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ont none® WY Ne} 10 ii 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Onn Oe WHY EF NNNNNNEFRFP PBR PPP EE mm WHF COMO WAI nD UF WDHYeF OC WW} Q. When you were hiring and bringing in all these new attorneys, did everyone come in as a partner? A. No. Q. How did you decide who came in as a partner and who came in as an associate? A. Depended upon their level of expertise, practice, book of business. It was a decision Stuart and } made together on a case-by-case basis. Q. So you and Stu where the -- were in charge of hiring? A. Stuart and | tried to consult on every hiring decision, yes. Q. Did you guys also decide salaries? A. 1] generally decided the salary and then let Stu know what |] was going to do. And he would say if he thought it was okay or if he thought it was too much or too little, but ] generally had free reign in that regard. Q. Did someone's book of business directly correlate to the salary that you would offer? A. That is a very broad question because it depends upon what other needs we had for that individual. Q. What do you mean by "what other needs"? Page 10 : a a a A. Well, I'll give you a good example. My lawyer, Mr. Nurik, his salary was directly related to the fact that he was a great lawyer and had a solid book of business. Q. Yes. A. David Boden, on the other hand, was, as ] previously testified, ] don't know if you've had a chance to read the testimony, but David Boden was not only the general counsel to the law firm but he was also -- acted as my consigliere in a significant number of illegal operations and he was compensated significantly for that, if that helps you understand the difference. Q. It does. So, for example, when you were hiring former judges, let's use that as an example, Pedro and Julio, clearly they don't have a book of business coming in because they haven't had clients, but they may carry some sort of prestige or give some legitimacy, if you will, to the firm. How would you decide the salary for someone like that? A. Stuand! would discuss it. It was more a market issue than anything else, how much are judges coming off the bench getting, how much business do we think they can generate. OoODMDAIKDY SF WNFrR OU DANDY BB WNP ee i) aD, sea EG eat Be ec ga ee tina comm ga Heme n eee Wt nreaaiee ga en K eg eRERRP A SPREE ho Nh fh QW MF TERETE No on Q. Would you need to look at someone's book of business if they were coming in just solely to be a rainmaker for the firm prior to hiring them? A. | discussed it with them. There were not many people that ] recal] that ] actually looked at their numbers. Once David Boden was working for me ] had him check people's numbers, but ] rarely looked. J took most people's words for what they were generating. Q. My recollection is, you were always looking to bring in more people, to hire more people, some of us were somehow able to resist you while others were not. _How would you decide who you were looking at to bring into your firm? A. We were trying to develop, on the legitimate side of the law firm, we were trying to develop real talent, rea] practice s. | mean, Brad isa perfect example, great lawyer, got a great reputation, You know, it was our hope that, you know, he was going to be one of the people to actually in some ways rescue the firm because he had a practice group that could generate substantial income. You know, on the legitimate side that's what we were trying to do, we were trying to find the best and the brightest, Q. Okay. With respect to bringing people that Page 12 EES ee ee AA A ia ee © prt know that? A. Everyone in the tort world that J] had spoke to spoke extremely highly of Brad, not only people | already had working for me but other people that knew shim. He was very -- came very highly recommended to us. “@Q. Like who, for example? A. We wanted him in there. We were trying to develop a significant tort group and we thought that he'd be a great part of it. Q. Who besides Russ told you that about Brad? A. It would have been other people in the tort group. ] don't want to guess, Tonja, as to which other people told me, but it was -- well more than Russ. Q. Was it people within -- A. Might have been people in politics that ] talked to that knew him because we had significant input at the gubernatorial level with regard to tort reform and the like, and there were people there who knew who Brad was. It was more than one person that told us that. Page 13 4 (Pages 10 to 13) FRIEDMAN, LOMBARDI & OLSON 305-371-6677 5ed93085-0554-447f-bcdd-ca2d8fe941df HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_017493