Chris Dreyer:
How do you ask a jury for $50 million without turning them against you?
Jon Davidi:
You need to win.
Chris Dreyer:
Trial attorney John Davidi knows the answer.
Jon Davidi:
And the more you win, the more cases will follow.
Chris Dreyer:
Even at the top, the competition doesn't stop.
Jon Davidi:
I spend about 20% of my time doing business development and marketing, even though I consider myself a trial lawyer, and that's my number one job.
Chris Dreyer:
Since his first trial in 2019, he's taken more than 20 cases to verdict, winning over $100 million for his clients, including $48 million on a zero offer case against the City of Los Angeles. At Panish Shea Ravipudi, one of the top trial firms in the country, John's built his edge on two things, confidence and data. John knows that the verdict you win today shapes the case he signed tomorrow.
Jon Davidi:
There is competition, a lot of really good trial lawyers in Los Angeles and California. The reason that they're going to give us a case instead of someone else is...
Chris Dreyer:
This is PIM, powered by Rankings.io. I'm Chris Dreyer. Today, you'll learn how elite trial attorneys build unshakable confidence, use data to back the big ask. And turn verdicts into marketing that keeps their pipeline full. Ready to turn results into referrals? Let's go.
You're coming off big momentum, $48.7 million verdict with a zero offer case a monster. Tell me about the case. Zero offer to that monster. How does that happen?
Jon Davidi:
It was a verdict that we're all very happy with. Kind of makes it hard to try another case after that because it's tough to beat. This was a case, it was against a public entity. They knew it was going to be a case where they'd have to admit a lot of things, that he was injured, that it was their fault, which they did. His past medicals, his lost earnings. The fight was really about his future care. We had a guy who was crossing the street, minding his own business, marked crosswalk, white Walk signal, and a city garbage truck just makes a right turn and knocks him out. He's been in a coma since and probably will be for the rest of his life. There is real hope that he'll wake up if he gets the right care that he needs, which is what we were talking about in our trial.
But for us, the case really was about loss of enjoyment of life. When you talk about all the different non-economic damages and what he's no longer able to do and enjoy because of his situation. And I think that the jury was able to see that this is the worst type of injury anyone could ever have, and so that's why you're able to see that type of number on a verdict like this. And so we're very happy with the result. We're very happy that we took it all the way and we're very sad that this had to have happened in the first place and that we had to try it.
Chris Dreyer:
Yeah. Let's talk about timing. From the moment that you get a case like this, is it like, hey, you're filing immediately. What's kind of the timeline from this before it goes and you get the verdict?
Jon Davidi:
Great question. This is I think the fastest case I've ever tried. We got a verdict less than one year from the incident.
Chris Dreyer:
Wow.
Jon Davidi:
Yeah, so we were retained very early on, probably within a couple of weeks of the incident. We're based in California. I'm based in Los Angeles. In California, you have to make a government claim before filing a lawsuit against a government entity. So literally the second we were hired, it might've been the actual same day, retainer signed, we filed the government claim. They then have a certain number of days to accept it and after 45 days, if they don't accept or deny it, then it's deemed a denial and you could file your lawsuit. So they've never in history accepted a government claim. It's just it's a process. Thing you have to do. So we filed the government claim immediately, filed the complaint immediately on the 45th day, serve the complaint immediately.
Once it was served, also in California we have a statute, it's Code of Civil Procedure Section 36, that allows you to get a preferential trial date if you meet certain criteria. So one of them is if someone is under 14 years old, they get a preferential trial date. If you're over 70 years old and you have a condition, medical condition, you might not make it. You could get a preferential trial date. And there's a kind of catch all at the bottom of the code section, which is if it's in the interest of justice, right? So we made our preference motion under the interest of justice section of the statute because he was under 70, our client was 60 years old, but he was in such grave condition that we needed a trial date immediately. So we got it and the statute requires that trial be set within 120 days. It was. But we were really, really aggressive in pushing it along. We had a couple of attorneys on it the whole time. Staff on it. It was top of mind. One of the bigger cases in the office that we were really pushing and pursuing quickly to actually get it ready for trial because we knew early on that we'd probably have to try this case because the city wasn't going to Pay.
Building the confidence to ask for multimillion-dollar verdicts and using data to justify your number in front of the jury
Chris Dreyer:
I know you mentioned your license in Nevada, and we've had Sean Claggett on and the lawyer ball, the big data component, did you run it through a big data analysis? Did you do tons of focus groups? What went into, I know some jurisdictions, you can't say the number right, and you got to psychologically anchor them throughout the trial. What kind of prep and work went into this to get that asynchronous huge verdict?
Jon Davidi:
In California, you can't say the number. Some judges might not let you say it during voir dire, some judges do, given the severity of the injuries. This wasn't a case where we felt uneasy about putting any number out there. We did do a big data and we did a separate focus group just to cross our T's and dot our I's, and we wanted to know what people are thinking. What we wanted to flush out more is are people going to be thinking because he's in a coma, what's the point of giving him this money? And that's something that we wanted to be prepared for and wanted to make clear that based on our experts who've seen him and examined him multiple times, he can wake up if he gets the right treatment.
Chris Dreyer:
These numbers, where did they come back?
Jon Davidi:
It was relatively close to the verdict value. I think our biggest takeaway from the big data was how to shape the ask. Because we had the data run sets at three different levels of asks like a low, medium or high to see where we end up. And the high ask wasn't going to do us much. You want essentially, if you're going to be asking for three times the low, you want to be getting a verdict that's much higher. You don't want it to be just a few percentage points higher. And the medium, I think, didn't really do much more for us either. And the low was actually okay. And keep in mind, the low in this case was also a high number.
Chris Dreyer:
Right.
Jon Davidi:
So I think that it was our biggest takeaway from the big data, which is what are you going to ask for without pushing the wrong buttons in these jurors?
Chris Dreyer:
I think you've tried like eight cases in the last three years. How did you set yourself up for success to get this opportunity?
Jon Davidi:
I like the performance aspect and the public speaking aspect of trial. So I was on the mock trial team in law school, really liked it. I decided all I wanted to do is I want to be in court. I want to try cases. If you can put the fear and the stress and the worry aside and just get in there and do the work, couple that with the actual skills that you developed. I mean, for years being on the trial team was one thing, but then for years I spent my time reading the books, going to the conferences, practicing in front of the mirror to do voir dire. That's when you start to really see some success and then you gain confidence and the courtroom doesn't feel like an away game anymore, it feels like a home game. And when you're in there and you feel comfortable, no matter who the judge is, no matter who the jurors are, no matter who the defense lawyer is, you're going to have a lot more command the courtroom. Everyone's going to notice that and you're going to be able to do your job a lot more easily.
So I think the volume of the cases that I was able to try gave, I think people at the firm some confidence that I'm the type of guy who can do this. Doing two or three a year is fun, enjoyable. I know that there are some guys out there that will do one a month or five or six a year and kudos to them. I think I'm already losing too much hair, but maybe one day I'll try to get up to that number too.
Why winning verdicts and trial reputation generate more high-value cases than traditional advertising ever could
Chris Dreyer:
Some firms chase attention through ads and billboards, at Panish Shea Ravipudi, the wins are the marketing. Every verdict is proof, and those results fuel B2B referrals from peers.
Jon Davidi:
It's more than putting points on the board, it's about winning. And you just have to win. And I think that's what Brian would tell you too, if he listens to this episode, is you need to win and the more you win, the more cases will follow. Our firm, we don't really advertise. We're not on billboards. We don't really do commercials. We have a website, maybe we do a little SEO, some social media stuff, et cetera. But there's an expectation for all the lawyers at our firm to market and try to bring cases into the firm. And it's much more at a B2B level. So I spend about 20% of my time doing business development and marketing, even though I consider myself a trial lawyer and that's my number one job because it's important to the firm, it's important to my career development, and we need to have cases to keep the ship running. And that involves a lot of actually building relationships and friendships with people.
I think what I like about the plaintiffs community, especially in Los Angeles, that there are a lot of young hungry players in this field. A lot of people who first year, second year out of law school start in their firm. These types of referral lawyers who are solo shops, maybe they're partnered up, whatever, they might not have a case for us, but over time, their firm is going to grow. They're going to get bigger and bigger. They're going to have more money for marketing, and they're going to need to find a home for a case. I want them to call their friend John, not the trial lawyer John. We really spend time developing these relationships and friendships.
Turning trial results and trust into consistent law firm referrals and long-term client relationships
Jon Davidi:
One of my "referral lawyers" is one of my best friends now. And it's really not even a business relationship because it's important. And there is competition on our side too. There are a lot of really good trial lawyers in Los Angeles and California, nationwide, et cetera. And so the reason that they're going to give us a case instead of someone else is twofold. I think one, results. And you have to just keep getting results. You can't really slow down. It's a little bit of what have you done for me lately? And two is the relationship and trust, especially for younger referral lawyers because when they get a million dollar case or $2 million case, that's their baby. That's the biggest case that they've ever had. It might be the biggest case they will ever have. Hopefully not, but maybe. And they need to give that to someone that they can trust who's going to handle it with care and do a nice job.
Chris Dreyer:
I've never heard it explained that well, being a part of the community and not expecting anything in return, but you hope to receive it by giving value, being friendly, forming that community.
Jon Davidi:
I'm not expecting hundreds of people to send me a case over the course of their career, but a 10% hit rate's pretty good. Can I up it to 20? Can I get it to 50? Over the course of my career and their career.
Chris Dreyer:
You got this mammoth case. You're doing business development, your own. What keeps you at Panish and not going somewhere else. I mean, they got a big infrastructure, right? They helped you with working this case up. I mean, this is an important question because you're already boots on the ground doing it.
Jon Davidi:
Oh, no. Now I feel like you and I are friends and you might be one of our referral lawyers because every single time I go to lunch with someone, this comes up somehow, right?
Chris Dreyer:
Mm-hmm.
Jon Davidi:
How long are you going to stay? Do you like it? Why are you staying? Why don't you start your own? Whatever. I'll give you a short answer and a long answer. Is that okay?
Chris Dreyer:
Perfect.
Jon Davidi:
Okay. Short answer is I love job and I love coming into work every day, and that is the number one most important thing to me. Nothing else matters. You could pay me more money wouldn't change a thing, right? I think that's important. I think I decided early on in my career that life satisfaction is key and I didn't want to be a workaholic who's unpleased with work or starting my own shop and I'm the only employee and I'm working on a laptop at home. That doesn't sound as pleasant to me. For other people, that might work totally fine.
The longer answer is we work on fantastic cases. We have the opportunity to work on fantastic cases because of a lot of the referral lawyers that work with us. The lawyers that are at this firm, I think in my personal opinion, are the best in California and the best in the country. I mean, when you talk about a Brian Panish, Adam Shea, Rahul Ravipudi, Spencer Lucas, Robert Glassman, Erika Contreras, Dave Rudorfer, we have three CAALA Trial Lawyers of the Year as partners at the firm. And so there's really something special about walking down the hallway and saying, "What do you think about this case?" And it's Brian Panish that I'm talking to about it. So that's great too.
And we try cases. We try cases. They don't shy away from trials at this firm. It's encouraged to try cases as long as it's the right case, obviously, but the resources are there to try these types of cases. That's never going to be a reason why we would not try a case. So when you combine all those factors, I have enough for me to live my life how I want to live my life too, which is a plus. And I don't have the responsibility of running a business, which maybe one day I'd be interested in it, but the idea right now of worrying about payroll isn't as appealing as trying cases. So that side gets taken care of and I get to focus on doing the work, trying cases, developing business, and that's what I'd like to do.
Chris Dreyer:
Very well said. I heard this recently about, it was some explanation about frequency and about how low frequency is anger and depression, and then you get to love and it's high, but then at the highest form of frequency is authenticity. It was like in college, in law school, you knew you wanted to be a trial attorney. So it's like you're at the highest level of frequency, which lends itself to happiness.
Jon Davidi:
I feel so lucky, and maybe you do too, but to have found a career that I love early on in my life relatively is a blessing. I mean, there are so many people who don't find this ever or don't find this till their 40s or 50s or 60s or whatever it is, or have to do a job that they don't like. And when I was 27 years old, I found a career that I love, and I'm not going to take that for granted.
Chris Dreyer:
I've got a mentor, Harlan Schillinger, he said something along the lines and it's hit me in the head with a lightning bolt recently. If you want to be the best, you have to work with the best people. You have to compete at the highest level. So to get these opportunities to be with these other trial attorneys to get these big case opportunities like the case that you had, most trial attorneys will never be able to say that. And here you are, and you've got that under the belt. And now I'm sure like, Hey, the next one. And now you have that experience and maybe the ceiling's lifted and all the things. So that's incredible.
For audience listening, they got a big case. They want to reach out. They got questions about what we talked.
Jon Davidi:
Give me a call. My cell number, I'm going to put this out on the internet now, I guess, 310-801-1962. My email is jdavidi@panish.law. You can also just Google my name and I'm sure everything will pop up. But if you do have a big case, we'd love to hear from you.
Chris Dreyer:
From zero offer cases to $48 million verdicts. John's story proves that data preparation and trust turn results into referrals. At Rankings.io, we help personal injury firms do the same term proven performance into predictable growth. If your results deserve to be seen, we'll make sure the right people find you. Visit Rankings.io. Catch you next time.
