< PreviousAALM: Describe your background and le- gal career. Wysocki: After receiving a B.A. in Anthro- pology from the University of Texas, I gradu- ated with honors from Texas Tech University School of Law in January 2008 with my law degree and a Master of Business Administra- tion. After graduation I joined a highly re- spected law firm in Lubbock, Texas, where I practiced primarily civil litigation. I was able to work with lawyers who were willing to give me first chair trial experience, and challenged me to be confident in my abilities. Shortly, after welcoming our first daugh- ter, my husband, who I met and married in law school, and I moved to Dallas. When we moved in 2010, I joined the firm of David & Goodman, PC, which has since been acquired by Fox Rothschild, LLP. While at Fox Roth- schild, I practiced primarily family law, but always maintained a civil litigation practice, which gave me a breadth of experience in nu- merous practice areas. Because family law re- quires knowledge and integration of so many different areas of law, this experience has been vital to my growth as a family lawyer. In Feb- ruary 2019, I was appointed by Governor Ab- bott as the presiding judge of the 254th Judi- cial District Court, a family court bench. I am up for election in November 2020. AALM: What do you love about being a judge? Wysocki: I love the feeling that I can make a difference in the people’s lives who come before me. I am not hampered by a clock or a party’s ability to pay. I can spend as much time as I need to make the best decision I can. I know it may sound cliché, but a day does not go by that I do not contemplate the magnitude of the task before me and pray for the serenity, strength, and wisdom in my decision-making. In divorce cases, I get to close a chapter for two parties, hopefully in a manner that gives dignity to the covenant they shared and allows them to move forward with their lives. In cas- es involving children, I have the unique po- sition of being able to craft an outcome that gives the child a “win,” and that is an amazing gift. AALM: Describe your style in the courtroom. Wysocki: My style is welcoming and approachable, while being dignified and professional. It is ex- tremely important to maintain respect and decorum in the courtroom. The deci- sions that I make af- fect people’s lives and that is not lost on me. I want the litigants to understand that as well. I expect every- one in my courtroom to respect the solem- nity of the issues that are before me. I believe respect for the judicial system is integral to the preservation of our system of justice. AALM: What do you miss and not miss about being a lawyer? Wysocki: I miss the camaraderie of law firm practice. I was blessed to be a part of law firms that also felt like family. I had worked with the same people for close to 10 years. Someone once told me that being a judge was like being on an island of your own, and that has turned out to be very true. It can feel isolating to not have the constant flow of col- leagues (even just for small talk) or the ability to analyze issues as a team. I do not miss working on a billable hour quota. When you work on a billable hour, even your free time never quite feels free, JUDICIAL PR OFILE A CONVERS A TION WITH Judge Ashley Wysocki ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · DALLAS· VOL. 7 NO. 1 10because that time has to be made up elsewhere. AALM: What do you do in your spare time? Hobbies? Wysocki: I am blessed to be a wife and mother to three amazing children, ages 10, 7, and 11 months, and nothing is more important to me. Most of my free time is spent with my family doing the things that make them happy. I love to paint, do crafts, and cook (although, I’m not very good!). I am also known to binge watch British miniseries, especially historical fiction. As a family, we enjoy going to the country on the weekends, where our children have a chance to run free and climb trees. I love to sit on the back porch with a cup of coffee and listen to the birds, or under the stars in front of the campfire roasting S’mores. I grew up in the countryside of South Texas and on the Gulf Cost, and be- ing outdoors is almost second nature to me. Now, if only we could get some salt water in North Texas! AALM: Do you have any advice for attorneys trying a case in your court- room? Wysocki: Be respectful. It can be easy to become emotional and frus- trated when dealing with a difficult opposing party or attorney. Being rude to the other attorney, the other party, or the court, is a mistake that takes away from your client’s case. Be prepared. Almost every attorney I see is prepared to argue the facts- the most effective lawyers know the ele- ments of each part of their case and tie those facts to the elements of their case. If you can anticipate a novel is- sue coming up, then be prepared to cite the statute or bring me case law. If you quote a legal “rule,” then I ex- pect you to be able to point me to the authority. I am known to turn to the rules or review a case from the bench. It also helps if you provide the court with a paper copy of your brief and relevant case law before the hearing. AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 1110 Lessons on Culture That Every Managing Partner Can Learn from Zappos.com BY AARON Y. STRAUSS It’s been almost ten years since I started A.Y. Strauss, LLC – a bou- tique law firm with today a team of approximately 20 professionals. We have made many mistakes along the way and overcome many obstacles – and still have a long way to go. Along the journey, I’ve come to realize that the special ingredient to really drive growth in a firm is culture. In the famous words of management consultant Peter Druck- er: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” But what exactly is culture anyway? How is culture developed, defined and leveraged for success? I was incredibly impacted by Tony Hsieh’s book, Delivering Happi- ness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, and his views on culture development. Tony sold his first company after the culture deteriorat- ed and it no longer left him feeling energized or inspired. After initially serving as an early stage investor, Tony ultimately assumed the reigns as CEO of Zappos.com and grew it into a thriving multibillion-dollar company leveraging culture as a key driver of the business. Here are ten lessons on culture to learn from Tony’s experiences. 1. DESPITE COMMON THINKING, IT’S NOT ONLY ABOUT THE MONEY. Tony Hsieh left a thriving business where he was achieving suc- cess because he wanted more out of his professional life. Money alone wasn’t enough. Of course, we all show up to work to support ourselves and our families – but the way we feel every day interacting with our team, clients and vendors is what creates the missing link to retain tal- ent and grow the business. When your firm treats people respectfully and values their input – creating a feeling of mutual support, safety and respect – this engenders loyalty to the organization and a deeper sense of connection to the team itself. 2. BALANCE HUMILITY AND CONFIDENCE. Your team should be confident in their abilities and the value they can offer to others, and that confidence should shine through—but not to the point of self-righteousness. Be authentically human. Tony says it perfectly: “While we celebrate our individual and team successes, we are not arrogant, nor do we treat others differently from how we would want to be treated. Instead, we carry ourselves with quiet confidence, because we believe that in the long run, our character will speak for itself.” 3. BE UNIQUE. Your firm is an organic entity—and it is yours alone. Don’t try to be like everyone else. Do your own thing. Look at what will make your firm successful based on what your unique team of individuals brings to the table. Celebrate the uniqueness of every person in your orga- nization and the uniqueness of the culture only your team is able to form. ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · DALLAS· VOL. 7 NO. 1 124. DEEPEN CONNECTEDNESS. When you foster an environment of generosity, grati- tude and genuine caring, you create a feeling of connect- edness. Meaningful connectedness leads to happiness and optimism, which permeates every corner of your organi- zation and beyond. Connectedness creates a sense of secu- rity, excitement and purpose among your team who feed off each other’s energy to serve a greater purpose. 5. RELATIONSHIP-BUILDING BREEDS LONG-TERM SUCCESS. It’s easy to focus strictly on increasing margins and cut- ting costs – but you also need to invest in common sense long-term relationship building. Zappos decided early on not to charge for shipping costs of returned items – making it extra easy to do business with them despite the added expense. Instead of a cost line item, Zappos viewed free shipping as a marketing expense. As another example, while other companies tend to make it hard to reach cus- tomer service and decrease the amount of time spent on the phone with customers to reduce overhead – Zappos flipped the script entirely by having internal competitions of which customer service representatives could have the longest possible calls with customers, viewing the cost as an investment in the customer relationship. Having a company that values long-term customer re- lationships in turn makes it easier to build a supportive culture – since your team can align with those values and be more at ease and feel safe to make decisions to achieve those goals. As Tony says “[if] something creates a great customer experience, we choose to do it, because we be- lieve that in the long run, little things that keep the cus- tomer in mind will end up paying huge dividends.” 6. LIFE DOESN’T WAIT FOR BUSINESS. Business doesn’t wait for life. There’s been much writ- ten on work/life balance in recent years, but what does that mean, anyway? It’s more than giving your team the flexibility to work remotely or offering ample vacation time. It’s about understanding and embracing the multi- dimensional make up of each person’s life. Create a work- place that values those dimensions, inside and outside of work, and you’ll find that you have a team that is loyal and happy. Meaningful balance leads to happiness. Happiness strengthens culture. The cycle of success continues. 7. ALIGN YOUR TEAM TO THE SAME MISSION. Perhaps you don’t know what that is today, and that’s fine. But by bringing your team together to create a joint mission—one that everyone contributes to and is invested in— they will be energized in knowing they’re part of a greater purpose. The collective energy and unity will shine through to the customer experience and ultimately drive revenue. As Tony says, culture and brand are just two sides of the same coin – the brand is just a lagging indicator of a company’s culture. 8. IF YOU DON’T CONTINUE TO INVEST IN YOUR PEOPLE, CULTURE STAGNATES. In order to build a strong, sustainable business and de- liver excellence to your customers, an investment in your own people is absolutely critical. Sadly, many firms don’t see it this way—as it can be difficult to measure certain in- tangibles. When you invest in your team, you deepen the culture and your clients benefit from a more positive and consistent experience. 9. BE A SERVANT TO YOUR TEAM. The idea of being a “servant leader,” although counter- intuitive, is gaining more traction in books on leadership. True leaders understand that to successfully build culture, and ultimately have your team reach the highest levels of performance – you need to offer support and guidance to help others grow. Be a coach, not a manager. When you help your people achieve greatness, they will help you achieve greatness. 10. CULTURE CREATES LONG-TERM VALUE BUT MUST BE PROTECTED. Tony grew Zappos.com by understanding that one of the only things you cannot copy from a company is the culture. Zappos.com famously pays new trainees $2,000 to quit after the first week of training if they cannot align with company values. Maintaining and building culture often requires great discipline to reject otherwise talented people during the hiring process that do not align with company culture. The best team members have a positive influence on one another and create harmony in an orga- nization. You must be patient to hire the right people and prioritize culture – as you are making a mission-critical investment in your firm’s long-term success. AARON Y. STRAUSS IS ONE OF THE LEADING LEGAL ADVISORS IN THE COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY, PROVIDING INSIGHT AND GUIDANCE FOR BILLIONS WORTH OF TRANSACTIONS DUR- ING HIS CAREER. AS OUR FIRM’S FOUNDER AND MANAGING PART- NER, HE HAS POSITIONED A.Y. STRAUSS AS ONE OF THE REGION’S MOST RESPECTED LAW FIRMS FOR COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE OWNERS, LENDERS AND SPONSORS, SERVING THE NEEDS OF OUR CLIENTS WITH THE UTMOST IN CARE, INTEGRITY AND TRANSPAR- ENCY. AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 13law firm The A Nationwide Practice Dedicated to Vehicle Safety 221144--332244--99000000 We Didn’t Invent the Word; We DEFINED it. CCRRAASSHHWWOORRTTHHIINNEESSSS:: Every vehicle accident case you handle has the potential to be on one of the 235 racks at our Forensic Research facility where we continually study vehicle safety through the use of engineering, biomechanics, physics and innovation. If you have any questions about a potential case, please call us. There may be vehicle safety system defects that caused your client’s catastrophic injury or death.© 2018, Angels of Blue Protective Services, PLLC. All Rights Reserved.A TT ORNEY OF THE MONTH CHRIS LEWIS Leveling the Playing Field in Criminal Defense BY DAN BALDWIN “I f you had told me back when I graduated from law school and I went to work as a pros- ecutor that one day I would be a criminal de- fense lawyer, I would have told you there’s no way that’s going to happen – absolutely,” says Chris Lewis, founder of Chris Lewis & Associates, P.C. Today Lewis is a nationally recognized criminal defense lawyer who has handled more than 300 jury trials and has an acquittal rate approaching 90 percent. He comes by his commitment to defense naturally. His father was a 34-year veteran of the Texas Department of Public Safety. He grew up with a respect for the law and for the need for accountability in the law and its officers. His parents divorced when he was five – a highly dis- ruptive event that was a major turning point in his life. Even at that young age, as the oldest child Lewis felt a need to take care of his family. That included a need for advo- cacy. “A lot of what I do now and why I do what I do now stems from those days in which I was an advocate for my mom and my dad in their disagreements. I’ve always been the person that my family turns to in a time of crisis or when something needs to get done,” he says.HA TLEY S TUDIO S AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 17Those moments parallel what he does now. Lewis says he seeks to find a way to humanize his clients, tell their story, and defend them in a way that others realize they are human be- ings and deserving of some sort of redemp- tion. “I’ve never done well when I’ve seen inequality. I can’t just sit back and allow it to happen. I feel like I’m at my best whenever things are at their worst for other people and they turn to me to help put the pieces back to- gether. And, I think that probably started dur- ing my disruptive childhood and how I was forced to handled it.” EVERY CASE A BIG CASE “Every single case I’ve handled has been a big case because it directly impacted an indi- vidual person. To my clients, their case is the most important thing in their lives at that mo- ment, it is the most troubling thing they are dealing with, and it has personal and profes- sional consequences. My clients feel strongly enough about their cases that they hire me as their advocate, they trust me to take their cas- es to trial, and they have enough confidence in our criminal justice system to put their lives in the hands of 12 strangers. In that scenario, I don’t have a choice. I have to be in 100 per- cent.” Lewis’ commitment to leveling the playing field for the little guy, regardless of the odds, is exemplified by his defense two years ago of a 65-year-old businessman in a federal case held in Lubbock within the Northern District of Texas. Not only did Lewis and his client face a powerful government agency, the IRS, but that particular jurisdiction is highly conserva- tive. More than 20 people on the jury panel had served as jurors in the past. None of them had ever voted for the acquittal of a defendant His client, an accountant who owned a lot of businesses (primarily Dairy Queens), was charged with a crime the prosecution felt was strict liability. The charges were 12 counts of tax fraud in failure to pay payroll taxes. The effect of paying the amount the government claimed was due would have been devastat- ing to his business. In some of these small communities, the Dairy Queen was the larg- est employer in the entire town. The case oc- curred during the recession and the client was struggling to keep people employed. The IRS decided to take the case from a civil situation and refer it to criminal prosecution. The client wasn’t hiding anything and was fil- ing his taxes. He was selling assets to pay off what he owed. He was also trying to do things in a way that kept people employed during a recession. Lewis’ client had been doing what he felt was right even though in the eyes of the law it was illegal. The trial lasted a week. Lewis felt very good about how the trial progressed but knew the deck was stacked against his client. Regardless of the outcome, everyone expected I’ve never done well when I’ve seen inequality. I can’t just sit back and allow it to happen. I feel like I’m at my best whenever things are at their worst for other people and they turn to me to help put the pieces back together.” FRANCISCO “FRANK” DAVILA, LEWIS AND LUKAS GARCIA “ VANESS A GA VAL YA ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · DALLAS· VOL. 7 NO. 1 18a quick verdict. The evidence was straightforward and most of the facts were not in dispute. The only question was whether the jury be- lieved Lewis’ client had engaged in criminal conduct or was justified in his actions. The jury was out for more than ten hours and Lewis be- gan to fear that his arguments had fallen on deaf ears. The jury came back with a not guilty verdict on all 12 counts. Lewis says, “That was one of the proudest moments of my legal career because I thought we were fighting against insurmountable odds. I was con- cerned the jury wouldn’t understand that my client’s actions were driven by his heart, which was in the right place. The jury spoke loud and clear to everyone with their verdict, saying ‘we know what you did; we understand what you did. You did the right thing.’ It doesn’t get any better than that.” PULLING THE TRIGGER ON A MID- COURSE CORRECTION As an undergraduate at Evangel University, Lewis wanted a career in law enforcement. “I knew the legal route was one of the paths into the FBI and I loved the criminal side of the law. At that time, I never could have con- ceived of representing somebody charged with a crime.” Lewis earned a double major in government and psychology. He entered Bay- lor University School of Law to earn his Juris Doctor. Feeling a need to earn real-world legal experience, he became an assistant district at- torney for Harris County, and later William- son County and Dallas County. He met his wife, Holly, while at William- son County. The drive for a stable family life changed his desire to work for the FBI and a need to support a new lifestyle and growing family moved him into civil litigation at one of the premier civil trial firms in the state. The money was nice for a while, but after working civil cases for four years he felt as though he wasn’t growing as an attorney and he knew wasn’t enjoying the work. At that point in time, money was no longer a moti- vating factor. He knew the time was right to get back to criminal work. “I pulled the trigger in 2004 and have never looked back.” AUTHENTICITY IS EVERYTHING Being married, raising kids, and represent- ing people against seemingly insurmountable odds has changed his outlook on his profes- sion and the manner in which he handles cases and clients. He says he now sees things from the con- struct of the individual, and to convey that to a judge or a jury, an attorney must be sincerely committed to his client’s cause. “In this busi- ness, authenticity is everything. If you’re not authentic, you’re not going to be effective.” Experience is a key factor in his remarkable acquittal rate. He believes strongly that peo- ple would be better citizens and therefore the government would be better if we were seri- ous students of history. Lewis says, “If some- body came to you, regardless of your profes- sion, and said ‘Hey, I’m going to give you a playbook. This is what works. And this is what doesn’t.’ You’d be a fool not to read it, learn it, study it, but we don’t do it with respect to some of the most important things. When it comes to criminal defense, I know the play- book.” Sharing that experience is also key to man- aging an effective and efficient staff. His man- agement philosophy is to hire good people, train them well and then refrain from micro- managing. “Everyone has their own style. I try not to do anything that’s going to change who they are.” MAINTAINING PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL BALANCE Lewis and Holly, who is also an attorney, have been married almost 18 years. They have four children: Luke, 9, Kate and Lauren twins, 7, Huck, 3. The couple enjoys spending time with friends and family and traveling. “In this business, authenticity is everything. If you’re not authentic, you’re not going to be effective.” LEWIS WITH HIS WIFE, HOLLY LEWIS LEWIS WITH HIS CHILDREN. TOP: HUCK AND LUKE. BOTTOM: LAUREN AND KATE. 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