The Josh Bolton Show
The Josh Bolton Show
From Classroom Struggles to Legal Triumph: Daniel's Journey of Perseverance and Innovation
What drives someone from the bottom of their high school class to the top of the legal field? Daniel, a successful trial lawyer and law firm founder, shares his remarkable journey that began in a modest household with a policeman father and a grocery store working mother. His story is not just about his rise in the legal world, but a testament to the power of perseverance, preparation, and an unyielding desire to help others. Discover how Daniel's commitment to not procrastinating and his dedication to preparation laid the foundation for what would become a highly reputable law firm spanning over four decades.
Balancing a legal career and family life is no small feat, but Daniel reveals the strategies that helped him maintain focus and harmony in both realms. From creative problem-solving in legal practice to strategic defense tactics aimed at gaining an advantage without crossing ethical lines, his insights are invaluable. Listen as Daniel shares real stories, including a clever self-help repossession strategy that highlights the importance of creativity in law. For those eager to learn from a seasoned legal expert, Daniel’s blend of human-centered leadership and innovative thinking provides a wealth of knowledge for both aspiring and practicing lawyers.
https://callahanconsulting.com/about-dan/
https://www.callahan-law.com/about-our-firm/
https://www.callahan-law.com/meet-the-team/daniel-j-callahan/
if you enjoyed the show be sure to check out my info:
https://app.wingcard.io/ROB3SA64
Hello, hello everybody. So today is a really good day. I had a really good chat with. A few things came up and then we went right back into the chat as if we were already. So just a little cue for that. Other than that, feel free to listen to the end. Daniel gives a lot of good advice, but also like contact information if you want to actually, you know, contact him for help for stuff. All right, here we go. So you said your dad um was like worked construction right oh no, my father was a policeman oh, okay in chicago for 32 years dang.
Speaker 1:So he saw a lot during that time, A lot of change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was there for the 1968 Democratic Convention when there was a riot in the streets. My mother worked in a grocery store putting together party platters for people and I went to. We're not exactly wealthy. I worked during high school and I graduated from high school fifth in my class.
Speaker 1:That's impressive.
Speaker 2:From the bottom I was number 168 out of 172. So I guess you got to say I didn't really give it my all.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I was trying to make money working different jobs at the same time, and I really only just wanted to get through high school. I wasn't really thinking about the future thereafter and then, I worked construction. Ah, there it is Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I used to climb trees for the city of Elmhurst, uh, with mckella chainsaw and they got an extra 25 cents to go ahead and be an idiot and climb up a tree over the chainsaw. The good news is I didn't hurt myself and I know, uh, when I was done chopping down a tree and there's a crew there and I was wondering, as I'm taking out this wood and throwing it into the chipper, what am I doing here? You know, this is about three years after I graduated from high school and I looked over and saw my buddy who got me the job, and I saw him standing next to his father, so I know why he was there. I remembered my mother told me I'd be a good lawyer if I could just simply apply myself. So I thought, all right, well, let's try this college thing.
Speaker 2:And I went to college and at that time I thought I was going against all the real smart people, because you know, after all, in my opinion, my high school class. They were doing better than me. So I worked as if they were just geniuses. I was going against. I went against like I was going against Goliath and I prepared really hard and I didn't put things off. I did everything I could to succeed and I surprised myself and I got straight A's. And I got straight A's right through college.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:I wanted to become a lawyer, so I started the Pre-Law Society at my college, Western Illinois University, and I also majored in political science because somebody told me it would be a good idea if you want to be a lawyer.
Speaker 1:And I also double majored in political science because somebody told me it would be a good idea if you want to be a lawyer.
Speaker 2:I also double majored in communications because I thought I had to learn how to speak. I took classes in speech until there were no more classes to take. Then my professor came up with some classes we could do together, which would mean every two, two weeks I had to give a 15 minute speech and he would correct me on my approach and how I do it and all this. And I think that was helpful later in my career when I became a trial lawyer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to say it's definitely the presentation. As a lawyer, the communication, the emphasis and the undertones are extremely important.
Speaker 2:Right, I agree, and I learned a lot from him. I went on to law school at UC Davis and I was on as the editor of the Law Review, which is prestigious, and graduated in the top 10%. I was recruited to go to various law firms and I went to one in Hawaii and they called me up and they said Dan, we want you to come to Hawaii, spend five days, we'll put you up in the Ili Kai, Get you a rent-a-car, spend three days getting to know the firm and two days just to get to know the island. I thought, oh my God, it's a joke. So I took the job, obviously, and I was there for a couple of years, but I really wanted to return to California. So I came back to Orange County Actually, I think I came back to it as my first time.
Speaker 2:In Orange County I got a job with a big firm doing litigation. I learned how to in Hawaii and California, how to do business litigation, how to learn how to present cases in court. I developed because I believe what drives me and drove me to be a lawyer was I just wanted to do the right thing for people and I wanted to help people because it made me feel good. That attitude caused me to attract a lot of clients. So on St Patrick's Day in 1984, I opened up my own law firm. State in 1984, I opened up my own law firm and that firm is now 28 attorneys and I formed that firm over 40 years ago.
Speaker 2:We just had our 40-year anniversary last March. Congrats, yeah, and I. My success are preparation, diligence, do everything you can and don't give up. Whatever you do, don't procrastinate, because if you do, you don't know if you think I'll do it tomorrow or I'll do it the next day. You don't know if you're going to have that kind of time the next day because something else may come in. So if you're just really prepared and you give it your all, it's surprising the kind of results you get.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what are some of the tricks that you can recall for procrastinations that kept you focused, even though the siren call of your bed was better? What were some of the mindsets or tricks you did to keep yourself on?
Speaker 2:track. I wanted to make sure I did everything. I kept notes and every time I had a thought I would dictate that thought. It would be typed up into a memo. And then all my trial thoughts I just dictate. Whenever I have some thought for my trial assignments, I dictate that to the associates and then I make sure I'm following up on every one of my thoughts. At the beginning of my preparation for a given case, some of these thoughts could be rather basic and once I got involved in the case I go well, hell duh. Yes, I understand that, but it's just. I just always didn't have that much of a problem making sure I got the things done. I'm not a natural procrastinator, I'm just not. So I didn't have to fight the desire to go out on Tuesday if I felt I could do something to advance my case, and so I also. By the way, bringing business is a big deal for lawyers, because you can be a great lawyer, but if you're under a rock, who's going to know it?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So what I did? I got a hold of the Orange County Business Journal and I asked them if they'd like to have an article called it's the Law. It comes out once a week and they said that'd be a great idea. So I would write an article in the Orange County Business Journal every week about some new case that just came down and the impact that case would have on the readers. What that really did was it got my name out there. People, oh, dan Kelly. Oh, I see, yeah, dan Kelly. Oh, and I also.
Speaker 2:I put together seminars right. So I would do one for USC down south and I do one for Stanford up north and I get all these big shot trial lawyers and they all want, they all want to show up on a seminar. They they just want to be there and so I should invite them. But I also save a spot for myself on a panel and so all these guys are really big. So I guess Kell Callahan's got to be pretty good too. So it's just by implication I was good.
Speaker 2:And then I did have success in a number of trials. I hit Farmers Insurance on insurance bad faith for $57 million. That was my first big case. After that I had a three-month jury trial with a unanimous verdict A three-month. It was a $2 million breach of contract case that I spun into breach of contract fraud and two claims for economic duress. I made a complaint in seven weeks into the trial to add those two claims. The jury came back and they gave me my $2 million out of the breach of contract. They gave me $300,000 on the fraud, plus a million and a half imputed and on the third and fourth cause of action that I had seven weeks in. I don't remember what the compensatory damages were, but they gave me 180 million impunitive damages on the third and 750 million impunitive damages on the fourth, so a total of 934 million, which is the highest Holy cow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's huge. I mean, I'd say it was something. Here's a little trick for you. I believe you should send out press releases, right? So the judge announces that he has a verdict and would you like we're going to read it today? I said, your Honor, I'd rather read that verdict today. Why don't you let opposing counsel and myself talk over the night about settlement? And since we had a unanimous verdict, we had four people, we had 16 jurors. At the last minute, four of them identified as alternates and they couldn't count. Why don't we let the court call them so they can come back and be part of the reading of the verdict and also give us time to talk about settlement?
Speaker 2:In reality, I didn't really want to talk about settlement. I wanted to send a press release out to everybody to say there's going to be a big verdict in the morning. The reason I wanted to do that is because otherwise the press would get a hold of this verdict at 2.30 in the afternoon, somebody would throw something again and that would be the story After that. It's yesterday's news. But this way the courtroom was packed right and then they had all day to interview me and to prepare a good story. In fact, both clients are publicly traded Beckman, coulter and Flextronics and after the verdict was read, within 15 minutes their stock stopped trading. They froze the stock. So there's a lot to talk about and that way you can get the story out. So you have to be able to make sure when you do win you get the story out. As I started out. You can't just be with them under a rock. You got to really try and express yourself.
Speaker 1:Right. Yeah, it's like an old analogy I heard. Essentially, you can have the best service or product, but if no one knows you, you'll never have a customer, kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Josh, that's so right. If no one knows you, you'll never have a customer kind of thing. Josh, that's so right. And you know I'm so competitive with lawyers and there are so many lawyers now and you have to be good at what you do and specialize in whatever you think you're best at. So I specialized in litigation so I have the highest jury verdict in Orange County history at 934. The highest personal injury settlement in United States history at the time of 50 million, and the highest insurance bad faith judgment at 57, and the event for Orange County. And the highest employment for Orange County, a judgment of $38 million. So employment, personal injury, business insurance, bad faith it's just all about being in a courtroom and presenting the case as a story to the jurors so the jurors can really put themselves in your client's position and feel what your client must've felt.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's, that's a big one. When I especially when I was I got summoned a couple like a year or two ago and I was a big one and that lawyer at the time was emphasizing, he's like, yes, we will present the facts and it's important, but it's truly what you need to feel, what the person went through, kind of thing. Now, I was a smart ass. It was like the father was spanking the child too hard and he was reversing his ring so it was leaving a mark. So the lawyer's like how do you guys feel about that? I'm like I was like six and my grandpa made me pick a switch off a lemon tree.
Speaker 2:Ring would have been nice compared to that. Yeah, I understand that my mother had a pink bug pedal and she also had a yarn stick. That was brilliant.
Speaker 1:So yeah, things happen when you're growing up. Just adjust right and that's well. That's where the, the lawyer, essentially dismissed me, because he's like he doesn't.
Speaker 2:His expectation of pain is different than like the, the child or whatever oh, yeah, right kind of thing, that's no big deal, okay, and he reversed his rank right, oh my geez, but um, so what are the?
Speaker 1:some of the? You told me you were writing a lot for your tactics, for um, memorizing and keeping yourself on track. What else did you do to keep yourself focused while you were growing, because, I'm sure, growing your firm? There were some growing pains in between.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, definitely. Like with any firm, there's ups and downs. Not only that, you want your firm to succeed and you want to give it your best, but you have to keep in mind many lawyers also have a family. Best, but you have to keep in mind many lawyers also have a family and you have to split your responsibilities, you know, and try to remember what's really important. And what's really important is probably not what you do in business, it's probably what you do at home. But that's hard, especially when you are committed, like I am, to win. But that's a challenge. You just have to tear yourself away from the business and do things for your children and your wife. So that's I guess. I hadn't thought about that until just now, but that is a real big deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the work-life balance is extremely important. It's an analogy, a joke. I told an old co-worker slash supervisor. We may be humans and work like robots, but we are still just humans.
Speaker 1:We have feelings and stuff like that. That was the biggest one. Like I helped that logistics company almost like 300x their output. I told them at that time it was pre-covid. I said, dude, 100 bucks is game changing for a wg worker on minimum wage. I'm like, can you afford that? He's like oh yeah, that's like two steak dinners. I'm like I don't know where you go, that's 250 for a steak dinner, but I want to try that place. You're paying, though, really. So he's like, yeah, he's like. So he took um 500 a week, did a whole like. I just told him how to gamify everything, do 300 x and I said just treat them like a human, that's it. They're not robots, they're humans. That's right, that's a good point and that's. That was just one of those. Um, I don't know if they're still doing it, I haven't gone back, but um, that was the biggest one. He told me. He's like thank you. He's like I forgot about that being higher up in the the management tree mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:The only tip I can give young lawyers is to do everything you can Don't and be creative, that's. You don't want to just go lockstep through the CCP, the California Code of Civil Procedure. You have to really think outside of the box, and I can give you an example or two. Okay, I represented a small SBA, an SBA lender. Okay, and the SBA lender had made a loan to this company in Irvine, california, and they were not making their payments and the choices were they could file a lawsuit and they give them 30 days to respond, but the fear was they would unload their warehouse factory and take everything south of the border, and that's something that my client feared. So I said OK, well, here's a thought. Why don't we just go ahead and do a self-help reposition? Here's a thought why don't we just go ahead and do a self-help reposition? So under the law, you can go ahead and just select your cloud if there's a default, but all the other side has to do is say no and then you're stopped. So what I did? I drafted a document, put it on legal science paper, called it notice of repossession, made it look like an official document and then I signed my name to it and I had my signature notarized yeah, that's my name on it. And then I went to the urbain police department and I got an officer club. I said I want somebody to come with me to make sure there's no breach of peace when we do this self-help repossession. He said I'll come, I'll make sure you don't breach your face, no problem. So then I got a truck and a forklift, a flatbed truck and a forklift, and I also hired a videographer. This is before. Everybody had a video on their phone right. And so now I put on my three-piece navy blue pinstripe suit and we pull up behind the factory and we come in like a witch. It's me and I've got the videographer on my right and Officer Clark on my left and I hand this notice of repossession to the person and I told him I represent the SBA, we're here to repossess the collateral bonds to it and your president, whose name I won't share with you right now, your president, he's going down Now. If you want to go down with him, that's your choice. But if you identify the collateral belongs to the SBA right now, I will go after you. He goes, okay, boom, boom. This that this one. Meanwhile, other people are looking from other places in the factory and I tell the video director get that guy, get that guy. So he's, we named everybody.
Speaker 2:We then loaded up the flatbed truck and then, unfortunately, my forklift ran out of gas. However, they had put another forklift. That was part of the collateral, so I used their forklift to pick up my forklift. That was part of the collateral. So I used their forklift to pick up my forklift, put it back in the truck, got everything out of there and then we left A successful repossession. I got a call from the lawyer for the factory that afternoon. They said what, tell me, is it true? All they had to do was say no. I said, yeah, pretty much Congratulations on your sting, but that's not in the record book. That's not something you see in the CCP, that's just trying to be creative definitely for how you look at things.
Speaker 1:The creativity is extremely important for that exact situation. There was a lot on the on the line if he didn't, if he knew and said no nothing right, right.
Speaker 2:But we showed up with so much force, with a truck with, you know, flat bed, all the equipment, police officer and, of course, my three-piece that's exactly what did it right there, so that's amazing.
Speaker 1:That's cool. Is there anything in particular we were talking about earlier that you're working on trying to get known within your firm or for others to know about too?
Speaker 2:Yes, and thank you for mentioning that. What I'm doing right now I have. Callahan Blaine is the law firm that I formed. It's very successful in Santa Ana, california, but I am now running Callahan Consulting Group that provides two services. Remember how I said I like to help people? Mm-hmm, two services. Remember how I said I like to help people. So what I do?
Speaker 2:If attorneys usually younger attorneys, somebody who's under 10 years experience they need advice on trial tactics, trial strategies and whatnot, I provide that advice and I also when there's larger law firms. They don't usually call very often. Usually it's a smaller law firm, because if it's a larger law firm they have their own internal people they can go to for advice and support, rather than some guy they don't know. Although I may have a good track history, still they don't know me. So I do that.
Speaker 2:And then the other thing the Chellian Consulting Group does is it works with clients, clients that need a lawyer. Let's say they need a lawyer, a bankruptcy lawyer in Detroit, right? So I will look around for who I consider to be the best lawyer in that given specialty in that community. I will then interview two, maybe three, usually just two and then I will arrange for the client, with my assistants, to interview the lawyers and let the client go ahead and make the decision as to who he or she may be most comfortable with with, and then, after they have decided to be retained by an law firm, then I stick around and if there's ever any issue that needs to be discussed, then I'm available to intercede if needed.
Speaker 2:For the most part, though, the law firm and the client hit it off well. There's rarely that much for me to do. If some issue comes up, call me, I'm back in right. So so I I advise uh clients um how to pick a lawyer and help them with that, and I help attorneys um uh figuring out trial strategies and thinking outside the box. Bottom line is you really got to know the basics first before you think outside the box. You got to know the inside of the box too, right?
Speaker 1:You don't want to make up your own rules and it's all wrong, and you're like uh-oh.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, this may be too deep in the weeds for you right now, but I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Let's say that you're a defendant, you're being sued by somebody and you want your insurance company to pay the cost of your defense. But the complaint alleged against you doesn't have any theories that would be covered, so there is no defense available. So what you do? You send out a request for admissions. Usually you send out a request for admissions coupled with interrogatories, interrogatories. But this way, just send out the request for admissions and say please admit, you have not suffered any damages for A, B, C or D all of which, by the way, would be covered under the compliance policy.
Speaker 2:Well, no, these lawyers don't want to admit anything, so I go deny. In other words, they are implicitly saying that they have suffered damages for those covered events. So then you send them interrogatories please identify all the facts to support your denial. In other words, that would support coverage. And so now they have to put something together. Once they put something together under oath, I then send that to the insurance company and say see, there is a possibility that there's a duty to indemnify, and if there's that, there's a duty to indemnify. And if there's a possibility of a duty to indemnify, there's an automatic, immediate duty to defend my client right now. And that changes everything in the lawsuit, because now I have Big Brother paying the cost of my client's defense, and I did that by somewhat tricking the other side into giving me an argument so I could present it to my insurance company.
Speaker 2:I hope that wasn't too deep in the weeds there.
Speaker 1:No, no, no I like how you presented that, because I've never thought about it that way where it's legal trickery, it's kind of the grayish area, but more above board, where you essentially because, like you said, the the nature of a lawyer they're not going to admit anything, right, so you're using that to your advantage, kind of thing correct exactly so.
Speaker 2:There's that. There's so many other little tricks along the way that after 40, some years I I have a basket full of little odds events I can use, of a basket full of little events I can use.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, that's really cool. I'm still thinking about that, the whole tricking lawyer legally to say something. Is there anything else in particular where people could go to contact you or just?
Speaker 2:reach out. Well, let me tell you I can give you my cell phone number and I'm not afraid to give that out, because if somebody calls me and I don't recognize the number, I let it go to voicemail. And if somebody leaves me a voicemail I go oh okay, and I climb it. If it's spam, they don't leave a message. So if somebody wanted to get a hold of me, my cell phone number is 949-584-4434. And also, if they want to look me up, it's kellyandconsultinggroupcom.
Speaker 1:I'll be sure to link your consulting group in the description for everyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. It's been my pleasure chatting with you, an absolute honor and pleasure too here. Thank you, thank you.