Clients, Globalization And The American Jury
The title is a lie. There is no such thing as an "American jury." There are juries from Cook County, Illinois or Los Angeles, California. From Dothan, Alabama to Union County, West Virginia. From Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. From Seattle to New York. And everywhere in between. Okay, so we all know juries are different. Big deal.
Its a damn big deal! Those 12 people are very likely going to reflect the views of the community on issues like globalization. In the globalization of business, there have been some clear winners and many clear losers among communities where cases are going to be tried. When you hear talk about "judicial hellholes," you need to remember that most state court judges are elected, and the creation of a "hellhole" is likely to involve the community (juries/voters) as well as judges. Let's just say that not many businesses of any kind would be anxious to try a case in a town where massive layoffs were announced because another manufacturing facility was moved to China.
This truth creates two significant challenges for trial lawyers. One is to figure out how to inoculate a jury on this issue--that challenge can be discussed in a different forum. The second challenge--relevant here--is how to discuss this issue with your client. While they may be able to lower costs by moving production offshore (or by using illegal immigrant labor, to draw on another critical issue), they need to understand such moves will not help them win popularity contests. They may want to settle, pay a premium to avoid the risk of a runaway jury. Or they may want to find a lawyer who has found an answer to question number one. The lawyer providing great service has to raise this issue and (and this isn't easy) volunteer to find the right person to handle that issue if he or she is not up to it. (When they talk about putting the client's interests ahead of your firm's, this is an example.)