Objective counselor:  Protected by the privileged confidentiality of our attorney-client relationship, in this role, I answer your questions. But I also provide you with my most clear and candid advice. Those answers and that advice is based on not only my general experience, but also on my evaluation of the players, the facts, and the law of your particular dispute. Considering both objective and subjective factors, I help you assess the strengths and weaknesses of your own positions, and compare those to the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents. And I'm duty-bound to give you both the good news and the bad, and to help you evaluate risks as well as possible benefits, so that you can then make informed decisions on the most important issues affecting your lawsuit. My advice, whether oral or written, comes in the same concrete style and conversational tone I use here — very thorough, but with the legal nuances translated into plain, vivid language that you will fully grasp and can therefore act upon with confidence.

Seasoned trial advocate:  In all public settings, I'm always your eager and battle-tested gladiator — even when the private advice I've given you may necessarily have been grim. I fight hard to represent your interests, and to respond to the attacks from your opponents' advocates. But I fight clean, not dirty, and I stay within the bounds of the law, the Canons of Ethics, and the Texas Lawyer's Creed. (I urge you to read the Creed, especially Part II.) Candor, courtesy, good humor, and a studied, calculated relentlessness — backed up with my experience, preparation, and creativity — are what make me effective. (Lawyer tricks and bombast make for entertaining movie and television fiction, but only because the scriptwriters can ensure they never backfire.) My gladiatorial experience includes all of the different arenas in which modern civil disputes are played out — including pre-suit negotiations; pretrial discovery and procedural hearings; mediations and other "alternative dispute resolution" proceedings; and full trials on the merits before either a jury or a judge (including any appeals).