The state accounts for 12% of the population, but has outperformed that (percentage-wise) in almost ever economic metric. Coming out of the great recession, in the years 2012 to 2016, California accounted for 17% of the growth in the U.S.

Industries in California have also flexed their muscles. Tech, shipping, and entertainment have also turn the tables to recovery faster in California that elsewhere. We find numerous California companies living on the Fortune 500 list. Most would know Apple, Wells Fargo, and Hewlett-Packard. But cities like Los Angeles are quietly the home of engineering and constructions behemoths such as CBRE Group, Aecom, and Reliance Steel & Aluminum.

Among other Fortune 500 companies in the state are companies like McKesson, Oracle, Disney, Facebook, Qualcomm, Gap, Western Digital, Mattel, Schwab, and, well, a few dozen more.

On downside noted is that with more success, California has a greater downside if the economy reverses, but let’s be happy we’re on the right side of this economy for now! •

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Financially, what does this mean? We that remains to be tallied, but ESPN has already said the Rams value has gone from $1.45 billion to about $2.9 billion since the move. Yup, doubled.

The Los Angeles Times has published estimates that with the completion of the $2.6 billion stadium to be shared between the Rams and Chargers, a team like the Rams could bring in $330 million a year.

Of course that could go up or down, depending on lots of other factors, but if this past season is any indication, Los Angeles just might choose to rally round their long lost Ram team with a lot of dollars going into the team coffers! •

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January saw long lines outside new dispensaries, extended hours, and shortages. Weed business is definitely booming in the golden state.

The Marijuana Business Daily recently reported on some examples of retailers not just cruising. One retailer had been seeing about 150 customers a day (medicinal), only to see that jump to more than 300 a day in the new year.

Workers in the shops are working long hours trying to keep up with the demand. One retailer was quoted as saying they are hiring as fast as they can to help out. They are hiring for “every single position” in their business! •

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“Home sales will likely continue to struggle as we enter 2018, slowing the flow of agent fees,” told First Tuesday Journal, a top California real estate publication. “Historically low inventory for sale coupled with rapidly rising prices have discouraged potential home buyers.”

The publication also predicts the next rise in sales won’t likely be until 2019. That is, assuming residential construction can increase enough to boost turnover and inventory.

That being said, real estate agent Stephanie Vitacco of Keller Williams sees homes selling when priced at just the right spot. “The inventory in the San Fernando Valley is at one of the lowest levels I’ve seen in more than 30 years of selling. Houses are moving but the price point is tricky. Priced a tad too high and the house will sit. Priced correctly and there are multiple offers.”

Meanwhile, the California Association of Realtors reports that median prices in the state remain high. Median prices across the state averaged more than $540,000 (as of November 2017). Sales to list ratios, a measure of negotiation potential has been around 98.9%, meaning homes have been selling for just about listing price during the recent past.•

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Jeff established JDM in 2002 so that he could advise clients outside the sales culture of Wall Street. Prior to launching JDM, Jeff worked as a Financial Consultant and Certified Financial Manager at a leading global investment firm.

He earned his CFP® designation from the College for Financial Planning, a Master of Science in Financial Services from the Institute of Business and Finance, a Professional Designation in Personal Financial Planning from UCLA, and he has completed executive education at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in Investment Decisions and Behavioral Finance. Jeff has also served as a Certified Financial Educator with the Heartland Institute of Financial Education, is certified in Long Term Care, and has a California Life Insurance license.

Does JDM Financial Group have an investment philosophy?

We base our approach on the belief that good financial decisions must be good life decisions and, therefore, that financial decision making should begin with an understanding of a client’s values and goals.  In this way, our advice is customized to each client.

What advice do you have for investors looking to a trusted advisor?

You may trust your financial advisor.  But for them to be worthy of this trust, they should be acting only in your best interest.  In other words, they should be acting only in the capacity of a “fiduciary.” A fiduciary is a professional who is required by the regulations that govern him or her to put clients’ interest ahead of their own when providing advice. To know if your financial advisor is a fiduciary (and worthy of the trust you place in him or her) or just a sales professional (caveat emptor), you need to investigate.

How do I know I am not overpaying for my investments?

When it comes to investment expenses, a good financial advisor minimizes your costs and maximizes your benefits. If a mutual fund or money manager is charging, say, 1%, then this manager should be outperforming peers that charge less.  It is not simply a question of cost but of value and optimization.  A good advisor helps you optimize. A client should ask their advisor for this type of analysis.

Why the concern about investment commissions and the importance of only paying “fees?”

Your advisor should work for you and, therefore, be paid only by you. If an advisor can receive payment from a mutual fund company in the form of a commission, then this advisor may not be acting with only your interests in mind. If an ­advisor can accept investment commissions, then his/her decisions may be influenced by a commission structure or other hidden incentives.

What are some of the common mistakes you see investors making today?

For clients who have an advisor, the most common mistake is not being aware of the incentives driving an advisor’s advice.  As a client, it is important to be clear on how certain advice may be influenced by how an advisor is compensated. Ideally, the advisor receives the same compensation regardless of the advice they render.

For clients who don’t have a financial advisor, the mistake is waiting until costly mistakes are made before hiring a trustworthy and capable professional. It can be difficult to find someone that you like and trust but it is important to keep searching until you find an expert who can help you get this right. •

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She was previously President of Stone, Harris & Stone, which was acquired by Poms & Associates in March 2012. In the years that she was with Stone, Harris, & Stone, Vikki increased gross premiums from $4 million to more than $20 million annually. In the five years she was president of the company, she grew the organization 70 percent.

Vikki earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance/Business Administration from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business.

In 2007, in recognition of her stellar leadership, Vikki was named “Women’s CEO of the Year” by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.

In 2012 and 2016, she was named Property & Casualty Producer of the Year at her current agency. Over the years you’ve developed a real expertise in business insurance and commercial property and casualty for manufacturers and distributors.

What are the most common problems you find when you look into a potential client’s existing policies and coverage?

It’s the old expression, “the devil is in the details.” Insurance companies giveth and taketh away in the policies and they are very challenging to comprehend. When we review policies, we often find critical coverages improperly written or endorsements missing that could have a profound impact on the outcome of a claim.

A lot of people say “insurance is insurance,” but when we spoke to some of your clients, they told us you really are unique not just an “insurance person,” but a trusted advisor to company owners and CEOs. What makes you so unique and so valuable?

We look at what is driving the claims. We dwell down on what the “cause” is in addition to the placement of coverage. When we start to identify what the causes of loss are, the types of injuries, we send in our Risk Management and Loss Control teams to work with our clients to create a safer environment. We look at the culture and ways to elevate teams. Work Comp claims and premiums are one of the biggest items on a company’s P&L, they are painful and California is a very challenging state to do business in. We also focus on open claims and work with the carriers to make sure they are not over reserved and work hard to get the claims closed. All of this ultimately results in the lowering of premiums.

You’re a bit of an innovator, searching for unique insurance products. For example…drones! How did you get into drone coverage, and become known as the “queen of drone” insurance?

LOL, I am most certainly not the “queen of drone” insurance. A few years ago, I had a great opportunity come my way and recognized what was on the horizon. I was fortunate to have the support of Dave Poms to create a program to place coverage for drone manufacturers, distributors and operators.

If you were speaking to a group of business owners, let’s say manufacturers and distributors specifically, what advice would you give them when shopping for new policies or insurance agents?

Focus on your Risk Management, Loss Control and culture. Look at the source of the problem. I often use the example of… you go to the doctor and say you have a pain in your stomach and the doctor gives you a pill to alleviate the pain. I would choose to have a doctor say, let’s look at what is “causing” the pain and if we can get rid of that, you don’t need a pill.

You need to dwell down on the why and be willing to look at that. I can place coverage, we are strong negotiators and technically savvy…it takes more to tackle the real issues in a company. •

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HP, Dell, and Lenovo make great computers.

But Apple is a great brand. Adidas and Converse are excellent shoes. But Nike just does it.

BMW and Toyota make amazing hybrid cards. But Tesla? Well, they’re Tesla.

Some brands seem to be born leaders. Forged in the fires of competitive marketplaces, they find a way to rise above the competition. They grow fast. They become more profitable, more quickly.

But possibly the most powerful asset they develop is the intangible. They have “it.” The right stuff. Marketing mojo. Southwest. Amazon. Fitbit. Chipotle. GoPro. Starbucks. However, the list is not endless. In fact, it’s very limited. These are these brands “Alpha Brands.” Like the Alpha Dog, they are leaders of the pack. The may be bigger, or not. They may be tougher, or not. But one thing is undeniable—they are recognized by all as leaders.

And lead, they do. They lead in style and substance. What they do is not always successful, but it is always substantial. And significant.

Walmart is a market leader because they sell more. But they don’t have “it.” Toyota is a powerful brand, but not an inspirational brand. Jet Blue is innovative, but not a major force in its industry.

What makes an alpha brand standout, not just as successful but as an icon? What makes us go from liking or wanting their products to intense desire, respect, and admiration? What makes people “disciples” or even evangelists of Alpha Brands?

This was the basis for a meta research project I embarked upon with an elite group of graduate and undergraduate students at Pepperdine University. Thus began our search to decipher the Alpha Brand code.

THE ALPHA MENTALITY

We’ve all heard of the Alpha Male. It comes from studies of wolves, originally by Rudolph Schenkel in the 1940s. It was then greatly updated and expanded with a book called The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species by David Mech.

The actual theories have migrated away from the aggressive dominance of these wolves into more of “leader couples” that procreate new packs of offspring. The concept of “alpha” has since taken on an identity of its own in modern business.

Today we think of Alpha Brands as companies, brands of products that are leaders. They are not just leaders but they are powerful leaders, leaders with distinct points of view, with the power to stand up to others, and with an unrelenting sense that leadership is in their brand DNA. Our studies have indicated these brands share key traits, traits that become almost synonymous with their markets, or certainly innovation in their markets. They command respect, market position, and excessive brand value far beyond competitors.

Armed with an understanding of these traits, we set about to find what actions caused them to emerge. Our goal was to final causal relationships—things that these brands did that caused them to be who they are.

The result is a list of nine different business practices and attitudes that are found in all of our Alpha Brand examples. Remember that some companies may in fact be larger. Others may command great marketshare, mindshare, or brand equity. But Alpha Brands seem to transcend simple financial success, and they win over the hearts and minds of customers.

Here’s a rundown of the traits our findings revealed about Alpha Brands.

Innovation

Clearly this is a dominant trait. Alpha Brands appear to gain large and rapid followings as a direct result of innovation. As an example, this is the hallmark of Apple. Their products are cool, hip, problem solving, and innovative. While some will argue who the inventors of products actually were, the collective consumer mindset sees Apple as the innovator of the GUI (graphic users interface) personal computer, the iPod (and MP3 players), the iPad (and media-based tablets), and the iPhone (smartphones in general).

Differentiation

It takes guts, but it pays to take the risk and be different. CNN changed television and news forever with the 24-hour news channel. Prior to CNN, news was only found a certain hours on television, or in a pinch, “news breaks” when things when there was breaking news to be found. But CNN opted to be different. Many thought they couldn’t fill the 24 hours and that viewers would tire.

Rapid Rise To A Leadership Position

Fitbit enjoys one of the rare-air branding perks of being a product that has become a common term. Just as Kleenex is often used as a term for facial tissue, Fitbit leaped on the scene shortly after the great recession, and emerged as a cool tech/fitness device. The company has had operation and financial issues, but less than a decade later, it is still synonymous with fitness tracking.

Response to Hidden Customer Wants/Needs

Listening to demands of a customer or client is key to building a better mousetrap. For decade upon decade, sports fans devoured the sports pages of newspapers. As television moved into media dominance, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network emerged as a sports-lovers dream channel. Whereas newscasts only devoted only a small percentage to sports scores, and newspapers and magazines offered deeper though less timely sports coverage, ESPN was the fix sports addicts secretly hungered for. ESPN recognized a deep desire and fulfilled it with what is still to this day, some 30 years later, a market leading media property.

Fearless Perseverance

Sticking to what you passionate about is critical to becoming an Alpha Brand. I remember attending a tradeshow where the fledgling company GoPro was giving away free cameras. They looked like little toys, and people literally handed them back when they got them. Little did they (and me) know what was to come. These little cameras were revolutionary. They were easy to use, durable as heck, and launched a whole new category of photo product. GoPro has not sat back on its laurels. It has in fact continued to lead and dominate the action camera market, despite the entry of from large companies like Sony, Garmin and Polaroid.

Profound Belief In The Concept

Much has been written about Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, creators of Nike. But unless you have read about their early history, you might not realize that they started business as Blue Ribbon Sports. They operated that way for years before parting ways with their major supplier. Renamed as Nike, their first ad campaign, “There is no finish line,” launched the brand into a new direction. Rather than rely on features and specifications of shoes, Nike embarked on created a brand attitude. This morphed into “Just Do It” a few years later, and the rest is truly brand history. Phil and Bill brought intimate market knowledge to their brand and let that emerge as a primary force for selling the product.

Clear Understanding of What Their Customers Value

As airlines fought to provide new services, including many tied to upper class service and new large-scale aircraft like the Boeing 747, Southwest Airlines bucked the trends. By researching, studying, and testing new services (or lack of) Southwest realized that their customers wanted cheap flights, lots of them, and would give up assigned seats, meals, and priority boarding to get what they wanted. It was only by knowing this that Southwest was able to innovate and dominate the short haul air business.

Accept Risk (Fight)

Steve Ells worked in food, and witnessed the rise in popularity of taquerías and mission-style (oversized) burritos, but a burrito-focused restaurant was an iffy proposition at best. Launched with a loan from his father, Ells figured he needed to sell about 100 burritos a day at his restaurant Chipotle. While not impossible, this was in the face of competition around literally every corner. By his second month, he was selling more than 1,000 burritos a day. Growth was rapid and soon he was seen as a challenge to major chains. But thanks to the innovative assembly line, a huge following among college students and millennials, not to mention an influx of investment from McDonald’s, Ells beat the odds, and the competition, to brand leadership.

Clear Understanding of Market Positions

A century ago, furniture was an investment. Craftsman built tables and chairs and sofas, many of which are still around today. By mid-last century, economy versions were appearing. Ikea, a Swedish startup in the 1940s, wove its way into a unique niche. They created furniture with modern Scandinavian design, easily transported and assembled, and affordable. With this unique positioning and product offering, Ikea was able to avoid head-to-head competition in many furniture niches, and found this unique brand was easily exported to other companies. They still operate on basically the same concept with more than 400 stores in more than 40 countries, selling nearly $40 billion a year. •

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Fatherhood has a way of forcing us to reexamine our views in a way that is always not so easy.

I always felt that, as a father, part of my role was to try to put my son’s newfound experiences into perspective. He had just graduated college and was starting a new job. He was on his way to a successful career, and we had frequent discussions about success and what that meant. I wanted to give him the benefit of my hard-earned wisdom, so I decided to spend some time determining my own definition of success.

I wanted a simpler way to measure success that I could pass along to my son. Otherwise, how would he know what success looked like? How would he know if he had achieved it? How would he know when it was okay to step off the treadmill?

How do any of us know?

This is what I came up with: “Success is the ability to do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it, with people who are meaningful to you.”

I was struck by how this definition gave each of us wide latitude for tailoring it to our own lives. It did not prescribe any specific elements or prerequisites. It did not even address the acquisition of wealth or power, only what we chose to do with it, and whom, if anyone, we chose to do it with. Most importantly, it addressed the ability to reclaim and use time—truly our most limited resource.

I tried this definition out with one of my clients, a woman whose company had grown exponentially in the last few years. “You missed one of the most important parts of success,” she scolded me. “I have the ability to do whatever I want, whenever I want. I just don’t have the freedom to do it. I’m way too busy growing my company.”

I revised my definition: “Success is the ability and the freedom to do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it, with people who are meaningful to you.”

Clearly, success is not about stopping the activities that have given you financial freedom. It is about stopping the activities that prevent you from enjoying that financial freedom.

Some people never retire — not because they want more money, but because they truly love their jobs. They love waking up in the morning and doing their work. Albert Schweitzer, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, said, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

I remember my experience as the head of children’s entertainment at A&M Records. I was traveling all over the country, staying at the best hotels, eating at the finest restaurants, going to the greatest concerts and surrounded on a daily basis by interesting, forward-thinking creative people. I really loved my job. I woke on Monday with the same enthusiasm with which I woke on Saturday.

One day, I was speaking with one of my colleagues at the record company after a pretty amazing concert the night before. We both just couldn’t believe we were 27 years old and were living a life that as teenagers we could only dream about. “I would do this job for free,” my colleague exclaimed.

We didn’t know it, but we were already successful. We already did what we loved all the time with people we enjoyed. At a young age, we had achieved what so many never do.

There was a great column by Panos Mourdoukoutas in Forbes Magazine that, interestingly, appeared on a New Year’s Day, that time of year when so many people are making resolutions. It explained his view of the correlation between success and being happy. He asked the reader to consider two simple questions: “What am I doing today?” and “Why am I doing it?”

“If you are happy with the answers you came up with to both questions, get out of bed and enjoy the day,” he wrote. “If you are struggling to find the right answers, close your eyes and go back over the items on your to-do list.”

Imagine if you didn’t like the answers. Perhaps the top of your list might be filled with admirable goals and tasks—but they’re not right for you. They are right for somebody else who has been setting your agenda, or perhaps for the someone you think you should become. The goals that are important, the ones that will move you toward the happiest life, may have been systematically pushed down to the bottom of your list, minimized over time or even forgotten. That’s how you can wake up and wonder why if you have so much money and “success,” you are still unhappy.

People still think of success as the precursor to happiness, but the ladder of success leads, rung by rung, merely to more success. You might get the promotion or the bigger paycheck, and you are still nowhere even near the ladder to happiness.

It’s a terrible wake-up call, the kind Peggy Lee sang about. “Is That All There Is?” is a profound expression of disillusionment. The lyrics tell of a life’s major milestones, followed by that question — Is that all there is? After so much achievement, why does it all feel so empty?

The endless pursuit of success is understandable if you’re still hustling to pay your rent. There is a minimum level of financial security that people absolutely must have for shelter and food. Once those basic needs are met, though, there is time and energy for focusing on other types of goals, such as being happy.

Are your basic needs met? If so, it is time to take a hard look at how much time you need to spend following the money, and how much time you would like to spend following your passions.
Draw a vertical line down a piece of paper. On the left side, list your successes and accomplishments. On the right, make note of the specific moments of happiness each of these accomplishments afforded you. Were they worth it?

On a second sheet of paper, write down all of the experiences you wanted to have—alone or with others—that you couldn’t because you were busy pursuing success. Was the success worth it?
How do you know when you have achieved success: When you have given yourself the ability and freedom to do whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it, with people who are meaningful to you.

To be clear, I am not opposed to making money. The problem with the endless pursuit of success is not the success or the money; it’s the endless pursuit of it—usually to the exclusion or minimization of the moments that make us happy.

Take the time now to reorient your energy toward enjoying happiness on your journey. It doesn’t mean you have to quit your job or give away your fortune. On the contrary, it means that the pursuit of success should afford you the ability to enjoy all of those moments of happiness.

Now. While you can. •

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Ian Corzine, of West Corzine, LLP is not your stereotypical insurance litigator, nor is he your stereotypical attorney.

For those following him on social media, you’d think he’s a friend of an adventurer like Richard Branson. He’s often found skiing or hiking or traveling or spending time with his kids. But don’t let that fool you. Ian Corzine is a partner at a firm that is fast becoming a powerhouse in the insurance and business litigation world.

He’s an active networker and leads a Pro­Visors group in Calabasas. When he’s not doing that, he finds time to be an author on legal issues. Despite his busy schedule, we recently caught up with Ian long enough to find out what makes him tick, and what has made their firm successful with its growing list of clients.

SCP: Tell us a little about your background, your upbringing, and how you became a lawyer.

Corzine: I grew up in a small town—now a bigger one—called Pleasanton, Calif. It was kind a like a “Stand by Me” type childhood. Mostly outdoors, playing basketball until sunset, building forts and having dirt clod wars, having mini-Olympics for local kids in our neighborhoods. We never found a dead body, though.

I always say I have “dual citizenship” for Northern and Southern California. My parents moved in my junior year of high school to Thousand Oaks to start their dream: a retail furniture store called Thomasville Home Furnishings. It was tough making the trans­ition, but the adversity gave me my love of performance—which I have translated to the ­courtroom (and sometimes, ProVisors meetings). My parents’ business grew and grew. Eventually, they had stores in Encino, Northridge, Agoura and Santa Barbara. I earned my living during high school and college summers working as a maintenance man—fixing stuff that broke, doing construction work, and even vacuuming in the early morning, for hours on end, in dark commercial spaces. I would listen endlessly to Zeppelin CD’s. That’s when I learned that manual labor was not for me.

I did well in high school and attended U.C. Davis undergrad with my NorCal friends. I majored in Rhetoric & Communications, which I loved. Public speaking was what I really came to enjoy.

I also liked politics. My sister jokes that I was the only big brother in the world with photos of Ronald Reagan and LL Cool J on my wall. So, during undergrad, I started interning at Governor Pete Wilson’s Office. I eventually made my way up the ranks, and the Governor created a special job classification for me. I got paid about $40,000 a year to be Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff Bob White. I thought I was rich!

After a year or two toiling as staff, I mentioned to the Governor that I wanted to be where he was. He said, “You need to go to law school.” He recommended McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, which is where I ended up going.

During law school, I really loved courtroom instruction. Eventually, I worked my way into a program of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California (Sacramento) in which non-attorneys were hired from law school to act as Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys. They prosecuted low-grade federal crimes, like DUIs on military bases, theft of government property worth less than $1,000, and various Vehicle Code violations. During my time doing criminal trials, I met federal judge U.S. Magistrate Peter A. Nowinski. Over time, he agreed to hire me as a Federal Judicial Law Clerk, which was quite an honor. I was the only one in the Eastern District. Then I made $46,000 a year!

After my year term as a Judicial Law Clerk, I went back to the U.S. Attorneys Office. I wanted to be a full-fledged Assistant U.S. Attorney—or maybe someday, The U.S. Attorney. The office said I needed civil experience. So I looked into moving to the best place for that—Los Angeles!

SCP: How did you get into the insurance area of practice as an attorney?

Corzine: In L.A., I went to work for a mid-sized law firm called, Monteleone & McCrory. M&M practiced primarily construction civil law. However, often there was an interplay with insurance law, because Commercial General Liability (“CGL”) policies of contractors often covered various construction defects, which were at the heart of various disputes. Nobody at the firm liked insurance law work, except one partner. I wanted to make my way up the ladder. By this time, I had a family and was losing interest in having a U.S. Attorney badge. So, I worked my butt off to learn that area of the law, and soon became the “go to” associate for insurance law. I enjoyed it because I found I was always representing a client (i.e., the contractor or business) that had a good case. The insurance company was always trying to get out of paying a claim.

Well, after a few years passed, it was getting to the point where I was being considered for partnership. I did not want to spend my life working in downtown L.A. The commute was killing me. I met my current partner, Gene West, at a mediation. We were representing opposing sides. He liked what he saw and offered me a position. I started in 2002 and became his partner in 2007. The rest is history.

SCP: What are some of the trends you are seeing this area of law?

Corzine: There’s a lot going on. Here’s some of what we are currently seeing:

• We are starting to see cyber liability claims—new law is being created in this area.
• Steady rise in sale and claims regarding Representations & Warranties Insurance (i.e., M&A Insurance).
• Crime/theft claims are being litigated because of broad insurance policy language, focusing on “Computer Fraud” coverage.
• Heightened disputes among carriers about how to allocate paid losses.
• Claims by owners of large custom homes increasing.
• Softer market: broadening of policy terms.
• More insurance cases going to trial/arbitration.
• Unpredictable court/jury decisions—decrease in public resources means that neither gets sufficient time to make very consequential decisions.
• Mediations more focused on coverage versus liability and damage issues.

SCP: West Corzine is growing and the firm just moved into new offices. Is this a result of the market growing, or that you’re getting known as one of the leading law firms practicing in insurance litigation?

Corzine: Our firm is growing for two reasons. First, it’s because of the market for our services (i.e., large loss claims handling and “bad faith” litigation for insurance companies who fail to pay claims when they should). Second, our notoriety in the industry is getting us the big cases with multi-millions of dollars in the balance.

SCP: Tell us a little about your client base. Are they local, distant, large businesses, small, or individuals?

Corzine: The majority of our client base is small to medium-sized businesses, across the country (we even have a case now venued in Toronto) with cases valued at between $300,000 and $20 million.

SCP: What did the great recession of 2008/2009 do to your practice areas? Is litigation up since then? What are some of the hottest or most active areas right now?

Corzine: It increased business. The insurance industry is one of the true recession-resistant businesses. When people have no money, they look to other sources. Often times those sources are large insurance funds. They need West Corzine to represent them and access those funds.
I think the hottest area for me is D&O (Directors and Officers). These insurance policies are omnipresent with most businesses. They have fairly broad coverage. Negligent misrepresentation—in my experience, most business deal includes at least one “negligent misrepresentation.”

SCP: You’re an active guy, an adventure guy, and family man. How do you balance work and life?

Corzine: I guess I strive for context. I do a meditative practice as well as frequent exercise. This helps remind me that no matter what the clients’ trauma—it is not mine—I am just an adviser. They need to see that I am calm, results driven, but have boundaries. I find that if you take control in the situation, you can manage expectations so that the client does not manage you!

SCP: What are some of your non-work activities. What are your favorites?

Corzine: Maybe you should ask, “What are the things you don’t like to do?” I hate to rake leaves! My primary passion is spending time with my daughters, Maddy (14) and Charley (4). We love the outdoors—snowboarding, skiing, mountain biking, hiking, fly-fishing, scuba diving, paddle boarding, and kayaking. We have a bunch of outdoor toys.

SCP: You and your firm have received a lot of attention, awards, and accolades. What do those mean to the firm, and what words of advice would you give to new attorneys just coming out of law school?

Corzine: We are certainly proud of the awards, but they do not drive us. Our goal is do right by our families, our faith, our community, and our business, and let the chips fall where they may.

For new attorneys—being a lawyer is awesome! In what other profession do you bill by the 1/10 of an hour for thinking? You will do well financially as an attorney, but the flip side is that you have to really work hard. If you want to get to a place where others work for you, then major in business and get an MBA. Find a business niche no one is in, make a killing, and sell it.

I was taught by other stellar business professionals that you need to work into your business charitable time and contributions. It takes your passion to the next level, seeing how you can help people. Tom Means, one of those who taught me that, and I were some of the founders of Hope’s Haven. One of the best experiences of my life was taking an idea for a charity, discussing it in our living rooms, and turning it into multi-hundred thousand dollar donations for families with life-threatening diseases and ailments. •

About Hope’s Haven

Hope’s Haven Children’s Charity is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in Ventura County that is dedicated to enriching the quality of lives of children facing life threatening illnesses and serious injuries. They work directly with County hospitals, clinics and social workers to provide financial and emotional support for families during treatment. One of their long-term programs is to deliver iPads to all of the pediatric hospital beds within Ventura County. This allows children to communicate, interact, be encouraged and entertained while undergoing medical care. Hope’s Haven is able to lighten the load during the most challenging times when children and their families need it most. www.hopes-haven.org.

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For small business owners and start-ups, registering a trademark is fairly straightforward if you do your due diligence before filing and meet generous trademark office deadlines. However, there are minor nuances of the application process business owners can get tripped up on.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provides clear directions for registering a trademark online, and an applicant’s first concern is ensuring the trademark isn’t already in use in the same International Class. A thorough trademark search by a reputable search firm is crucial to a smooth registration process. The USPTO maintains a database of all registered trademarks in the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS). Although applicants can search TESS themselves, it is easy to miss conflicting marks.

Scammers are another potential pitfall. TESS provides the information about trademark owners publicly available to anyone for free. This makes it easy for scam companies to obtain information and target trademark owners. These scammers utilize official-looking documents and misleading statements in attempts to scare trademark owners into paying thousands of dollars for unnecessary and worthless services.

Here are some best practices for registering and monitoring your trademark to avoid issues.

Conducting a Trademark Search

Conducting a trademark search is not simply a matter of running the letters in your mark on TESS, finding no matches in the applicable class of goods or services, and thinking “I’m okay.” Minor things, such as a comma or apostrophe, may not come up in search results. Therefore, it is important to hire a reputable trademark search company. Comprehensive trademark searches range in price from $350 to $600 per mark, per class. A search is particularly important if you want to trademark a design logo or stylized mark. You may be able to get away with doing it on your own for a word mark, but you can run into trouble with more complex marks and the trademark office could reject your application on the grounds that it could cause confusion in the marketplace.

Application Process

Once you’ve completed the search, you file the application, which costs $225 per mark, per class of goods/services if you use the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) Plus system (https://teas.uspto.gov/forms/teasplus). TEAS Plus is an online filing option that promotes electronic communication and application processing while giving applicants more flexibility in identifying their goods and/or services. If you have a product that spans more than one class, you’re again better off having specialist research your mark because you could inadvertently not designate within the right class. The good news is the trademark office will assign an examiner who will conduct another trademark search and then if it checks out, the trademark will be published for opposition, giving opposers 30-days to file an opposition to registration of your mark. Anyone who opposes the registration has an opportunity to file a challenge to the registration with the trademark office. A proceeding follows where the applicant has an opportunity to argue why the mark will not cause consumer confusion and thus, should still be registered in spite of the opposition.

Protecting Your Trademark

After registration, monitoring your trademark class can be a challenge. At this stage, you need to consider whether you’re comfortable investing the time to monitor yourself, or hire a firm to monitor for you for around $200 per year. A lot of small businesses don’t hire outside firms and don’t appropriately monitor, which leaves the door open to having a competing mark registered without filing an opposition during the opposition period. If this occurs, it’s not your last opportunity to challenge it; you can still challenge the competing mark, but the challenge can be more costly than if you challenge during the opposition period. So while you’re not precluded from challenging, it’s easier to do it during the application stage versus after registration is completed.

Another stop gap to protecting your mark is the USPTO examiner, who performs a trademark search and issues an office action if there is a problem. Once you receive an office action, you have six months to respond. In this case, it’s best to use an attorney to respond. Oftentimes it’s an easy fix where the office examiner offers language to change on the application to pave the way to registration; this is something you can probably handle yourself. But sometimes it’s more complicated and worth noting even the seemingly simple fixes the examiner suggests can be problematic because there may be some legal ramifications to changing the language as the examiner suggests. The examiner’s suggestion is not necessarily in your business’s interest; the examiner is simply saying this is what will be approved.

On a positive note, the examiner is there to serve you. One, the examiner wants to ensure there are no competing marks and two, if the examiner sees any potential issues or flaws that could leave the mark open to problems later, the examiner is a good measure of whether your mark will survive a challenge later because it passed through their specifications. Personally, I welcome office actions to the extent that I’ve always found them to be helpful and there’s open dialogue—you can call the examiner and talk through concerns and next steps. Although problematic in terms of dealing with issues and fighting for your mark, the examiner always wants to be helpful.

Once the application process is completed, your application will be published for opposition. After the opposition period runs without challenge, your mark will be registered. Between the 5th and 6th year of trademark ownership—measured from the approved registration date—you have to file an Affidavit of Use, which states that you’ve been using it in commerce for the past five years. The five-year mark is also your first opportunity to file a Declaration of Incontestability, which helps make your mark more impervious to challenge. These filings have small fees associated with them—the Affidavit of Use fee is $125 per mark, per class, and the Declaration of Incontestability fee is $200 per mark, per class.

Misleading Letters

Recently, my client received an official-looking letter stating their trademark was about to expire (it wasn’t) and offering services to file the renewal. The required filing the letter referenced—filing the five-year affidavit of use—would take about fifteen minutes of attorney time, plus the $125 fee. The scammer company offered to do that filing for $925—a whopping $800 surcharge. This is exploitative and greatly impacts small businesses who are trying to do all of this on their own. Business owners are trying to save money by not using an attorney and end up spending more money through these services. The worst part is you don’t know if the filing is being done right because these fly-by-night companies have no kind of fiduciary obligation to do it correctly. They likely have assets completely protected and if you lose your mark because of something they do or don’t do, you could have a serious problem.

Unfortunately, this is a larger issue and not a scam that’s limited to trademarks. It’s a theme of attacking small businesses that may not have lawyers. These companies use publicly available information on government websites, create an official government-sounding name and send a letter with misleading, alarmist messages to cause a business owner to think licenses and registrations are at risk. The USPTO has issued a warning about these companies: https://www.uspto.gov/trademark/trademark-updates-and-announcements/warning-uspto-customers-trademark-monitoring-and.

To avoid spending more money than necessary, sign onto the USPTO site (www.uspto.gov) and look up the status of any trademark. All documents filed with respect to each mark are publicly available, as well as any actions litigated with the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board. The USPTO also provides a clear list of all upcoming deadlines to maintain your mark. Beyond that, the USPTO emails reminders of upcoming deadlines to the email contact designated by the registrant. For my clients, I’m the contact of record so I get emails reminding me of deadlines. My clients can also be copied directly from the USPTO. Because of this, applicants should always be sure to keep their electronic contact information current with the USPTO. The takeaway is, if you’re doing this yourself, you shouldn’t rely on the USPTO to remind you; calendar all of the deadlines. As mentioned, the key deadlines are  between the 5th and 6th year after registration, at which time an Affidavit of Use must be filed to maintain the mark. Also after the 5th year of registration, an applicant can file a Declaration of Incontestability, which further protects the mark. Thereafter, another affidavit of use and application for renewal is due between the 10th and 11th year after registration, and then every ten years after that. The fee is $300 per mark, per class.

Cost Considerations

Hiring a reputable search company can go a long way in ensuring your mark is safe. You should always try and use a specialist. Just like you wouldn’t go to a podiatrist for hearing loss, you shouldn’t use your real estate lawyer to do your search. If you do turn to a lawyer to conduct the search, use an intellectual property or trademark attorney, or at least a generalist who has trademark experience.

There are two ways lawyers can charge for filing trademarks. Many charge a flat fee—$2,500–$3,500—which includes responding to all office actions. This can turn out to be a large net hourly fee to the lawyer, because typically there aren’t going to be any registration issues or they will be minimal. The other option is an hourly rate that could end up costing you much less than the flat fee. However, if an office action requires a significant amount of attorney time to craft a response, an hourly engagement could wind up costing much more than the flat fee. So the flat fee is a bit like insurance because then you’re covered and don’t have to worry about possible issues in the event that your application generates office actions. The reality is, if you receive an office action, you’re most likely going to need to hire an attorney. Your odds of not having an office action go way down if you use an attorney who is knowledgeable in trademarks. An hourly fee with a cap is the best of both worlds, if your lawyer will agree to it.

A seemingly attractive, cost-effective alternative is using a company like LegalZoom. While its basic search fees run just a bit higher than the norm, office actions can get pricey. Depending on the extent of your issues, costs can be around the same as attorney fees, however with an attorney, you’re relying on someone with whom you have a relationship that’s offering specific advice tailored to your business needs, rather than a LegalZoom-designated attorney who only offers suggestions. The attorney will take time to understand your business and will be another resource to think through what works best for you because they’ve had experience in this area.

Understanding the plusses and minuses to handling your own trademark or hiring specialists will go a long way in ensuring you’re doing what’s best for your business. In either situation, educate yourself on the process so you can be proactive and avoid potential issues. •

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