recognized that I did not have my own client base. I believed that would ultimately become a career-limiting fact, and the struggle to generate clients was a horrific millstone around my neck every day. So I interviewed for a job managing litigation at a big company, and got the job virtually immediately, and took it.

It's a job that's much more suited to my personality. Its analytical and variable, but it doesn't depend on sales. It pays much less than my old job, but I left my partnership with $4MM in liquid assets, so salary isn't so crucial for me any more. It's much more important to me to be respected and liked, and to be back on an upward track.

I still work hard. I like it. I travel around the country and have significant autonomy. I've developed expertise in what I do and take good care to use good judgment. In sixteen years as a lawyer, I've lied to my opposition exactly twice. I've argued motions that had a billion dollars of client money riding on the line, and I won enough money for a four-owner company that the owners can retire for life -- and they entirely deserved it. I treat my colleagues fairly and well, and have established a reputation for good humor, intelligence, and honesty.

Oh, yeah: I bought a house in LA in '96. Sold it 18 months later for a 75% profit, then bought another and sold it too. Rinsed and repeated, making money on each transaction. We close on what will be our fifth house next Wednesday; this one is in Minneapolis, where I live now -- on the shores of a nice lake close to downtown.

I'm 43. I hope to be the general counsel of a fortune 500 company within ten years. I have a realistic shot of making it.

Cliffs notes: worked hard, found career that fits disposition and natural talent. Stayed with basics of discipline and honesty.

[john voight]

damn, howard. that is all I can say.

Well done.

[lippy]

Howard,

I hate to try to network through 2p2, but I feel like throwing a Hail Mary. If you ever need some kind of intern in the future I'm your man. Seriously.

I go to the U of MN and will be graduating -- with a good GPA and work history -- in 13 months and would love to see what your kind of work is like, as it is my aspiration to go to law school after taking a year or two off.

Your story is fantastic and I hope to be so lucky as to emulate it.

[ChipStorm]

These are a treat to read. I'm a piker compared to other posters, but Quicken tells me I passed $1MM net worth a little while back so I guess that's worth a few words.

[ QUOTE ]
Cliffs notes: worked hard, found career that fits disposition and natural talent. Stayed with basics of discipline and honesty.

[/ QUOTE ]

I fit Howard's cliff notes, and for a success story am totally standard:

Upper-middle class, well-educated parents (father Rhodes scholar)
Excellent public schools (private not affordable)
On to ivy league
Engineering degree
MBA
Into finance/capital markets
Mortgage finance late 80s
Boutique mortgage/RTC work early 90s
Large mutual fund company mid 90s
Major NYC ibank late 90s
Electricity/energy trading firm 00-present
Now in heavy technical/quant group, lots of code-slinging
Supporting homemaker wife & young daughter
House in the burbs, annual golf trips with the old buddies

[renodoc]

[ QUOTE ]


Shortly after that, I gambled and argued to the firm that we should take a case on contingency for a small client who had gotten screwed by Lockheed. The firm agreed. Two years later, a federal district judge granted summary judgment against us on all counts. Two years after that, largely based on my brief and my depositions, the 9th Circuit reversed and remanded for trial. Two of my partners and I tried the case; we won $64.5 million. Largely on the strength of that case, I made the second partnership cut, which was huge -- from $350K up to about $1MM/year.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had to read this three times, because I thought i was going to call you out on it. Since you are a respected poster (myself included in that respect) I'd like to hear just a little more detail about the small client that got screwed and the lawfirm that made >$20MM on it. In general I side with Shakespeare, but perhaps more facts can persuade me otherwise.

[burningyen]

[ QUOTE ]
In general I side with Shakespeare...

[/ QUOTE ]
This old chestnut again. You side with Dick in Henry VI. Google it.

[Howard Treesong]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


Shortly after that, I gambled and argued to the firm that we should take a case on contingency for a small client who had gotten screwed by Lockheed. The firm agreed. Two years later, a federal district judge granted summary judgment against us on all counts. Two years after that, largely based on my brief and my depositions, the 9th Circuit reversed and remanded for trial. Two of my partners and I tried the case; we won $64.5 million. Largely on the strength of that case, I made the second partnership cut, which was huge -- from $350K up to about $1MM/year.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had to read this three times, because I thought i was going to call you out on it. Since you are a respected poster (myself included in that respect) I'd like to hear just a little more detail about the small client that got screwed and the lawfirm that made >$20MM on it. In general I side with Shakespeare, but perhaps more facts can persuade me otherwise.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure. A couple of points right off the bat: the law firm didn't make anywhere close to $20MM on it; we were on a variable contingency, and I think the final number was a bit over $7MM. The case is Cable & Computer Technology v. Lockheed; here's a link to one of the Ninth Circuit opinions that does a passable job of describing the factual setting: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bi...mp;no=9955004.

Basically, one Lockheed division (Sanders) agreed to team with CCT to submit a bid to Boeing to upgrade mission control computers on the B1-B with CCT as prime contractor. Although no written contract was signed, that division of Lockheed sent four guys out to CCT to work up the bid package. Unbeknownst to CCT, Lockheed met internally with another division (Owego) and disclosed CCT's bidding prices to Owego. Two days before the bid was due, Sanders called CCT and backed out of the agreement to submit a bid, giving no explanation. Owego won it. In discovery, we found an email from the meeting saying something semantically similar to this: "CCT's bid prices were disclosed. They are so confidential that I am not writing them down."

When we filed the case, CCT would have taken a much much lower number. Lockheed played hardball the entire way, deposing each of CCT's four principals for a total of 25 days and leaning hard on their own employees to buy off on their outside counsel's arguments. One of Lockheed's employees, as the opinion notes, sent in an affidavit that the court discusses. He was indeed let go.

I've spent about 90% of my career as a defense lawyer and so appreciate your sentiments. There's a good bit of stupidity in that particular business; I've been considering firing up an EDF post on the asbestosis/silicosis class action rackets that have been going on for years.

[renodoc]

Thanks Howard.

Everytime I have an interaction with my fine lawyer friends I usually vomit in my mouth a little. The utterly absurd "lottery mentality" that most Americans have these days with regard to any type of liability is sickening-- some times sh*t just happens and that's life.

[Howard Treesong]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Howard.

Everytime I have an interaction with my fine lawyer friends I usually vomit in my mouth a little. The utterly absurd "lottery mentality" that most Americans have these days with regard to any type of liability is sickening-- some times sh*t just happens and that's life.

[/ QUOTE ]

I generally agree with that principle, and it likewise seems to me that America has lost some sight of that.