>> My name is Craig Guthery.
I'm a partner in a law firm in the Washington, D.C. area.
Most of what I do is representing big companies who either are suing
or have been sued by other big companies.
And so my time in court is limited.
I usually appear about once every -- once a month I appear in front of a judge.
Typically, I'll get a phone call or -- and they come from referrals mostly.
Word of mouth.
Somebody will give me a call and say that I've got this problem.
And the problem could be that they had just been served with a lawsuit.
Or they've been served a subpoena.
Or maybe they just received letter from --
from someone who is not happy with something that they did.
Other times they may be on the -- on the plaintiff's side and they feel that maybe one
of their employees left and took some
of their intellectual property and started a new business.
That's just one of many examples.
Someone ends up filing a lawsuit.
And if it's -- if it's my client for example that files the lawsuit, we -- that's a -- a --
a project that requires a lot of research before you even file the complaint.
The complaint starts the lawsuit off.
And then the court -- you know, we file it with the court.
The court accepts it and starts that ball rolling.
Eventually, the other side will -- will respond to the complaint.
And then you'll do a lot of administrative stuff.
Discovery will start where you exchange documents.
You take depositions of each other's witnesses.
And then eventually you'll find yourself in the courtroom at trial.