I was having dinner a few weeks back with another long time settlement professional who started in the business about the same time I did, back in the early 1980's when many of the customs and procedures of the 50's and 60's were still firmly in place at many of the insurance companies and law firms in the city of Boston where I started out.

As a green rube of a kid, and that was putting it kindly, I assumed in my Eagle Scout mentality that all the men sitting in the offices were honorable, that every lawyer was an Abe Lincoln in training and that people did business with you because you were good at your job, and for no other reason.

As the holidays rolled around that first year in businees, I went to the considerable expense of providing leather bound, personally embossed day planners to each of the valued clients and prospects I had, thinking that this would be both appreciated and useful. After shipping them out and dropping them off, I called one of my claims adjuster clients on a case, to see what he had to say about it. He said, great day planner but I have to be honest, the guys in the claims department are a little disappointed in them. When I asked him why, I figured it would be that they weren't the right style, not sufficiently professional or something like that. No, his complaint was that "the boys were hoping for a little green to be in the pages, as they have gifts to buy for their families and they think your being a little light with them." In other words, their idea of a Christmas gift from a vendor was cash, or a pay off, to make sure you got your share of business assigned to you the following year.

I was of course, both disappointed and annoyed, as I had zero intention of giving any of them any cash, as quite frankly there were very few of them I could stand to have a cup of coffee with, let along drop cash on their desk in return for them steering business my way. Relating this to my mentor in the business, he casually related how his job when he started at this particular company, was to go make the rounds after Thanksgiving at all of the law firms they directed legal work too, and load up his trunk with gifts and his brief case with envelopes, as a Thank you, from the lawyers to insure that they stayed in the good graces of the insurance companies that sent them so much work. Once back at the office the bounty was split up by a caste system with senior claims managers getting first pick and the crumbs and cash filtering down to the rank and file guys.

It was a disgusting cultural phenomenon, one that thankfully has slowly gone by the boards due to legal, regulatory and societal pressure, and one that I reflect on each year as I struggle with a way to thank my best clients with out seeming to "buy them off" with too large a gift. The SEC requires that any registered representative is prohibited from giving a gift of greater then $100 in value to any client, and  God knows I would have appreciated that legislation 25 years ago as I watched the parade of settlement "professionals" who went up the elevators and out to lunch during the holidays with these claims guys, who returned with their pockets bulging with cash, travelers checks and gift certificates generously provided by my competitors. They of course had "company rules" that prohibited this, but the tradition and amount of money was so significant that the rules were "bent" to make sure the poor under paid adjusters got their extortion money.

And people wonder why I don't like most claims adjusters and won't do deals with most settlement professionals.

Back when I was a very young man, and in fact lied about my age so that claims departments wouldn't throw me out before I got started, I got a chance to work my first big settlement on what was at the time the biggest case in the City of Boston. Back in the last 70's the Copley Hotel, a landmark property in Copley Square in the Back Bay area of Boston, had a serious fire set by a disgruntled employee late in the evening on a winter night. As the hotel was a historic building, codes hadn't caught up with them, there were NO fire detectors in the halls or room, despite it's ownership by The John Hancock Life Insurance Company, which was right next door.

The fire raged, two people died, and more notoriously Summner Redstone, the now mogul of Viacom, was a guest and he hung by his hands, as they burned, to a window sill until fireman rescued him from one of the higher floors. The case I was involved in was the burn death of a promising young Warner Brothers executive with a young wife and child, and they were represented by Attorney Jan Schlichtmann who at the time was still partnered with the firm Reed and Mulligan, with Barry Reed being the author of the book ,which at the time of the settlement, was being made into an award winning movie called, The Verdict, starring Paul Newman and set in Boston. It was a colorful time to work in the city and to have that as my first case was a bit overwhelming.

The settlement negotiations were to be held, at the insistence of the flamboyant Attorney Schlichtman, at the Ritz Carlton, at which time he would present his case, wine and dine the defense, and hope that we would see his brilliance and throw money at him to make the case go away. Jan, who now all these many years later is my good friend and cohost on The Legal Broadcast Network, was clearly ahead of his time, and the claims and defense attorney's were a bit stunned at the setting and degree of his presentation. Lets face it, how often do you go to a settlement conference and have waiters in tuxedo's, carved ice swans and caviar for lunch?

That said it was scheduled for two days of negotiation, with day one dedicated to Jan putting on his presentation in the hopes that a significant offer would be made and to then have the case settle on the second day of serious negotiations. However, what Jan didn't know was that my friend and client, who was the senior claims adjuster responsible for paying most of the claim, had at the time a significant drinking problem, and if 4:30 pm rolled around and he hadn't had another drink after his lunch time "couple of pops", he wasn't really able to function well enough to stay and settle the case. So, just prior to 4:30 pm he told me to leave the grandiose board room up on the mezzanine level of the Ritz, wait outside while he presented his "last and best offer", and that no matter what happened or what anyone said, just keep walking until we got to a little bar down on the corner of Arlington St near the bus station where he got his ride home every evening.

I heard voices raised, shouting, swearing, a few chairs slamming and then boom, the doors opened and out came the old Irish claims adjuster who said to me " just keep walking kid, just keep walking". Chasing us down the hall was Attorney Schlichtman, all 6' 5" of him in a three piece suit, swearing, screaming, threatening us, as we walked through the lobby and tea room of the Ritz to the amazement of the white gloved little old ladies having tea. He chased us across the street, and stood screaming at us as we disappeared around the corner, we got to the bar and the drink my friend needed. As we stood there, me catching my breath and him getting his fix, I asked if every case was like this,  and he just smiled and said, "No kid, this is a fun as it gets. God, I can't wait to hear what he has to say in the morning when we show up. I offered him half what it's worth, and we will pay what it's worth tomorrow, but I have to make him work for it or i'll never hear the end of it from my boss that I gave in easy. Besides, I needed a drink and if I had to hear one more word from those lawyers I was going to lose it."

Well, the next day it settled, but not until after Jan had given us about 30 minutes of pure venom and threats in the morning that if we walked out again it would be the end of the case. The case was at the time the biggest burn settlement in state history, was on the front page of the Herald and Globe, and one of the very first structured settlements done in the City of Boston. It was just immediately prior to Jan's infamous Woburn water case that would be the basis of the book and movie, A Civil Action, so he was at the peak of his career, just prior to leaving Barry Reed and starting his own firm. It was a fascinating start to a colorful time in our business, in what is now an increasingly bland, PC, by the numbers career.

How about some first time stories from the rest of you?

One of the things as I get older, but not old, that I notice is how much people enjoy hearing the stories of how it was when this industry started. I had a really great dinner the other night here in Scottsdale when the Selective Settlements group had their annual meeting and many of the life markets showed up for dinner and golf. I had the good fortune to sit across from Dan Durbin of Allstate, who many of you know was a long time Cambridge Gallaher producer, and over the course of the evening we got to talk about old mutual clients, adversaries, strange cases and the often crazy people who started this industry that we now call our own.

I decided to add this separate blog page to solicit some of the stories and experiences others in our industry had, as well as use it for the kick off to our weekly podcast called Settlement Round Table. SRT is going to be for and about settlement professionals, and dedicated to practice management, industry news, introducing producers from various firms and reviewing the direction of our business from the level of the average producers.

Let me know what you think of it and i'll get things started in a day or two with some new posts to show you what i'm looking for here.