Andrew Tuegel, a plaintiff's attorney and partner with Simpson, Simpson, & Tuegel in Bridgeport (TX), joins us on today's show. Andrew talks about knowing your jurisdiction, becoming indispensable, being honest in an interview, and Ted Lasso. 




His firm/practice

Located in Wise County (NW of Fort Worth); Decatur is the county seat and their office is in Bridgeport
Small firm that focuses on plaintiff personal injury / wrongful death / mass tort practice. Most of the work is contingent fee; the rest is local business.
Majority of client base is in Wise County and the western part of the metroplex. Mass tort clients are nationwide.
Likes that he has tried cases all over the country, since even with the local clients, the case itself may get filed in other jurisdictions.
If you are filing in jurisdictions are aren't familiar with, know the substantive law that applies
Two jurisdictions in U.S. that still have a 1% comparative fault/contributory negligence bar to recovery (Virginia and North Carolina), so that might determine whether or not to take a case of where to file, etc.
Understand how the contingency fees can be structured (Texas has no cap other than not unconscionable; pretty wide latitude, but others have specific limitations on contingence fees)...this is a factor in how to evaluate/value the case.
Plaintiff lawyers are nervous every time the legislature meets
Big push for HB 19 (tort reform in trucking wreck context) that became effective 9/1.
Texas Supreme Court case recently allowed people pursing uninsured motorist claims can also get attorney fees.
COVID update (as of 8/19)
He has a case set for the end of September
He was recently in a hearing where mid-way through the judge had to end the hearing early because some type of exposure had occurred in the courthouse.
Nothing moves cases like firm trial dates.
Criminal trials take precedence and will bump the civil cases

Advice to lawyers in practice

Make yourself indispensable; find something that you can contribute to the team and that you are the best at. Become a necessary part of the team (shoutout to Baylor Law's Practice Court)
When he was with Harrison Steakley, Matt Morrison was the partner on a bunch of opioid overdose cases that needed a lot of expert/technical witnesses and related depositions, etc. He was good at briefing on these expert issues and making sure they could keep their expert and get rid of the other side's expert.
This led to him becoming part of the trial team for one of the cases in Utah, and then in Maine, and then in North Carolina. And while he briefed like crazy, he also got to take some of the witnesses at trial.
If you do well with a little thing, you will get more opportunities with larger things. The inverse is true: if you don't do the little things well, you won't get the larger opportunities.
Become the expert on novel or local rules/laws; this is a place for young lawyers to become the most knowledgeable about an area within their firm.
Steve Harrison, legendary Waco trial lawyer and a gentleman-rancher, said that in every law firm, you need some combination of chicken getters and chicken pluckers. And lawyers need to figure out where they are in the getter/plucker scale. Getter = bringing in clients/cases/business; Pluckers = bill hours/push cases/do the work. Some people are a combination of both. But you need to contribute to a firm in one or both of these ways in order to be valuable to them.
Re: business development from the plaintiff's side:
the more serious a case, the more relational the business development is going to be, either with the potential client or referral source (another attorney, friend of the client, etc.)
the less serious a case, the more a Google search or a response to an ad can work
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