Paulson Reporting & Litigation Services

«The things we think, the things we want — -we can do them or not do them, but we can’t hide them.» Mike, «House of Games»
It would scarcely be surprising to anyone if I compared being a lawyer (particularly a litigator) to being a con man. But the reality is, at their base, the two professions share at least one fundamental requirement: a highly sensitive observation of human nature.
It may surprise you if I say that my career as a lawyer has made me more trusting of people, more confident or assured about the fundamental goodness of humankind. But that’s in fact what happened. And why? Because it’s become clear to me, over the years, that humans have a fundamental desire to tell the truth. Even when the truth is dangerous, indeed even when it might be catastrophic, humans cannot escape their desire to be honest. Particularly cagey humans might circle around the truth the way a moth circles a flame, but by careful measurement of their orbit, a discerning astronomer can accurately gage the center of the truth being orbited.
THAT is the heart of being a (good) lawyer: the careful, accurate reading of human nature. Not everyone in my profession does it well, or cares about it. I had to suffer through 3 years of law school, packed into classrooms with failed English professors, idle daughters of the upper middle class, and people who were simply greedy. They wanted in to my profession for all the wrong reasons, and I suffered their companionship because it was the price of passage. But find a good lawyer in a room, and he or she is the smiling wolf in the sheepfold. In a million ways, subtle and obvious, we all give ourselves away every day. What we want, what we think: we can talk ourselves out of acting on it, we can convince ourselves of the horror of sharing it, but we cannot hide our inner nature from the careful observer.
All of which is why, should I invite you to join me at Paulson’s, you might do well to think twice. You will be lulled by the comfortable setting, the pop, coffee, water, tea, the donuts in the morning and cookies at night. You will sit across the conference table from me, any seat you please, and you will do what every other person has done: you will give yourself away. NOT because I am so great; I am not. But because you want to. Because you have to. Because you need to. All I need to do is listen. Indeed, that’s all I ever do. Just listen, and ask a few cogent questions. And all the while, your quiet confession is tick-​tacked into permanent posterity by the attentive ears and careful fingers of the court reporter. If you’re lucky, you’ll later see your words in 88-​point font, in a PowerPoint presentation, and you will think to yourself «Did I really say that?»
So, take some free advice from the guy who gets paid more than phone sex rates to give advice: lie to yourself, lie to your family, lie to your friends. But don’t think you can come to Paulson’s and lie to me. The things we think, the things we want — -we can do them or not do them, but we can’t hide them.