Colleen, let's start off with you and, uh, talk about what you do and who you primarily serve.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I'm a trial lawyer first.

Um, mainly that looks like business disputes, although we're helping injury victims now, people who slip and fall.

Um, you know, sometimes we're in the probate court, sometimes I'm helping veterans who've been treated badly.

But by and large, I'm working with entrepreneurs and executives to help them protect what they're building.

Um, and that's about 10 to 15% front-end work.

What would be your advice to them, I guess?

So what are the most common reasons courts decide to hold an owner personally liable? What behaviors or decisions typically lead to that point?

Yeah.

So when we're talking about piercing the veil, we're talking about, OK, we are going to hold you personally liable for what the company's debts are under these contracts.

It's really two pretty heavy burdens and they're separate and you have to have both.

The first is liability.

You didn't keep this separate, right? You commingled funds, and that's the easiest thing to do, especially as a smaller business owner, right? Oh, I put that on my credit card, but I never really reimbursed it properly, or money's tight in the personal account, so I'm just going to pull from the business account for this month, or...

I have multiple companies under a holding company because I want that protection.

So with that being said, how does mixing that personal business finances create that problem? How often do business owners end up doing that without realizing the risk they actually are creating maybe for the long term?

So if an internal issue eventually turns into that litigation, how can the company's early investigative process affect its legal position later on?

Yeah, so that internal early process is really going to set the stage for how litigation plays out, right? We're building our case.

We have like a claims chart that says, here are the causes of action that we're bringing, or here are the defenses that we're bringing.

Here's what we have to prove.

And that early internal investigation is really going to set the stage for, can we check those boxes? And if so, how well or are we checking the other side's boxes and we need to settle this or take care of it because we're dead to rights.

Right.

It's that early process that says I retained this information so I can defend myself or I can bring this claim effectively or I'm even in a situation where maybe I'm going to get.

So looking proactively, what internal policies or systems make it easier for companies to respond effectively when serious concerns arise unexpectedly?

And what makes a non-compete or a restrictive covenant enforceable under Texas law as opposed to something that looks good on paper but fails in court?

Yeah, I see it all the time.

You know, we're working with a lot of clients on what we're calling like their trade secret tune ups and helping them get ahead of this.

And oftentimes I'll look and I'm like, where the heck did this non-compete come from? It is not worth the paper that it's printed on.

And I genuinely don't know.

And sometimes they tell me they worked with a lawyer and that kind of blows my mind.

Usually where we see it is with key employees, right? If you're talking about trying to keep your janitorial staff from competing, the law is going to say, I just don't know that you're actually protecting a business interest there.

How does enforcement differ when the dispute involves a competitor, a former insider or maybe a departing founder?

You know, Colleen, what is a motion for summary judgment and why does it matter to a business owner who wants an efficient resolution to their case?

Yeah, that's a really great question.

So this is like the nitty gritty of legal procedure, but...

Let's say that you have a case where you have a contract dispute.

You think that the contract is really clear.

You win.

The other side disagrees.

And I know this has just happened a couple of months ago, but how does a business owner's litigation timeline look different today than it did before these changes took effect?

Without getting into any confidential specifics, what did the final stretch actually look like from the inside?

Yeah.

So trial's my very favorite thing that I get to do.

It's what I went to law school to do.

But, you know, coming right out of it, it is fascinating to me how all-consuming and how much resources and energy it takes from the entire trial team and from the client.

So a little bit of background about this case.

We represented a real estate consultant who So she worked with investors and companies to help them develop apartment complexes.

And Colleen, in a business dispute, how do you keep a jury engaged with all these facts and having distractions

Can you explain what discovery covers and why it would ever reach a Claude or chat GPT conversation?

Yeah, absolutely.

And this is one of those things, Lisa, where like, really, the analysis hasn't changed.

Right.

And so that's been really interesting as I've watched these federal courts come down.

So the U.S. is kind of unique in our discovery and what we allow.

So you don't have to have marshaled all of your evidence in order to bring a claim to court.

So what privileges protect what an attorney does and what an attorney discusses with their clients?