开拓者系列欢迎迈克林恩'75
Mike Lynn has been a practicing attorney for nearly 50 years and one of the most successful trial lawyers in Dallas. 1975年毕业于新加坡管理大学戴德曼法学院, 他接待过来自德州各地的知名客户, 多次获奖, 赢得了一些大案子，把他推上了高层.
Lynn returned to SMU Dedman Law for the inaugural Trailblazer Speaker Series event to share his journey of becoming a lawyer, 这些年来这个领域是如何发展的, and share some of his “war stories” – an appropriate term for an elite attorney who calls his cadre of trial lawyers the “special forces of litigation.”
The Trailblazer Speaker Series is designed to bring speakers like Lynn to SMU as part of an educational and networking opportunity for Dedman Law students to hear from the legal profession’s most successful practitioners and gain a head start when they graduate to begin their careers with substantial connections in the legal field.
Lynn stands out as the first speaker in the series for being not only a Dedman Law graduate, but someone who has taught classes at the school as an adjunct professor and who was honored with the Distinguished 校友 Award in 2019. He has enjoyed an illustrious career as the founding partner at Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, and he has tried to verdict more than 120 civil and criminal jury trials. Ironically, he attributes part of this success to his early learning differences.
“我不是一个好教的人. 我花了一段时间才弄明白. I found out that the way I learned is if there is a competition, 我可以在比赛中表达自己, 我通常会赢.”
以这种态度, he discovered unique ways to improve his trial capabilities, 尤其是在开场陈述中, 他认为这是他的主要弱点之一. 为了解决问题, he took a trip to the library and local book stores and combed through the science fiction sections. “我不读科幻小说，所以我才这么做. I spent the next six months reading the introductions and outlining what I thought they were doing in the introductory paragraphs. 我就是这样学会做开庭陈述的.”
He clerked for a federal judge for two years and learned federal procedure and jurisdictional issues. 他的导师、达拉斯律师约翰. “Jack” Hauer, a senior partner with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & 菲尔德律师事务所, encouraged him to become a trial lawyer and sent him down to meet with famed Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade to gain some experience. Wade had gained national notoriety in the 1960s for prosecuting Jack Ruby and took a no-nonsense approach.
他问了林恩一些针对性的面试问题. When Lynn confessed that he had no trial experience, Wade dismissed him. 林恩回来告诉豪尔发生了什么事, his mentor dug in and instructed him to go “sit outside the office until he hires you.”
“所以，我做了，”林恩说. “I went back down and I sat outside his door next to his secretary for two weeks.这一策略取得了成效. 他被韦德雇佣了，剩下的都是历史了. Lynn considers it one of the best decisions he’s ever made.
在地方检察官办公室学习了一段时间之后, he resumed private practice armed with more than 60 courtroom cases under his belt. He became a partner at Akin Gump in 1982 and became a founding partner of his current firm in 1993 where he has excelled in hundreds of jury, non-jury, 仲裁, 禁令很重要. He’s won over a billion dollars in verdicts before juries since 2014 and some of the largest single verdicts in Dallas and state history. 击败了超过十亿美元的索赔, Lynn is the only one he is aware of to have been recognized twice for “Defense Win of the Year” by the National Law Journal.
Part of his later success stems from an ability to adjust to changes that have unfolded in the courtroom since he first began practicing. 陪审团, 他说, have changed over the last few decades from being comprised primarily of white men to being composed of persons of diverse age, 性别, 比赛, 和种族. Whereas speaking directly to a jury full of men back in the day demanded a certain strategy, 现代陪审团的多样性需要一种更微妙的方法.
“现在在审判中获胜的是那些非常谦虚的人, people who are there to empower the jury to make its own decision. 你无权对陪审团指手画脚. 如果你这样做，你不会赢的.”
至于战争故事，林恩有很多. 他讲述了与德克萨斯州著名石油商T. Boone Pickens. He also discussed the ethical dilemmas that lawyers face from time to time and how best to advocate for your client in those situations.
他深情地谈起了他的妻子，伯爵夫人. 芭芭拉·米. G. Lynn, Senior District Judge for the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas. He and Barbara met as undergraduates at the University of Virginia, 他们都毕业于新大戴德曼法学院.
回答一个学生的问题, Lynn said his firm looks for new lawyers who are “losers” – those who know how to get hit and get back up. “It’s a very hard life being a commercial trial lawyer,” 他说. “你输了，你输了，你输了，你赢了. I can’t hire people who can’t get back up off their knees. It is also no coincidence that among this elite group of business trial lawyers, 75% of LPHS lawyers have served as federal law clerks at the district and circuit levels and Texas Supreme Court clerks, while the entire team shares an unparalleled love of law and passion for winning.
“你知道，我们看到的是一个预测因素? People who play sports from the time they were six years old and learn to lose a lot. The debaters who started debating very early in life learn to lose. 所以，我们雇佣了很多运动员和辩手.”
He concluded with a word of encouragement to the students and thanked Dean Jason P. 谢谢你的邀请.
“I am absolutely excited to see what you all do in the next two or three years. 我觉得这堂课会很棒的. 你处在一个很好的环境中, and you have the support of the faculty and the staff to be all that you want to be. 我的目标是让你们所有人都去工作一两年, 然后我想让你申请我的律师事务所.”
Lynn returned to SMU Dedman Law for the inaugural Trailblazer Speaker Series event to share his journey of becoming a lawyer, 这些年来这个领域是如何发展的, and share some of his “war stories” – an appropriate term for an elite attorney who calls his cadre of trial lawyers the “special forces of litigation.”
The Trailblazer Speaker Series is designed to bring speakers like Lynn to SMU as part of an educational and networking opportunity for Dedman Law students to hear from the legal profession’s most successful practitioners and gain a head start when they graduate to begin their careers with substantial connections in the legal field.
Lynn stands out as the first speaker in the series for being not only a Dedman Law graduate, but someone who has taught classes at the school as an adjunct professor and who was honored with the Distinguished 校友 Award in 2019. He has enjoyed an illustrious career as the founding partner at Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann, and he has tried to verdict more than 120 civil and criminal jury trials. Ironically, he attributes part of this success to his early learning differences.
“我不是一个好教的人. 我花了一段时间才弄明白. I found out that the way I learned is if there is a competition, 我可以在比赛中表达自己, 我通常会赢.”
以这种态度, he discovered unique ways to improve his trial capabilities, 尤其是在开场陈述中, 他认为这是他的主要弱点之一. 为了解决问题, he took a trip to the library and local book stores and combed through the science fiction sections. “我不读科幻小说，所以我才这么做. I spent the next six months reading the introductions and outlining what I thought they were doing in the introductory paragraphs. 我就是这样学会做开庭陈述的.”
He clerked for a federal judge for two years and learned federal procedure and jurisdictional issues. 他的导师、达拉斯律师约翰. “Jack” Hauer, a senior partner with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & 菲尔德律师事务所, encouraged him to become a trial lawyer and sent him down to meet with famed Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade to gain some experience. Wade had gained national notoriety in the 1960s for prosecuting Jack Ruby and took a no-nonsense approach.
他问了林恩一些针对性的面试问题. When Lynn confessed that he had no trial experience, Wade dismissed him. 林恩回来告诉豪尔发生了什么事, his mentor dug in and instructed him to go “sit outside the office until he hires you.”
“所以，我做了，”林恩说. “I went back down and I sat outside his door next to his secretary for two weeks.这一策略取得了成效. 他被韦德雇佣了，剩下的都是历史了. Lynn considers it one of the best decisions he’s ever made.
在地方检察官办公室学习了一段时间之后, he resumed private practice armed with more than 60 courtroom cases under his belt. He became a partner at Akin Gump in 1982 and became a founding partner of his current firm in 1993 where he has excelled in hundreds of jury, non-jury, 仲裁, 禁令很重要. He’s won over a billion dollars in verdicts before juries since 2014 and some of the largest single verdicts in Dallas and state history. 击败了超过十亿美元的索赔, Lynn is the only one he is aware of to have been recognized twice for “Defense Win of the Year” by the National Law Journal.
Part of his later success stems from an ability to adjust to changes that have unfolded in the courtroom since he first began practicing. 陪审团, 他说, have changed over the last few decades from being comprised primarily of white men to being composed of persons of diverse age, 性别, 比赛, 和种族. Whereas speaking directly to a jury full of men back in the day demanded a certain strategy, 现代陪审团的多样性需要一种更微妙的方法.
“现在在审判中获胜的是那些非常谦虚的人, people who are there to empower the jury to make its own decision. 你无权对陪审团指手画脚. 如果你这样做，你不会赢的.”
至于战争故事，林恩有很多. 他讲述了与德克萨斯州著名石油商T. Boone Pickens. He also discussed the ethical dilemmas that lawyers face from time to time and how best to advocate for your client in those situations.
他深情地谈起了他的妻子，伯爵夫人. 芭芭拉·米. G. Lynn, Senior District Judge for the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas. He and Barbara met as undergraduates at the University of Virginia, 他们都毕业于新大戴德曼法学院.
回答一个学生的问题, Lynn said his firm looks for new lawyers who are “losers” – those who know how to get hit and get back up. “It’s a very hard life being a commercial trial lawyer,” 他说. “你输了，你输了，你输了，你赢了. I can’t hire people who can’t get back up off their knees. It is also no coincidence that among this elite group of business trial lawyers, 75% of LPHS lawyers have served as federal law clerks at the district and circuit levels and Texas Supreme Court clerks, while the entire team shares an unparalleled love of law and passion for winning.
“你知道，我们看到的是一个预测因素? People who play sports from the time they were six years old and learn to lose a lot. The debaters who started debating very early in life learn to lose. 所以，我们雇佣了很多运动员和辩手.”
He concluded with a word of encouragement to the students and thanked Dean Jason P. 谢谢你的邀请.
“I am absolutely excited to see what you all do in the next two or three years. 我觉得这堂课会很棒的. 你处在一个很好的环境中, and you have the support of the faculty and the staff to be all that you want to be. 我的目标是让你们所有人都去工作一两年, 然后我想让你申请我的律师事务所.”