Page 22 - Miami Vol 8 No 1

2019 SUPERSTAR
Jonathan Pollard
STRONG AT THE BROKEN PLACES
AALM: Do you have any mentors or professors that en- couraged you along the way?
Pollard: My mother is my hero. She was my rst friend in the whole world. She taught me strength, compassion, sacri ce and hard work. My father and I never got along and fought constantly throughout my childhood. But he had his own business selling used shelving. And he taught me the value in that. e value in having your own busi- ness and being a free man. My h-grade teacher Mr. Pe- ters doubled as the principal at Fayetteville Elementary. He was a country boy. Army veteran. Heart of gold. is man always encouraged me to go my own way and stand up for what I believed in, even when I was 10 years old! At Cornell, I spent hours hanging out with my English and history professors Michael Kammen, Lydia Fakundiny, Lamar Herrin, and John Weiss, just trying to gure out my life. ey were all so gracious and so wise. A er law school, I had the great fortune to begin my career at Boies Schiller & Flexner. My bosses Stuart Singer and David Barrett both clerked on the United States Supreme Court and are brilliant lawyers. I learned a lot from them.
AALM: What experiences have taught you the most? Pollard: Ugly situ- ations make you tougher. Let’s not mince words: Law is an ugly business. I’ve lost $700,000 on a contingency fee case because the clients lied to me about the facts and hid critical evidence from me. I’ve had lawyers le bogus motions to disqualify me because their client once came up to talk to me in the gym! Ev- erybody is constantly threatening sanctions. Some lawyer in Tampa tried to strong arm me into paying $20,000 to resolve a pending motion for sanctions against my rm in
state court. You think he
rolled me? No. I suited
up, got on a plane, went
into court and handled
my business. I’ve had a
rogue client who I never
should have represented
accuse me of legal mal-
practice because I didn’t
turn their Hail Mary
case into millions of
dollars. Do you think
I lost sleep over that
or paid them a dime?
Never. I’ve had a judge
threaten to throw my
clients in jail and the
70-year-old opposing
counsel squaring o in
my face, nose-to-nose,
smirking, thinking he’s
got me beat. Meanwhile, I pull o a miracle to win the case, and save the clients from jail and nancial ruin only for them to sti me on $40,000 on the back end. Get used to it. e higher you climb, the bigger the stakes, the more you challenge the status quo, the uglier it’s going to get. You either level up, get tougher and learn how to deal with really ugly situations, or, you get rolled. Pressure busts pipes or it makes diamonds.
AALM: What do you nd particularly rewarding about your practice?
Pollard: I love my colleagues. ey are amazing. Every day, we are ghting against some of the biggest law rms in the country. We are litigating challenging, high-risk cases. And quite o en, we are advancing novel, cutting edge arguments. We have a mission. We ght for causes that we believe in. We are making a di erence in the lives of our clients. And I feel that we are making a di erence in the system as a whole. It’s an honor that such brilliant people and amazing human beings would join me on this mission.
AALM: What do you nd particularly challenging about your practice?
Pollard: We defend lots of non-compete cases. We do this at every level of every industry. From factory work- ers and security guards to C-level executives of publicly
ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · MIAMI · VOL. 8 NO. 1 22
Ugly situations make you tougher.”