Florida Justice System
Under Florida law, all those who took part in a fatal robbery are equally guilty of murder irrespective of the part played in the crime. My view is that if the law says that about robberies then why are drunk drivers who kill someone not charged with first degree murder too because they have also killed someone during the process of committing a crime. That is driving under the influence. The Florida lawmakers should explain to their people how their community will benefit from locking people up and throwing away the key approach. In the case of Jennifer Mee, she was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, so what hideous crime did she commit? Did she murder someone in cold blood? Well, here are a few facts as I understand them to be; Jennifer set up a date with a young man via Facebook but she did not have romance on her mind but rather robbery. The plan was to rob the young man with the assistance of her two male companions, but during the mugging one of Jennifer’s friends shot the victim. I don’t know where Jennifer was when this all took place. It was never Jennifer’s intention for the victim to be shot (according to Jennifer) and she claims she didn’t even know that one of her friends had a firearm on his presence. I don’t know what you think about Jennifer but whatever it is, would you feel the same way if she was one of your relatives? My view is that Florida has changed the meaning of the word murder for whatever reason. I always thought murder was an intentional act and the only intention Jennifer had was to rob her victim. Murder was not even discussed as far as I know. The other important point is life without parole sentences. This may be the only option for some, but not the majority of them. In Jennifer’s case, her lawyer gave her a 3-5% chance of ever being released, but I cannot fathom out how he came to that conclusion. Because there is a clemency option for Jennifer subject to certain criteria and one of them is that at least ten years of their sentence must have been served. She has been inside since 19 and is 28 now so has little time to go before she completes ten years.
How I Choose to Lead My Law Firm in These Uncertain Times
One of the credos at The Mike Morse Law Firm is to be the best law firm to work for in Michigan. We came up with that 13 years ago. But during these unprecedented times, I keep asking myself, what does it really mean? I do think we have been the best law firm to work for. I don’t need the Free Press awards to tell me that. I worked for other law firms. I know how they treated people. There was no trust. There was no communication. You didn’t know what the partners were truly thinking or how the firm was doing. You didn’t know how secure your job was, until you were fired. I swore when I opened my own firm in 1995 that I would never treat an employee the way I was treated. I actually thought about this when I had no employees. I had a vision of what it would be like to have employees and show them the respect I always wanted. To tell them how the firm was doing, good or bad. To encourage them to speak up and to help me decide which way to go if I faced a tough decision. And it has worked. Since 2007, every quarter I stand in front of all of my employees gathered in one room and give a “State of the Firm.” I did it when we had 25 employees, and I do it now when we have 150. I share how we did last year and last quarter. What my goal and vision is for the next quarter. I ask all new hires to stand up and introduce themselves. Tell us where they last worked last and why they decided to join our firm. We lay out our vision and goals and I let every person know what needs to be done to hit our goals for the quarter and year. I talk about our Core Values each quarter. Some of my employees have heard this speech almost 100 times. I do the meetings myself and I give my energy and I receive the love and energy from my employees during these meetings. So back to the question of are we really the best law firm to work for in Michigan? Was it just pie in the sky when I said that was a goal? A guiding principle? I could have picked lots of things but after much consideration by myself and my executive team, it has always remained as one of my top priorities as an employer. At our firm, we’ve always hit our goals. We have not had an off year since we have been tracking our numbers. We have grown about 25% a year since 2007. During this time with our physical office closed, I have been talking with a number of lawyers and reading a lot. I spoke with a lawyer who heads his own firm yesterday who immediately laid off people- his only receptionist and his associate lawyer. This was a very small firm. They are down to the partners. They have only been closed a few days. We have been closed and working remotely for almost two weeks. I watch how Delta Airlines has laid off 70% of their employees without pay. I see other companies doing the same. People in the service businesses that actually can be open during these times, don’t want to work because of fear. I get that. Hopefully their businesses will survive and they can all be rehired back after this disaster ends. But for my business, my law firm, my baby that I started from scratch, I have been thinking of what to do. There is no book written to help in these times. I am a decent leader and visionary. I have survived my dad dying when I was a young man in law school, being fired from one of my first legal jobs with no notice, a major fire that swept through my office just as my firm was starting to take off, and much more. My COO John Nachazel and I are actually putting the finishing touches on a book we are calling Fireproof, How to Take Your Law Firm From Unpredictable to Wildly Profitable. The book isn’t out yet, but it has been a fun exercise. I am realizing that during this period, we are Fireproof. Since my fire in 2008, our team has had a disaster plan. Everyone already was prepared to work from home. We decided on Sunday, March 15th, to close our physical offices down. The next day, all of my 150 staff were up and running remotely. Their gear worked because we had tested it. They all had the phone apps on their phones because we made sure they did before this happened. The people who needed printers had them. We had a process written and shared and discussed years before this happened. We were ready. And it worked and paid off. What our plan couldn’t account for is that the courts are closed with no open date in sight. Insurance companies are playing games and some are not settling cases. Defense attorneys are trying to figure out how they survive without billing and without a lot of depositions and court appearances happening. This will be an off year for sure. It is nearly impossible to hit our settlement goals with everything shut down. All of our trials are pushed off months and may not even go in 2020. Payroll will get tight, soon. I have never had to bail out my law firm with my own personal money. I have had several employees raise their hands that they cannot work a full 40 hours and have volunteered to go down in hours for their own benefit and to save the firm some money. I even had a member of my own executive team offer a pay cut! To say I was surprised and delighted would be an understatement. Because of how we treat our employees they are stepping
