Ed. word: The Rainmaker is a brand new Above the Regulation collection highlighting attorneys who’ve constructed distinguished practices by excelling not solely within the courtroom and on the negotiating desk, but in addition in enterprise improvement, mentorship, and management. Every installment will function candid reflections on what it takes to succeed as a rainmaker in in the present day’s authorized trade. At present’s featured rainmaker is Roberta Kaplan.
As a younger affiliate in what my son likes to name “the final Century,” each time I’d stroll right into a courtroom with the nice litigator (and one in all my mentors) Marty London, the presiding choose would ask Marty a bunch of questions on his boat and the way the fishing had been currently. (Marty was an avid deep-sea fisherman.) I’ve to confess that it appeared type of unfair to me on the time – I didn’t assume that any choose would ever know me properly sufficient to greet me with these sorts of questions.
Again then, a “rainmaker” dropped at thoughts pictures of smoke-filled males’s golf equipment, leather-based lounge chairs at cigar or whiskey bars, entrance row seats to the Tremendous Bowl, and each single golf course on the planet. True confessions: Even the odor of Scotch provides me a migraine. The one time I attempted to smoke a cigar (on an enormous case in Tokyo) was very disagreeable. My father has spent years obsessing about golf so I’ll do something to keep away from it. And I clearly can’t be a part of a males’s membership.
Whereas a lot has modified since my time as a junior affiliate, a lot has stayed the identical, particularly in the present day, when the phrase “variety” is now perceived by many as provocative. The truth is that there are nonetheless far fewer venues for girls attorneys to community and construct their books of enterprise as in comparison with males, who nonetheless dominate legislation agency partnerships and common counsel workplaces. As with many issues for girls, turning into a profitable “rainmaker” requires pondering creatively about discovering your individual path.
In 2013, I had the consideration to argue United States v. Windsor earlier than the US Supreme Court docket. Not solely was Windsor the case that broke open my profession, it additionally could have been the one which concerned essentially the most creativity. One of many issues that was uncommon about Windsor in reference to rainmaking is that it was a professional bono matter. It’s hardly the norm to construct your e book of enterprise by doing public curiosity instances professional bono. However it was positively extra rewarding than taking part in infinite rounds of golf.
To be clear, I used to be not a member of the established SCOTUS bar. I didn’t work for the Solicitor Common’s workplace. And I by no means clerked for the Supreme Court docket. I used to be simply Robbie, a Jewish lady from Cleveland who labored her tush off to get into Harvard School and Columbia Regulation Faculty, after which labored even more durable to develop into a litigation companion at Paul, Weiss. It was as astonishing to me because it was to everybody else on the time that I used to be the one that can be standing earlier than the Supreme Court docket arguing Windsor. When you had informed me again once I was Marty’s junior affiliate that that may occur, I’d have informed you that you just wanted to get extra sleep.
So how did I get a profitable case to the Supreme Court docket within the first place? The important thing to our success in Windsor was to take the summary query of marriage equality off the desk. Most LGBTQ civil rights instances that had been introduced as much as that time had gone broad, utilizing numerous lesbian and homosexual {couples} of various ages, races, backgrounds, with and with out kids, who had been married in each sense of the phrase however the authorized one. That was actually comprehensible – the purpose was to point out the broad variety of lesbians and homosexual males who had been negatively impacted by their lack of ability to marry. In actual fact, that was the technique that I actually had used after we misplaced the state court docket case for marriage equality in New York in 2006.
In Windsor, we determined to take the alternative strategy. Moderately than have a number of plaintiffs presenting all kinds of various statutes and factual eventualities, we had just one. In different phrases, we intentionally narrowed our case to deal with one couple (Edie and Thea) who had been collectively for many years when Thea died and Edie was pressured to pay an enormous inheritance tax as a result of their marriage wasn’t acknowledged below federal legislation. We thought that whereas the Justices weren’t able to rule that homosexual and lesbian {couples} had the constitutional proper to marry, a majority would possibly agree that the federal authorities couldn’t discriminate in opposition to an already married lesbian couple when it got here to taxes.
It labored. We gained Windsor due to DOMA’s discriminatory influence on the federal inheritance tax. A scintillating space of tax legislation? No. However inventive? Very. In actual fact, my present consumer, the author and journalist E. Jean Carroll, has in contrast the Windsor case to the Boston Tea Celebration: a neighborhood battle over paying taxes that in the end led to revolutionary advances for the entire nation.
I’d by no means describe myself as “inventive” within the typical sense of the phrase. I’ve no creative expertise. I can’t draw something recognizable. I sing up to now out of key that my son can’t stand to be within the automobile with me when a Chappell Roan track comes on. (Consider it or not, I just lately dressed up as Chappell Roan for a Halloween celebration hosted by one in all our purchasers). My highschool artwork instructor as soon as claimed that each piece of pottery I made in some way turned out to seem like a hookah. After I argued that that was not my intent, his response was that I ought to by no means take one other artwork class once more, however that I in all probability would make a superb lawyer. He was proper on each counts. Not solely did I by no means take one other artwork class, however within the legislation, I discovered an outlet for my very own distinctive type of creativity. It could look simple, however it really takes lots of creativity to give you methods to explain complicated info and concepts in ways in which a choose or jury will discover most persuasive.
After a few years in Biglaw and with the Windsor choice behind me, I made a decision to repeat our technique in Windsor – relatively than going massive, it was time to go small. It appeared to me that it was turning into more and more tough to have a cutting-edge litigation observe at an enormous agency — purchasers had been rising involved about what litigators had been doing not only for them, however for different purchasers as properly.
Simply months after leaving Paul, Weiss, once I got here up with the loopy, albeit inventive concept of utilizing the KKK Act of 1871 to sue greater than a dozen white nationalists who deliberate for the violence that occurred on the Unite the Proper rally in Charlottesville, I knew that the prices by way of e-discovery and safety alone had been going to be astronomical. At giant companies, professional bono instances are largely funded by paying instances. If a small agency’s attorneys are solely engaged on professional bono instances, that may make it exhausting to pay salaries. Sadly, the righteousness of the trigger gained’t pay the lease.
So we determined to get inventive. Impressed by what Chad Griffin had achieved in establishing the non-profit advocacy group the American Basis for Equal Rights to help David Boies’ and Ted Olson’s California’s Prop 8 litigation (argued on the Supreme Court docket the day earlier than Windsor), we determined to ascertain a non-profit group to boost cash for our bills.
Being a smaller agency implies that you don’t have the posh of simply throwing our bodies at an issue; you’re pressured to unravel it in essentially the most environment friendly and artistic method attainable. Not sufficient companions to deal with all of the witnesses in a four-week jury trial? No drawback – rent essentially the most proficient associates and provides them the chance to place witnesses on the stand themselves. (In Charlottesville, I had two completely different junior colleagues placed on and cross look at among the most vital witnesses within the case.)
Whereas our agency, Kaplan Martin, is small by design, we punch far above our weight largely as a result of we love what we do. We observe on the similar degree as Biglaw — we nonetheless sweat each element as a result of that’s the solely method to win. We simply do it with fewer folks and extra creativity.
And though we’re dedicated to being generalists, we do have one specialty — we prefer to tackle bullies. We’ve twice crushed the largest bully on the planet in jury trials for E. Jean Carroll and within the dispute over congestion pricing for the MTA. Sadly, since there appear to be much more bullies with much more energy on the planet in the present day, when potential purchasers see us keen to go up in opposition to the likes of Donald Trump or the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, they know that we gained’t be afraid to tackle the hardest fights for them.
The legislation will not be for everybody and working towards legislation the way in which I do (obsessively) isn’t both. I can’t consider something that provides me a higher sense of satisfaction than writing a short, arguing in court docket, or attempting a case – besides possibly fly fishing when the trout are biting. When you love what you do, you’ll by no means be bored. Encompass your self with colleagues who you respect and belief, who like to litigate, and with whom you may give you essentially the most inventive methods to win. Not less than for my part, that’s not a foul method to cross the time, beat bullies, and develop into a “rainmaker.”
Described by The Washington Submit as “a brash and unique strategist, with neither a present for endurance nor silence, a crusader for underdogs who has gained nearly each authorized accolade possible,” Robbie Kaplan is a famend and celebrated litigator and co-founder of Kaplan Martin LLP. Robbie started her authorized profession at Paul, Weiss, the place she catapulted herself to companion in simply seven years. Together with securing federal recognition of same-sex marriage via the historic Supreme Court docket case United States v. Windsor and defeating the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Robbie additionally has defeated President Trump twice in trials on behalf of her consumer E. Jean Carroll and represents the New York Metropolis Metropolitan Transportation Authority in its issues associated to congestion pricing. Robbie is a long-time lecturer at Columbia College Regulation Faculty and has gained, amongst many different awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Regulation Journal and Most Revolutionary Lawyer of the 12 months from the Monetary Occasions.
