Virtually every case I defended at Oppenheimer involved some disgruntled investor trying to get a Mulligan and/or blame the broker for their own folly.
Case in point, the Estes matter. Dick Estes, obsessed with a biotech stock called Cardiome, went nuts with it and lost a bunch of money, then tried to blame Oppenheimer. Thankfully, the broker kept good records and we had every email the client wrote to him during the relevant period. In this situation, at times it was hard to tell who was egging on who, as the broker should have been more assertive with the client about his opinion that putting so much money into this one stock was a bad idea, but hindsight is 20/20, right?
Trial dragged on for 26 days in St. Louis, the place where high school is apparently destiny. All the broker talked about between rounds of hearings was his high school, where Dick went to high school, where the panelists went to high school, and so on. But I liked him and his branch managers anyway. Dick, on the other hand, not so much. Nor did I care for his counsel. All through the proceedings, when faced with a hard question about his conduct during the relevant period, Dick would feign breaking down in tears, making us take a ten-minute break. That’s okay, as I’m the first human recipient of a hamster bladder transplant anyway. Better yet, his counsel almost broke down in tears when the panel cut him off halfway through his closing arguments when he got repetitive. We got our full three hours.
Best quote throughout this case was Dick saying, “There are lies and there are white lies.” Still amazes me they got any money in this case, but then again, it’s St. Louis, and where you went to high school is a big deal there. Oppenheimer considered this one a victory. Fair enough.
Write down everything you can about every interaction with your clients. You can’t trust people when it comes to money. Or much else. And, watch out for guys named Dick.
