When I started this article, I thought it was going to be pretty short, not much to write about other than how lucky I was to have worked at Jones Day, along with a few highlights. Then as I started writing, I realized there were some interesting moments and memories worth mentioning. I hope this article is not too long, and I will try to keep it to a minimum.
Background:
Jones Day Reavis & Pogue, now known as Jones Day, is one of the most prominent law firms in the United States and the world, with origins dating back to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1893. Over the decades, the firm expanded from a regional practice into a major national and international legal institution, known for sophisticated corporate representation, complex litigation, appellate work, mergers and acquisitions, and high-stakes legal matters involving major business clients.
By the late twentieth century, Jones Day had developed a reputation as an elite and demanding firm, attracting highly credentialed attorneys and representing some of the largest and most influential corporations in the world. Its Los Angeles office opened in 1973, and during the Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue era, the firm was already firmly established as a major presence in American corporate law and international law. Locations include United States, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Jones Day Website
Getting Hired:
It was in April of 1986 when I was finishing my Paralegal certification in Los Angeles. One of my class mates worked at Jones Day and advised I should apply. He said that Jones Day just started a very big case and were hiring paralegals. So with this, I thought yes and was able to get an interview. I drove to the Los Angeles offices and interviewed in person. At that time, I was living in the San Fernando Valley and going into Los Angeles was a pain, but this opportunity was worth the drive.
Once there I got to met the head of personnel and luckily everything went smoothly. After the interview was done, I drove home. As soon as I got home, I saw I had a voice mail message waiting. (Yes we used answering machines then. Cell phones were a few decades away for consumers.) The message was from Jones Day’s head of personnel. They said that I had the job, and if I would be able to drive back to their office today. I called and advised I was on my way. Now back on the 101 freeway to the 405 freeway, and back into downtown LA.
Once I got there, we completed all the paperwork, they issued my official employee documents, and parking pass. I was very happy. I recall starting as soon as my two week notice at the grocery store was finalized. Note, I was advised this was a temporary paralegal position, but I also knew this was an opportunity of a lifetime. To work at Jones Day. My goal was to prove myself during my temp status and then be able to stay on permanently. Later during my employment, I had to sign an acknowledgment regarding stock trading.
Acknowledgement Letter Directly to Mr. Pogue. Our head administrator was a retired Marine. I remember he used to run everyday in downtown LA during his lunch. He was a tough intimidating guy, but fair.
I started working at the main Los Angeles offices located at 355 Grand Avenue Suite 3000. It was called the twin towers. Jones Day had three or four floors close to the top. It was so cool to be working at Jones Day, and the view from this high rise was awesome. On my first day I remember I did not even know how to use a copy machine, but I did learn the ins and outs of office work fast. It was sink or swim.
Jones Day Downtown Los Angeles Offices
I was working with about 15 other paralegals on a very big case. I can mention the case in general, but I am not sure on the other particulars. It was the Jordache Jeans brothers vs the Guess Jeans brothers lawsuit in 1989. The Nakash’s versus the Marciano’s. We were tasked with reviewing thousands of documents, cataloging and writing a synopsis for each item. There were thousands and thousands of documents. Boxes of documents lined all the halls. This case had similar elements that the Gucci Movie had, except murder, I think.
Here are a few open source references about the case:
Guess and Jordache Jeans Settle War Over Ownership
There was even a book written about this case: Skin Tight: The Bizarre Story of Guess V. Jordache
Working at Jones Day was such a great experience. I was working with some of the top lawyers in the country. Each day was a challenge, as their pace was so fast and there was no: “Could you please explain that again?” moments. After a few months I felt I could move in and out each task much better and by that time, I had also gotten to know a few of the lawyers and partners.
Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s Japan was the dominant economic force, as far as the California offices were concerned. The Japanese were purchasing real estate and corporations like crazy. Additionally, Jones Day represented many Asian corporations, like Fuji Bank and many others. We had to learn proper etiquette if we met any Japanese clients.
Arriving at Jones Day:
Once you exited the elevators on the 30th floor of Jones Days’ main lobby it was very impressive. I was told that they spent one million dollars on just the main lobby entrance decor. It was quite impressive.
One of the people I got to know there was a person who worked in billing. Once day I was asking her about my billing hours as she was sending out monthly billing statements to one of the fortune 500 clients. Remember this was in the 1980’s. For one month of attorney’s fees, for just one client was approximately $84,000. I could believe it, it was crazy. In today’s dollars that is well over $200,000. But this firm was the second largest firm in the world and had a ‘take no prisoner mentality’ when it came to litigation.
On the lighter side of things, Fridays was a bit more relaxed. At the end of the day, they would have an open social in one of the main conference rooms for all the new lawyers, and everyone could drop in to say hello and have a drink. Also just outside the building in the main courtyard after work, there were restaurants serving casual outdoor food and drinks.
Jones Day Downtown Offices Main Courtyard Area.
It was a great learning experience. It was my first exposure to the higher end of the white collar world. I learned a lot about working with and interacting with highly educated people. I also recognized how hard most of them worked to get to his point in their life. Most of them were very nice and generous with their time.
I also went to one of the Christmas parties that Jones Day had put on. It had to have been the fanciest parties I had ever attended to date. There were engraved glass serving containers that had mountains of food. I recall these containers were as big as the tables they were on. One tray had shrimp piled higher than I stood, it was crazy. It was a great party and everyone appeared to be having a very nice time.
I recall one newer attorney who was one or two years in. He was a very nice person. Unfortunately he had a bit too much to drink and unknowingly embarrassed himself pretty good that evening. The next Monday he was gone. I heard they transferred him to a different regional office. Jones Day had an impressive reputation then and it did not surprise me when he was abruptly transferred, no goodbyes, nothing.
Tech in the 1980’s:
Jones Day had their entire computer system from Wang Computers. Right before one Christmas vacation, I found an option in the computer system that allowed me to edit the home screens for all of Jones Day computers, system wide. So that evening before leaving work, I put on the home screen “Merry Christmas” which then went out to every Jones Day computer, at least in the Los Angeles offices. (Disclaimer: this was not a hack. There was no manipulation of the software. This was a option, menu driven access, which existed in the system that allowed editing of the default home screens, for any user. The computer systems back then were very basic compared to today.)
To give perspective to that decade, below is a 1987 article about Jones Day and their new computer systems. It really sheds light on the mindset back then for everyone in the business world.
This is an actual article copy I saved from back then.
At a certain point in time the Jordache Jeans paralegal needs were winding down. I was advised that my position would be ending soon, but that I could apply to stay on as a full time employee. I remember having to go through the interview and hiring process once again. This time it was bit more involved and challenging. The one person I was competing with was a recent college graduate and appeared to be very sharp. Luckily I got the position, as they already knew my paralegal work product, and I had shown I could blend and work well with the attorneys.
So at this point, I became a permanent employee and was very happy. I still worked out of the downtown offices but had new assignments. I was working in the real estate section. Jones Day had some of the biggest real estate clients in the country. The real estate projects we were working on were multi-million dollar ventures, and on a massive scale.
One project was the complete redevelopment of the downtown Hollywood district. This is when I felt like the bad guy. I had to revalue the balance of the leases, then send out letters to the businesses regarding next steps. It was basically setting up blocks of the Hollywood business district for a complete redevelopment. The end result would be more jobs and a greater business environment, but that also came with a business and personal cost attached.
I was lucky to be given new responsibilities. One of which was being the liaison for all new associate attorney hires. I had a welcome binder prepared for each new hire and was the point of contact for their on-boarding. It was actually very cool because this was a great vehicle to get to met all the new attorneys. All new hires were from the top law schools and their stories of how they got to Jones Day were amazing to hear.
At one point, one of the main partners who’s client was Fuji Bank, the 4th largest bank in the world at the time, assigned me a research project for a talk he was to give the Directors of Fuji Bank in Hawaii. Back then Lexus Nexus online was limited. I recall doing this the od school way, walking from Jones Day to the downtown law library. Actually looking up in books, citing research and case law which was sorted though the old style index cards. I checked out the books that had relevant information and then carried them back to Jones Day. I then prepared the citations and references for the Partner to review for his talk. It was actually very cool. Working at Jones Day taught me how to do extensive research, and cite case law, which helped me greatly when I became a law enforcement officer later in life.
Another cool project I got to work on was in environmental law. This a was still a pretty new area of law in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Jones Day had one the top environmental lawyers in the country at our LA offices. As background, in 1980 the Super Fund was created by the EPA for environmental cleanups. Also, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, things were pretty busy. It was amazing to see how fast millions of dollars was burned through the Superfund on big hazardous cleanups.
At this time I was just learning about online research. There were no online magazines, online university research papers, etc. Having the ability to search any existing databases all over the world was still in it’s infancy. Through Compuserv, I had access to a few major databases and was able to retrieve articles and documents from around the world. The process was very archaic compared to today. But this was a new experience for me, and I was excited to be learning so much about how corporations and big money works.
My actual Compuserv magazine subscription from 1988. The cover illustrates online databases to find the needle in the hay stack. The articles and ads in this magazine are pretty funny now.
Yes, this is how you had to change your password back then. Only a month to get the new password in the mail.
I can not leave out this next experience. I had the great fortune to work an extremely intelligent attorney, Dennis. He was a law school graduate from West Virginia Law School. He worked at the White House under Reagan.
This is a photo Dennis gave me from when he in the justice department and was on the White House Lawn during then, Vice President's Bush speech. This was before digital photos also.
Dennis was the attorney who complied the list of Justices to be nominated to the Supreme Court. This was the list that President Reagan was given to select the next nominee. The nominee President Reagan selected from that list was Judge Bork. I remember going with Dennis to UCLA one afternoon and watch him debate UCLA’s law professor on why Bork was the best nominee. Looking back on this now, it was an amazing legal debate to watch, especially from an historical perspective.
Dennis was also the LA Chapter President of the Federalist Society. I had joined the Federalist Society and was his official assistant. My job was to help recruit law students, promote the Federalist Society, and to attend meetings with him in Los Angeles.
I got to attend two meetings with Dennis, which were amazing intellectual social interactions I’ve ever had. One was at the Jonathan Club, which is a very exclusive club in Los Angeles. We met and had dinner with the democratic version of the Federalist Society. It was a great exchange between these two organizations. The Jonathan Club
The next meeting was at the California Club. One of the most, if not thee most exclusive club for the wealthy and influential in Los Angeles. This place was so exclusive, they were the only club, at the time, that did not allow women past the fourth or fifth floor. The California Club
If there was ever a place that inspired the look and feel where John Wick goes to have a drink with other assassins, The California Club would have been that place. There were several rooms I got to visit, which were warm and darkly lit, with very unique fancy furnishings. There were lots of rich art work and books aligned on the walls. Not many people were there, but the people that were there looked like they definitely had something special about them.
Century City:
I had been working in the downtown offices for awhile now when Jones Day had just leased additional offices in Century City, located on Avenue of the Stars. This was the latest and greatest new tower office space in Los Angeles area. This building was new in architecture and just around the corner of the movie studios. Century City was the in the heart of movie industry and movie business. It was an artsy area and there were a lot of cool places nearby.
I was advised that I was being transferred to these new Century City offices, which actually sounded great. I did not have to drive deep into downtown LA, and I would be working in a more hip part of town, and it was a new building. The build was called Fox Plaza, and our new office address was 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 2100.
Fox Plaza in Century City, Avenue of the Stars.
At the time, it was just another new building, the new kid on the block, as they say. It was very fancy and new, but as you know in LA there is always the next new kid on the block, just waiting around the corner. Working Fox Plaza was very very cool, as it was right next to the Century City outdoor area where restaurants and a lots of cool places were located within walking distance. It actually had one of the last Playboy restaurants still in operation. A few of us from the office went there one day for lunch, and it was actually a let down, in the sense that the restaurant looked old, and the food was not that good.
If you have read a couple of my blog articles, you may recall that in LA, there are always movies being filmed everyday, somewhere in town. So seeing an active filming is more a pain with traffic than trying to see a film personalty. In LA you’re more likely to see a star in a restaurant or hanging out downtown than on an actual film set.
With that said, since Fox Plaza was the newest building in LA, it was used as a filming location on pretty frequently. I remember one day, trying to leave the building out the main entrance and to the underground parking. We were stopped by the film crew because they were actively filming a scene. As a note, to lease office space at Fox Plaza was very expensive and some of the business executives became very mad that anyone would waste their time due to a filming.
One day, I remember seeing in the main lobby, a movie prop being staged. It was a small snack and magazine counter in the hallway where the elevators are located. I was so tempted to turn one of the packs of gum upside down just to see if it made it in a movie release somewhere down the road. Also films have a continuity director. Their job is make sure the set is exactly as it was from one take to the next.
Another note, you never know the name of these movies when they are being filmed, so when this particular filming was taking place at our offices, I did not know the name of it, but would remember the film prop if I saw it again.
Shortly after this, one morning when I arrived to work, I remember seeing all this rubble in the main Plaza entrance. It looked like a bomb went off. It was definitely eye catching. By the time I left at the end of the day, all the rubble was completely gone and you would never have known there had been filming the night before. Everything looked clean.
I say all this because I later found out the name of the movie that was being filmed at the time at Fox Plaza, or should I say, Nakatomi Plaza? Yes, I was working at the Nakatomi Plaza during the filming of the original Die Hard movie. That was so cool!
This is the candy and magazine movie prop that was in the halls where the elevators were located. I remember walking by this movie prop for a few days, after work.
Little was I to know that about 10 years years later, I would be hanging out with Bruce Willis and Demi Moore in their private club on New Years Eve. That’s for another story, Bruno.
Working in Century City actually felt like a lot more work than the downtown offices. It was very busy there. Maybe because it was a smaller office than downtown, and had less attorneys working there? I do recall always being busy with very little down time.
We did a little fun time, from time to time. On this particular day, there was a big conference for new attorneys in the Century City Plaza. I crashed that party.
Yes, this was me trying to be funny in the 80's.
Overall working at Jones Day opened my eyes to what is possible in the world and how being successful and wealthy is not only how educated you are but your mindset and imagination. I was so lucky to have been given the opportunity to work there.
As a note, I did want to post something that was a highlight for me. Also, this was so long ago, I feel this document is not an issue, but I did remove some content to keep it generic.
A moment in time that helped me gain confidence among so many intelligent people and friends.
There were so many Jones Day people that helped me grow in my professional life. Partners, associate lawyers, paralegals, and office staff who took time to share their experiences and give me advise on how to be successful. Learning how law firms operate, proper office decorum, and the high standards expected at Jones Day prepared me for what was to follow in the next chapters of my life.
