I was on a jury where this happened. The lady had a slip and fall and wouldn’t take the settlement. From the moment I stepped foot in that box I knew this woman was going to take Target to the cleaners. Neck brace, wheelchair, dressed in an all white Hillary Clinton pants suit. Her son was in seminary school and had to drop out to take care of his mom.
The lady’s lawyers were in fresh suits, hair slicked back, super chummy and jokey. Really nice and avuncular. Everybody was on her side.
Target’s lawyer comes in. This guy looked like he crawled out of of a drainage ditch and picked up a suit at Goodwill on the way to court. He had long frizzy hair and the top of his hair was bald. Basically looked like Garfunkel if Garfunkel had spent 20 years in the MMA. He was wearing a blue double breasted jacket that was purchased when people still used the word supper. Instead of Allen Edmonds, this guy was wearing faded, shitty old boat shoes.
I’ve never seen anything like it. This woman was completely annihilated. This fucking guy, when I looked around, the jury’s mouths were agape. Absolutely brutal takedown. Scorched earth. Total war.
After she lost, the judge came in and was like, “You guys made the right choice. I’m sorry this lady wasted your time.” When I left, I went to the little cafe by the courthouse and the Target lawyer was there. He was eating a tuna pita sandwich and I said, “Hey, that was… I’ve never seen anything like it.” Tuna is falling all over this guy’s face, he glances at me for about 100ms and nods and then looks back out over the park and shoves about 5 cheddar SunChips in his mouth, wipes it off on his jacket.
I’ll never forget that guy. It really proved a point to me. Literally nothing matters if you’re the best at what you do. This guy had zero charm, zero charisma, looks awful, and he stood up there and made everyone absolutely hate this woman. Never showed any emotion. No fireworks. No bullshit. Just another Tuesday for him. He was completely on autopilot but he was better that his job than anyone in that room was at anything they’ve ever done in their lives.
Don’t fuck with Target.