Since the founding of the original version of our firm more than 25 years ago, Kaplan Law Firm has been committed to a higher, noble client calling for a wide range of business and litigation legal services. Our firm is ideally configured to deliver personalized, intelligent, and aggressive representation to our clients in the most cost-effective and ethical manner, regardless of the complexity of the case. Our clients range from large global and national firms, to mid and small-sized businesses and entrepreneurs.
Our firm motto is, “Perceptive, Persistent, Persuasive.” Those words define who we are, how we approach every matter, and what we provide our clients. The hallmarks that guide us are our integrity, creativity, persistence, and our willingness to fight to verdict when necessary.
Integrity
Our sense of integrity governs everything we do. We understand the law is a profession based on imposing rules and drawing lines. But we also instinctively know there are times when the right thing to do is question those rules and move those lines. When we do, our lawyers challenge those rules boldly and openly.
To us, our integrity means our word is indeed our bond, whether to clients, courts, or opposing counsel. Our integrity means we refuse to cut corners or churn a file to run up a bill. Our integrity means we treat even our adversaries with respect, and never use any tactic or device simply to inflict pain.
We consider membership in the legal profession to be a signal honor. As a result, we try to act honorably in everything we do.
Creativity
At Kaplan Law Firm, we don’t ask “why”, we ask “why not”? We are committed to a creative approach to problem solving that leads to our client’s success, which often results in a “win/win” for our clients and for the opposing parties as well. We believe that “success” need not necessarily foster conflict, but instead, when blended with our sense of professionalism and innovation in the law, will often obviate the perceived need for protracted litigation.
Persistence
Any entrepreneur who has started a successful business, anyone who has created something valuable from nothing, anyone who has achieved great success in any field, knows that it was their determination—their persistence—that made it happen.
“Persistent” is the middle word of Kaplan Law Firm’s motto. It is at the heart of who we are and what we do. It forms the bridge between intellect (being “Perceptive”) and talent (being “Persuasive”). It is how we achieve ultimate success on behalf of our clients.
Calvin Coolidge summed this up best when he explained, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
At Kaplan Law Firm, we know the truth of those words. That is why persistence is at the heart of everything we do. In fighting to protect our clients’ success, we bring to bear those same qualities that built it.
Willingness to Battle to Verdict
At Kaplan Law Firm, we know that sometimes the only right thing to do is to stand and fight.
Even with the utmost creativity and goodwill, parties can have immovable differences that cannot be settled, and values that should not be compromised. Such issues or questions simply need to be decided by judges or juries.
But many litigators, especially business litigators, lack the will to try a case all the way to verdict. The reason is that very few have significant trial experience. While they may be skilled at peppering the other side with discovery and motion practice, when their procedural machinations fail and the case cannot settle they find themselves staring into an abyss. They simply do not know what to do if the case must be tried in court. As a result, those lawyers search for excuses that allow them to escape the battlefield of the courtroom. This has the effect of reducing their credibility in any settlement negotiations, and either makes a trial more likely, or forces their clients to make unwarranted concessions.
From the inception of every case, we plan for trial. Not only does this lead to a successful verdict in the cases we try, it actually encourages settlement in others because our adversaries never see us blink and quickly realize we will call their bluff.
This willingness and ability to take a case to verdict is also why other law firms seek us out as co-counsel when their own cases fail to settle before trial and they need a “pinch hitter” in the courtroom. It is why our lawyers have tried cases not only throughout California, but in more than 20 other states.
