Elizabeth Brandon found herself at an extremely entrepreneurial firm when she first entered the legal field in 2005. She wasn’t sure what type of law she wanted to practice, but she knew she wanted to be involved in trial work. Yet, a critical piece to success at the energy-focused firm charged associates with going out, finding work and getting the partners to work with you.
Brandon recalls a male colleague giving her a few tips on what he would do when he needed more work: He would clear off his desk, sit there looking like he needed something to do, and then someone would walk by and give him something to do.
“I have to laugh when I tell the story because it’s such a funny story, but it was his truth,” Brandon, now a partner at Reed Smith, said during an interview with the Dallas Business Journal in late August. “If I tried to use that approach, people would think, ‘That girl has nothing to do. She’s kind of lazy.’ I couldn’t necessarily use the same plan.”
The enterprise culture at Brandon’s first firm combined with an innate drive instilled in her by her parents, immigrants from Nigeria, has aided her as she forges ahead in her career as a commercial litigator in one of the most dynamic markets in the country. As a founding partner in the litigation practice for Reed Smith’s Dallas office, Brandon has industry experience ranging from health care to manufacturing, leveraging relationships she’s developed over the past 15 years.
Brandon discussed the impact and fallout of COVID-19, the state of force majeure provisions and more in the interview that follows.
What does being a litigator look like in the COVID-19 world?
It has transformed the way we practice as litigators.
The first month after things shut down, there was a bit of a pause, but for many of my cases, we didn’t skip a beat. It didn’t change your day-to-day interaction with your opposing counsel, your discovery obligations that you have to comply with – those kinds of tasks that you have to do in order to keep your case advancing. What it did change were your interactive and in-person-type hearings. … The types of interactions that help you form relationships and bond with your judiciary are all out the window. Now, it is a much more transactional type of interaction with the court.
I think the biggest challenge has been your ability to establish other rapport with the court beyond simply making your argument. It’s a bit more stilted … and it does impact your ability to be as persuasive as you would like to be with a court.
Having said that, there have been some tremendous benefits with the remote proceedings. It certainly has saved a lot of time and, I think, a lot of money for clients. For example, one day I had a remote hearing in Fort Worth at 9:00 a.m. Then I had a hearing in Dallas state court at 10:00 a.m. Then I had another hearing at another court in Dallas at 11:00 a.m. In the pre-COVID world, that would never happen. It’s a lot more efficient. … I have the view that, to some extent, these remote proceedings will continue in some form or fashion and particularly in a large metroplex, like DFW, where you have people coming from all directions.
Have you been surprised by anything that’s come out of the current climate?
Once we realized everything was shut down, when the COVID environment first started, I did several webinars and put some articles out expecting there to be an influx around a little-known phrase that’s involved in many contracts – the force majeure provisions – to excuse performance. I expected to see more of that, and there may be some of that still to come, but we haven’t seen the influx of those types of allegations and suits yet.
What we have seen has been a lot of activity in the restructuring and bankruptcy space as companies are restructuring their debt loads because revenue is not being generated at the rate that was anticipated. We’re starting to see more eviction-type suits or suits seeking to recover past-due bills that weren’t paid by lessees.
We’ve also seen the increase in suits against insurers, where businesses have sued the insurance companies for business interruption coverage. … It’s not necessarily that black and white as we always see in the world of law. The answer depends on the terms in the contract. These early decisions that we’ve seen in that space make it very clear that it’s not very clear.
You have a strong entrepreneurial drive that I can see from the way you’ve approached and tackled your career. Where does that come from?
That comes from two places. One is my family and my upbringing, which I put that in one category as an immigrant to America. My parents were Nigerian and came from Nigeria when I was four years old, so I’m a naturalized citizen. My story is very much a story of constantly trying to figure it out in a system where you weren’t necessarily brought up in the system. My parents didn’t grow up here; they spoke a different language. I grew up in Denton. We lived in the projects and were in Section 8 housing, and my siblings and I were bused across town to go to school. We figured it out. The notion of understanding that the system that you’re in, knowing that you want to have a particular outcome or a goal, and how you make those things work: This is what an entrepreneur has to do.
The other aspect came from being a woman at a majority firm. The first firm I worked with, we would describe our culture as entrepreneurial with our associates. You had to go out and find work, find ways to get partners to work with you. … That’s when I sought out Karen Hirschman. I said, “Hey, I want to do securities litigation” – even though I didn’t know what that was and I didn’t really want to do that. But I wanted to do that because I wanted to add value to Karen to add value to the firm.
You told me your father had wanted to become a lawyer. How did that impact your career path?
My father was a very politically conscious person. He would always have the morning, afternoon and evening edition of a paper, and he’d read it aloud to us. He’d make us engage in discussions with him, and I learned I was a very opinionated person as we debated things. I started hearing very early on I should be a lawyer.
My dad would say, “You know, I’m going to be a lawyer in America.” He got into Arizona State law school in 1993, but that was also when he was diagnosed with cancer. He ultimately passed away, and once that happened, I already wanted to go to law school. … I thought I have to do this to finish out what my dad wanted to do when he came to this country. That was really the main motivator.