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William B. Hanley uses simple words and basic tactics in court to get what he wants most: a fair shake for the little guy in danger of being squashed.
William Hanley relishes representing the little guy. "When you're in the courtroom, there's just you and the witness," Hanley says. "I don't care how large the other firm is. There's just me and the witness, and me making the presentation, and I do that well."
Such was the case of Lockshaw v. Rohr , which Hanley, 55, argued successfully in favor of the founder of a small company and its shareholders who took on Rohr and B.F. Goodrich for reneging on part of a purchase deal.
The plaintiffs will receive $48 million in punitive damages and $28 million in compensatory damages if verdicts on fraud and breach of contract hold up on appeal.
Hanley had represented Jim Lockshaw and his company, Tolo, which he sold to Rohr in 1997, for years.
In fact, Hanley and his wife, Eileen, became wine connoisseurs of sorts after visiting Lockshaw's winery in Paso Robles 18 years ago.
"That's what I enjoy about working with small businesses and small companies," Hanley says "You develop a real personal relationship with these people. They become clients and friends as well. Jim has my phone number, and I have his. He can call me anytime."
Since entering the law, Hanley has worked for himself or for relatively small firms, giving him the opportunity to prepare and argue a case from start to finish.
"He's a solo guy," Patrick Hanley, a Sacramento attorney and former colleague of Hanley's, says. "He doesn't really need a lot of support. He does his own research and his own writing, which is very unusual in this day and age. He can do great in front of a judge and jury as well as litigate a case on paper. He has the full package."
Above all, Michelle Reinglass, a Laguna Hills sole practitioner, says, Hanley puts people first.
"Most of his clients have been small-business people. It gives you the opportunity to deal with people as people rather than see them as a corporate entity," Reinglass says.
"I remember talking to him many years ago about a case, and his strategy for the most part, was directed at achieving the best result for the client, {unlike} most lawyers who ask, How am I going to win?' He gets great results because he demonstrates those two important qualities; skill and caring for his clients."
Hanley prides himself on having played David to many legal Goliaths over the years.
Although he has represented several Fortune 500 firms, among them the Grumman Aerospace Co., his stock in trade are the Jim Lockshaws of the world who have been stepped on or trampled by the larger and the more powerful.
In 1977, that included 12-year-old Michael Dawes, who was run over by a drunken driver in a Ferrari. The driver's father had been an attorney for Richard Nixon.
"I was on the case very quickly and able to develop a lot of witnesses to testify," Hanley says. He pieced together the driver's every move, from the time he left a local restaurant through the three-quarters of a mile he traveled at excessive speeds, weaving in and out of traffic, until he hit the Dawes boy, breaking several bones and causing brain damage.
The case was settled for $28 million before it could go to a jury for a verdict.
Even then, Hanley was known for his thorough preparation, which enabled him to stay one step ahead of the opposing side.
"He does everything a small practitioner has to do. But more than that, he's willing to spend all the time he has to make sure he's ready," Gerry Shelly, a Costa Mesa sole practitioner, says.
At one point in the Dawes case, Hanley remembers opposing counsel turning to him and saying, "If this goes on any further, I may be able to know more about the case from you than you do," Hanley says.
It was the same in the Lockshaw case.
"One juror asked me afterwards: How do you keep all that information in your head?' I think it's just a matter of being prepared and organized. In the Lockshaw case, I handled every aspect all the depositions, all the motions, all discovery."
"I think that was significant," Hanley says, "because in trying the case I had a real good handle on all events."
Hanley recalled the time Hanley was interviewed by a client along with representatives of several large law firms. After the other attorneys explained each of their specialties, Hanley was asked what he had to offer.
"I just win," he replied.
That no-nonsense approach may very well be the product of the large-family, small-town atmosphere in which Hanley was raised.
Hanley was one of six children. His father, Bernard worked in the steel mill of Sharpesville, Pa., a town of 6,000 people, most of whom knew everyone else.
Hanley remembers his high school principal calling him into the office after he got into some trouble. The principal asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.
"A lawyer," he said, without knowing why.
"You'll never make it," Hanley says the principal told him.
That was enough to fuel the desire.
However, after he graduated from Pittsburgh's Duquesne University, his aspirations were interrupted while he served a tour of duty in Vietnam with the Army's 101st Airborne. He returned in 1970 to Ft. MacArthur in San Pedro. Deciding to remain in California, he attended Pepperdine University School of Law and graduated in 1974 to join the Costa Mesa firm of Russell Behrens, where he became partner in 1978.
Gaining experience in a wide range of business litigation, including intellectual-property matters, construction-defect claims, contract disputes and trade secrets, he left in 1989 to form his own firm, Hanley White Kinney & Patch in Santa Ana, with three other partners.
Even though the office has only 10 lawyers, for Hanley it was too big.
"Too any administrative matters," he says.
So, in 1996, he left to form his own one-man office, a suitable transition for an advocate of the little guy.
Mike Bidart, a partner in Shernoff, Bidart, Darras & Dillon in Claremont, remembers meeting Hanley in law school.
Hanley "epitomized class always very quiet, very circumspect and very dignified," Bidart says. "The key ingredient for a trial lawyer is credibility, and Bill is very credible. He's always prepared and always very honest, and that comes through loud and clear."
In the business arena, Hanley has seen many cases of powerful interests trying to take advantage of small entrepreneurs.
A client of his did design work for years for the U.S. Navy before selling his business to a large corporation in 1994.
The buyer, however, refused to pay the agreed-upon sale price, citing a subsequent audit to argue that the smaller firm was worth much less.
"Basically, they wanted the Navy's business," Hanley says. "To them, the money was nothing, but to a person who had worked his entire life putting this company together, it was a significant amount."
Hanley brought the case to trial and won a sizable jury award for his client.
"That's when I enjoy going into a courtroom, for people like that," Hanley says. "It's a joy to see people like that get what's due them."
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